FEATURED POST

ORIGINALLY POSTED: 4-22-15
CATEGORY: SPORTS

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

                      NFL’S GREATEST PLAYERS BY POSITION

The Top 100: NFL’s Greatest Players was compiled in 2010 by the NFL Network. The list is ranked in order based on the opinions of a panel of former players, historians, scouts, team executives and writers. (Full list – NFL.com)

I try not to editorialize in the body of these posts - I’ll leave that to joeseddit in the comment section – so I won’t get into the reasons why it’s ridiculous to submit a wide receiver (Jerry Rice) as the all-time best player. But I will point out that the “apples to oranges” cliché comes into play here. It’s difficult and excessively subjective to compare say, a cornerback to an offensive lineman, when trying to determine the better football player. So what I’m gonna do here is sort the list by position and leave the various positions up for debate. I’m also excluding the players that didn’t play in the past 50 years.

	OFFENSE					DEFENSE
OVERALL RANK	O-LINE				OVERALL RANK	D-LINE
12	Anthony Munoz	LT			7	Reggie White	DE
24	John Hannah	G			13	Joe Greene	DT
32	Jim Parker	LT			15	Deacon Jones	DE
54	Forrest Gregg	OT			26	Bob Lilly	DT
56	Gene Upshaw	OL			27	Merlin Olsen	DT
63	Jim Otto	C			31	Bruce Smith	DE
68	Mike Webster	C			39	Gino Marchetti	DE
72	Jonathan Ogden	OT			43	Alan Page	DT
76	Art Shell	OL			62	Randy White	DT
78	Bruce Matthews	OL			86	Willie Davis	DE
95	Larry Allen	OL			98	Lee Roy Selmon	DE
					99	Michael Strahan	DE
OVERALL RANK	TIGHT END
42	John Mackey	TE			OVERALL RANK	LINEBACKER
45	Tony Gonzalez	TE			3	Lawrence Taylor	LB
59	Mike Ditka	TE			10	Dick Butkus	LB
67	Kellen Winslow	TE			18	Ray Lewis	LB
73	Ozzie Newsome	TE			29	Jack Lambert	LB
					47	Ray Nitschke	LB
OVERALL RANK	WIDE RECEIVER				53	Willie Lanier	LB
1	Jerry Rice	WR			57	Mike Singletary	LB
36	Raymond Berry	WR			60	Jack Ham	LB
38	Lance Alworth	WR			69	Bobby Bell	LB
65	Randy Moss	WR			82	Ted Hendricks	LB
71	Paul Warfield	WR			93	Sam Huff	LB
92	Michael Irvin	WR			97	Derrick Brooks	LB
OVERALL RANK	QUARTERBACK				OVERALL RANK	DEFENSIVE BACK
4	Joe Montana	QB			11	Ronnie Lott	S
6	Johnny Unitas	QB			34	Deion Sanders	CB
8	Peyton Manning	QB			41	Rod Woodson	CB
20	Brett Favre	QB			44	Mel Blount	CB
21	Tom Brady	QB			49	Mike Haynes	CB
23	John Elway	QB			64	Herb Adderley	CB
25	Dan Marino	QB			66	Willie Brown	CB
46	Roger Staubach	QB			75	Darrell Green	CB
50	Terry Bradshaw	QB			88	Ed Reed	S
51	Bart Starr	QB
80	Troy Aikman	QB
81	Steve Young	QB
83	Norm Van Brocklin	QB
90	Kurt Warner	QB
91	Fran Tarkenton	QB
100	Joe Namath	QB
OVERALL RANK	RUNNING BACK
2	Jim Brown	RB
5	Walter Payton	RB
17	Barry Sanders	RB
22	Gale Sayers	RB
28	Emmitt Smith	RB
40	O.J. Simpson	RB
52	Eric Dickerson	RB
55	Earl Campbell	RB
61	LaDainian Tomlinson	RB
70	Marshall Faulk	RB
77	Tony Dorsett	RB
85	Marcus Allen	RB
94	Lenny Moore	RB