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Top 25 - purplefaithful - 07-24-2024
The axiom is a bit tired, but that doesn't make it any less true: Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports.
Signal-callers dominate ESPN's top 25 NFL players of the current century. Quarterbacks constitute nearly one-fourth of the list with six, more than any other position.
Moreover, those players are responsible for 14 of the 25 Super Bowl championships this century. The QBs with multiple Lombardi Trophies occupy three of the top four spots on our list.
But it's not just about the guys under center. Nine other offensive players are among our top 25, as well as 10 defensive standouts.
Sixteen members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame are represented; the other nine players are either active (three) or not yet eligible for the Hall (minimum five years retired). It would be surprising if they don't all eventually have busts in Canton, Ohio.
Here is our list of top NFL players since 2000.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40370703/top-25-nfl-players-century-tom-brady-aaron-donald
1. Tom Brady, QB
Key accomplishments: Seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time NFL MVP, two-time AP Offensive Player of the Year, 15-time Pro Bowler, three-time first-team All-Pro, NFL record holder for career passing yards/TDs
When Brady was asked which of his seven Super Bowl rings was his favorite, he was fond of answering: "The next one." That sums up the player whom Bill Belichick referred to as the "ultimate winner" and who often played his best when the stakes were highest. Belichick noted how Brady entered the NFL as a sixth-round pick "with little to no fanfare" and left "as the most successful player in league history." As Belichick said, "His relentless pursuit of excellence drove him on a daily basis. His work ethic and desire to win were both motivational and inspirational to teammates and coaches alike." -- Mike Reiss
2. Patrick Mahomes, QB*
Key accomplishments: Three-time Super Bowl champion, three-time Super Bowl MVP, two-time NFL MVP, two-time first-team All-Pro, six-time Pro Bowler
Mahomes not only had one of the NFL's best historical passing seasons in 2018; he did it in his first season as a starter. Mahomes that season became only the second quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, joining the Broncos' Peyton Manning, who did it in 2013. Mahomes put himself on a fairly easy pace in both statistical categories with a scorching start. He had 13 touchdown passes in the first three games and threw for more than 300 yards in eight of the first nine. He had two six-touchdown games that season, and he hasn't had one since. -- Adam Teicher
3. Aaron Donald, DT
Key accomplishments: 10-time Pro Bowler, eight-time first-team All-Pro, three-time Defensive POY (tied for most all time), Hall of Fame All-2010s Team, 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year
Donald went into his eighth NFL campaign with many significant achievements on the field for the Rams: Defensive Rookie of the Year, three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards and seven Pro Bowls to start his career. The one thing he was missing? A Super Bowl ring. He and the Rams won that during the 2021 season, beating the Bengals in a game that went down to the wire. On fourth down in a 3-point game, Donald pressured Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow and forced an incomplete pass to essentially end the game. Donald's celebration will be remembered too: He ran around with his arms outstretched then pointed at his left ring finger, where his first Super Bowl ring would go. -- Sarah Barshop
4. Peyton Manning, QB
Key accomplishments: HOF (2021), two-time Super Bowl champion, five-time NFL MVP (most all time), 14-time Pro Bowler, seven-time first-team All-Pro
Manning already had a Hall of Fame-worthy career when he arrived in Denver in 2012. He signed with the Broncos after a missed season in 2011, his fourth neck surgery and uncertainty about whether physically he could play at the level he wished. His four years in Denver answered those questions with four AFC West titles, two Super Bowl trips and one Super Bowl win.
But his masterpiece might have been the 2013 season, when the Broncos broke the league's scoring mark with 606 points and Manning set records with 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdowns, including seven TDs in the season opener. The Broncos topped 40 points six times and 50 points three times. "I've never seen anything like Peyton and those guys that year," said Dolphins associate head coach Eric Studesville, formerly a Broncos assistant. "I don't think anybody has. That was just an all-time great with the ball in his hands doing all-time great things at a level nobody else has been to.'' -- Jeff Legwold
5. Randy Moss, WR
Key accomplishments: HOF (2018), six-time Pro Bowler, three-time first-team All-Pro in the 2000s, 156 career TD receptions (second all time)
At 6-foot-4 with a 47-inch vertical jump, Moss could reach or jump over the tallest defensive backs who tried to cover him -- hence the phrase "You got Mossed." But with his speed timed at under 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash during a private workout prior to the 1998 draft, Moss also could run away from the fastest defenders, be it on deep routes or even on what would now be called "bubble screens." Other factors contributed to his success, as well, but the league had never before seen a player like Moss. -- Kevin Seifert
18. Adrian Peterson, RB
Key accomplishments: 2012 NFL MVP (last non-QB MVP), seven-time Pro Bowler, four-time first-team All-Pro, HOF All-2010s Team, 2007 Offensive ROY
On Dec. 24, 2011, Peterson tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee. On Sept. 9, 2012 -- 260 days later -- he was back in the Vikings' starting lineup and on his way to one of the best seasons by a running back in NFL history. The season began modestly, with one 100-yard performance over the first six games. He then launched on a run of eight consecutive 100-yard games, two of which eclipsed 200 yards, en route to a 2,097-yard campaign. Only Eric Dickerson's 2,105-yard output in 1984 exceeds that total. In addition to that statistical history, Peterson set a new template for recovering from a major knee injury. -- Kevin Seifert