NFL's Top 50 Players: How Many Patriots Make List?

While hope remains high in New England about the Patriots' 2022 season, their national bandwagon is all but empty.

Bill Belichick's bulletin-board material of disrespect overfloweth.

From talent evaluators to oddsmakers to TV experts, seems no one is bullish on the Pats as NFL training camps open across the country this week.

In ESPN's Top 10 player rankings by position, only tight end Hunter Henry made the cut. In the new player ratings for Madden NFL 23, no Patriots were ranked in the Top 10 at any position. ESPN's ranking of team's skill-position groups has New England near the bottom at No. 26.

Add it all up and it's no surprise that Pro Football Focus' list of the NFL's Top 50 players contains no Patriots. None.

The Pats, of course, have never been an organization oozing superstar talent. Other than Tom Brady, the six Super Bowls were a product of "Do Your Job" and sticking to "The Patriot Way."

New England had five players on PFF's Top 101 players at the end of the 2021 season, but two of those - offensive lineman Shaq Mason and cornerback J.C. Jackson - departed this offseason.

Los Angeles Rams' defensive lineman Aaron Donald is ranked the No. 1 player by PFF, followed by San Francisco 49ers' left tackle Trent Williams and Green Bay Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The AFC East as a whole was not well-represented. The Buffalo Bills have two players on the list - quarterback Josh Allen (No. 6) and wide receiver Stefon Diggs (No. 39) and the Miami Dolphins have wide receiver Tyreek Hill (No. 24) and cornerback Xavien Howard (No. 48).

The New York Jets also have no players among the Top 50.

The Patriots having no elite players is either a tribute to Belichick for squeezing 10 wins and a playoff berth out of last season's team, or a dire foreshadowing of an underwhelming 2022.