Comparison between the original 'Top 100 NFL's Greatest Players' from 2010 and The Athletic's 'Top 100' from 2021.

Like many of you, I have keeping up to date with The Athletics countdown of the best 100 NFL players of all time, up until today when it was announced that Tom Brady won top spot ahead of Jim Brown.

After spending 20 minutes comparing this top 100 list with the NFL networks Top 100 list from 2010 (because I have no life) these were a few things I discovered.

• 83 Players from the 2010 List remained on the 2021 List

• 17 players that were excluded of the 2021 list include:

• Joe Namath – 100

• Michael Strahan – 99

• Lee Roy Selmon – 98

• Sam Huff – 93

• Michael Irvin – 92

• Kurt Warner – 90

• Ernie Nevers – 89

• Elroy Hirsch – 87

• Marcus Allen – 85

• Norm Van Brocklin – 83

• Troy Aikman – 80

• Emlen Tunnell – 79

• Tony Dorsett – 77

• Ozzie Newsome – 73

• Gene Upshaw – 56

• Red Grange – 48

• Jim Thorpe – 37 (The Highest ranked player on the original list not to be included).

• The 17 new players that were included on the 2021 list include:

• Dermontti Dawson - 99

• Crazy Legs Hirsch - 94

• Bobby Layne - 89

• Champ Bailey – 87

• Buck Buchanan – 86

• Bulldog Turner – 85

• Leo Nomellini – 83

• Adrian Peterson – 72

• Charles Woodson – 68

• Eugene Upshaw – 67

• Walter Jones – 64

• Junior Seau – 59

• Rob Gronkowski – 56

• Drew Brees – 43

• J.J. Watt – 35

• Aaron Donald – 24

• Aaron Rodgers – 21

• Of the 83 players on both lists the biggest jumps in rankings include:

• Larry Allen – 50 spots from 95 (in 2010) to 45 (in 2021)

• Ed Reed – 49 Spots from 88 to 39

• Bruce Matthews – 34 Spots from 78 to 44

• Steve Young – 32 Spots from 81 to 49

• Randy Moss – 27 spots from 65 to 38

• Tom Brady – 20 spots from 21 to 1

• The largest falls in rankings for players across both lists include:

• Steve Van Buren – 40 spots from 58 in (2010) to 98 in (2021)

• John Mackey – 39 spots from 42 to 81

• Mike Ditka – 37 spots from 59 to 96

• Mike Singletary – 36 spots from 57 to 93

• Jim Otto – 34 spots from 63 to 97

• Roger Staubach – 32 spots from 46 to 78

• 5 players included on both lists had the exact same ranking in 2010 and 2021. They were:

• Jim Brown - 2

• Dick Butkus – 10

• Anthony Munoz – 12

• Marshall Faulk – 70

• Art Shell – 76

• There is only 1 player from the 2010 list who is currently active: Tom Brady while the new list has 6 players (including Brady), which includes: - Aaron Rodgers – 21

• Aaron Donald – 24

• J.J. Watt – 35

• Rob Gronkowski – 56

• Adrian Peterson – 72

• The Top 10 remained almost Identical, however did not include Don Hutson (who fell from 9th in 2010 to 13th in 2021 – possibly to include room for Tom Brady).

• Peyton Manning only moved up one spot from 2010 to 2021, regardless of the fact that between both years he had a 55 touchdown season in which he won the MVP and added another Superbowl a few years later.

• In the 2021 list, Aaron Rodgers placed one spot above Brett Favre (21 and 22 respectively) making him the greatest Packers QB ever (Bart Starr was ranked at 61). Peyton Manning also placed above Johnny Unitas (7 and 9 respectively) making him the greatest QB in Colts history.

• Aaron Rodgers, J.J. Watt, Rob Gronkowski and Adrian Peterson are the only players on the new list born in the 80s.

• Aaron Donald is the only player on the new list who was born in the 90s.

• In the time between the 2010 list and the 2021 list, Tom Brady won 2 MVPs, 4 Superbowls and 3 Superbowl MVPs, which are the career accomplishments of the highest rated QB in the 2010 list Joe Montana (basically Brady added Joe Montana's career to his resume over the past 11 years).

So there you have it, if you find any more interesting facts/comparisons between the two lists, comment below. I'm going to Bed and will fix the formatting tommorow if this post doesn't get buried.

TLDR: Nerd uses excel to compare two lists, yadda yadda yadda......Tom Brady is the GOAT.