Analyzing 13 Years of the NFL Top 100 to Quantify the NFL's Most Respected Players since 2011.

Methodology

Every player's position in the NFL Top 100 was put into a spreadsheet. I then performed various sorting and calculations for your entertainment.

NFL Top 100

The rankings are based on an off-season poll organized by the NFL, where players vote on their top 20 peers based on their performance for the recent NFL season. Only players that are not retired in the next season are eligible for consideration.

Appearances

Which players have appeared in the NFL Top 100 (2011-2023) the most times? Aaron Rodgers is now the only player to have made the NFL Top 100 every year of its existence.

Players with the most NFL Top 100 Appearances

Always Appeared

Here are players who never missed when eligible (with 5+ years played). I did not count rookie seasons (unproven) or missing lists due to retirement announcements prior to player voting.

Players that appeared every eligible year of their career (5+ years)

Points

I continued the u/gds519 system by awarding the rank #1 player 100 points, #2 99 points, and so on. Here are the Top 50 players that have gathered the most points over 13 years (2011-2023).

Top 50 players with most accumulated points

Average Placement

Here is the average placement for players that appeared on NFL Top 100 for 5+ years. Note, if a player missed the list for a year, it was not counted against their average here.

Average placement (5+ years)

Years Voted Best Player by Peers

Since 2011, only 9 players have been voted to be the top player by their league peers. And only two players have been voted to the top spot in multiple years.

Number of years voted the best player

Years Voted Top 5 Player by Peers

Since 2011, 32 players have made the top 5 spots in the NFL Top 100. However, only 13 players have made the top 5 spots in multiple years.

Number of years voted a top 5 player

Years Voted Top 10 Player by Peers

Since 2011, 64 players have made the top 10 spots in the NFL Top 100. However, only 25 players have made the top 10 spots in multiple years.

Number of years voted a top 10 player

Years Voted Top 20 Player by Peers

Since 2011, 116 players have made the top 20 spots in the NFL Top 100. While 57 players have made the top 20 spots in multiple years.

Number of years voted a top 20 player

Z-score Metric

The Z-score (so hot right now) is measured in terms of standard deviations from the mean. I found the average Z-score for every player across six categories: Years Top Player, Years Top 5 Player, Years Top 10 Player, Years Top 20 Player, Years Top 50 Player, and Years Top 100 Player. I aimed to strike a balance between rewarding players for ranking highly and for ranking often.

Top performers in a Z-score metric across 6 categories.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the content.