Rodgers, Adams Top 10; Bakhtiari Top OT in NFL Network Top 100
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers stars Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams will finish somewhere in the top 10 of NFL Network’s annual list of the league’s top 100 players.
On Sunday, NFL Network unveiled No. 11 through No. 40 on the player-voted list. Running back Aaron Jones ranked 30th and All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari was 36th. Jones is fifth out of eight running backs in the Top 100 and Bakhtiari is first among the six offensive tackles.
In last week’s unveiling of No. 41 through No. 100, All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander ranked No. 41 and outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith ranked No. 51. Alexander is fourth out of nine cornerbacks and Smith is seventh out of 14 edge defenders.
Jones is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons and ranks 11th in Packers history with 3,364 rushing yards. In 2020, he averaged 5.49 yards per carry, the best mark in franchise history. Among all running backs in NFL history with at least 600 carries, Jones ranks sixth with a 5.17-yard average.
He showed up at training camp at about the same weight but with less body fat.
“I cut out the sweets and replaced it with fruit,” he said. “Kind of the same things I’ve been doing years past, just staying consistent with it really helped and hitting two a days sometimes in the gym. I got my brother pushing me, so that definitely helps. Just trying to get to the best version of me.
Last year, Jones was 33rd.
As arguably the best player at a premium position, Bakhtiari seems comically underrated. Either the players vote mostly for skill-position players or the Top 100 is manipulated to move the skill players up the list.
The Packers probably would have gone to the Super Bowl had Bakhtiari not suffered a torn ACL late last season. There’s no way the Buccaneers would have sacked Rodgers five times if it were Bakhtiari at left tackle and Billy Turner at right tackle instead of Turner at left tackle and Rick Wagner at right tackle.
Before the injury, Bakhtiari was having a brilliant year. He earned All-Pro honors for the fifth consecutive season. In November, he signed a contract extension that made him (briefly) the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.
The cliché best-case recovery time for an ACL injury is nine months. His injury was sustained on Dec. 31, meaning the Sept. 12 opener is about 8 1/2 months.
“I really, really like football,” he said recently. “It’s almost like when you take something away, you don’t realize how much you enjoy it. It is a grind, but being away, I’m like really itching to get back out there. I don’t like seeing other people do my job, but it’s all part of the course I have to play. Like I said when it happened, there’s this road I have to go down. It’s a long road and I don’t like it, but the only way to get to where I want to be is I’ve got to go down that road. So, I’m currently down there right now. We’ll see when it ends.”
Last year, Bakhtiari was 62nd.
NFL Network's Top 10 Players
The Top 10, which will include Rodgers and Adams, will air at 3 p.m. Saturday. Here are the players, listed in alphabetical order. Rodgers was No. 1 in 2012.
Green Bay Packers WR Davante Adams (2020 ranking, No. 57)
Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen (No. 87)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady (No. 14)
Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald (No. 3)
Tennessee Titans RB Derrick Henry (No. 10)
Arizona Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins (No. 8)
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce (No. 18)
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes (No. 4)
Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers (No. 16)
Pittsburgh Steelers LB T.J. Watt (No. 25)
