Home Articles/Editorials KIRS Top 100 NFL Players of 2014: 40 – 21

KIRS Top 100 NFL Players of 2014: 40 – 21

40-21

Stan: This is the first time in our rankings that everyone here was ranked by both of us. Hell, we’re actually really close on a few of them. So lets talk about those first. We had Emmanuel Sanders, Joe Staley, Terrell Suggs, Julio Jones, Clay Matthews, Marshal Yanda, Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Thomas all within ten picks or less of each other. I’d say thats a pretty good assessment of how they played this year. One of the most impressive of this group to me is Clay Matthews because he did it after switching from outside to inside linebacker. That might not seem like a huge deal but I feel like you understand it the same way I do. Who among this group impressed you the most?

Rob: Matthews was huge with the position switch, and I think we both gave him more credit than most because of the versatility, but the two names that jump out to me are Yanda and Julio. Yanda could have easily landed in the top 10. He was dominant. As for Quintorris Lopez Jones, he put up another absurd statistical year despite playing through injuries on a bad team. The guy is unstoppable.

Stan: Yanda was huge this year and in turn so were Justin Forsett (who’s also in this group) and Joe Flacco. Julio Jones is a Super Bowl loss away from being the next Larry Fitzgerald. Maybe Mike Smith being out out Atlanta will help. I don’t know how much Dan Quin is going to help but who knows? Either way, you hit the nail on the head. He can’t be stopped. So lets talk a little about the guys we had different opinions on. These are the guys I was way higher on than you were: Elvis Dumervil, Mario Williams, Joe Haden, LeSean McCoy, Justin Forsett and DeAndre Levy. Why am I wrong for having these guys so much higher than you?

Rob: Alright, I’ll go down the list. Dumervil had the huge sack number but he was really only used as a pass rusher, and I thought Suggs was the far superior player. Williams carried the Bills last year but the emergence of Dareus and Jerry Hughes cut his value. McCoy and Forsett was just a matter of me thinking anyone could run behind those lines, and Levy is great and I can totally justify putting him in the top 30. There are a lot of good players ahead of him, but he is on that level.

Also you left Revis and Vontae off your list, so you can just shove it for asking me to explain why I had Haden lower than you after he had a down year by his standards.

Stan: Dumervil and Williams still had pretty good years. I see what you’re saying about Dareus and Jerry Hughes cutting Mario’s value but the same production on another team would have been extremely valuable. I’m high on Dumervil because even though he was primarily used to rush the passer, he wasn’t awful against the run either. But to your point, he didn’t play every down so who knows if his sack total is directly related to his snap total.

As far as Justin Forsett and Shady McCoy you might be right about their offensive lines but I still think they were deserving of their spots. I’m curious to see how McCoy does with a lesser talented line in Buffalo.

I’m also curious to see how Suh’s signing in Miami will affect everyone in Detroit. Will Levy be forced to do more? Will Ansah and Fairley step up? And why don’t you like Joe Haden? I think he’s better than Vontae Davis. Not that much better but still better. And I admit, Revis slipped my mind.

Rob: Even if you think Haden is better than Davis, he wasn’t in 2014. Davis was a monster. Haden had some rough stretches, and they were mitigated by the emergence of Buster Skrine and Tashaun Gipson. I think Detroit will be fine if they stay healthy. It’s obviously a huge loss since Suh made our top 20, but they have talent there. The offense is still what is holding them back. As for the running backs, I thought Forsett was fantastic, but there are reasons he had his breakout season at 29 years old. The reasons are Marshall Yanda, Kelechi Osemele, and Gary Kubiak. McCoy slipped a lot from 2013, but was still productive. Still, he got traded for a linebacker who wouldn’t have sniffed this list even if he was completely healthy.

Andrew Whitworth is a player I had ranked 54 spots higher than you did. I know offensive linemen are impossible to judge, but Whitworth was really special this year. He didn’t allow a single sack on the year from left tackle, he only allowed one quarterback hit, and Andy Dalton was only hurried eight times of Whitworth’s edge. If you want to talk about protecting the blind side, that is protecting the damn blind side. Add into that he rated as the fifth best offensive tackle in the running game according to Pro Football Focus, anchoring the line as rookie Jeremy Hill averaged over five yards per carry, it is a little crazy how good he was this season. You just wouldn’t know it because Dalton throws like he’s getting hit even in the most ideal pocket.

Stan: That’s a great point about the Browns secondary. Buster Skrine parlayed his good season into a solid contract. The Lions offense does hold them back but sometimes I wonder if it’s just Matthew Stafford, or just the lack of a consistent running game, or if it’s just Jim Caldwell. Either way, I still believe the defense will be fine.

Kiko Alonso isn’t terrible but you’re right, he wouldn’t have made the top 100. We can probably rattle off about 10 linebackers (one of whom just retired) before even considering Alonso…which begs the question: what is Chip Kelly doing? He really doesn’t have a great option at quarterback, he just traded away his best playmaker for a linebacker he coached in college, his best deep threat might sign elsewhere and he might trade up to take a mediocre quarterback in the draft.
After I saw your rankings, I went back and took a look at Whitworth. I was definitely aware of how good of a season he had but I didn’t realize how good. I think the biggest reason for that is Andy Dalton. He just drags everyone down with him, no matter how good they are. It makes you wonder how good guys like Whitworth and A.J. Green would look without a complete moron at quarterback.

Rob: The entire AFC would have looked very different if the Bengals had an above average quarterback. Give them Alex Smith and we look at their four-year run very differently. Give them Philip Rivers and we are talking about the best team in the conference over the past four seasons.

Also, to answer your question about the Lions, I feel pretty confident in saying the problem is mostly Jim Caldwell. As for the Eagles, let Chip be Chip. DJax is gone, Shady is gone, and now Maclin and Foles are gone. If he doesn’t care, why should we? I mean, Shady is making way too much money in Buffalo, and now Maclin is getting way overpaid in Kansas City.
The best contract I’ve seen signed so far is another guy I had ranked way higher than you did in Randall Cobb. Four years, $40 million with only $17 million in guaranteed money is a steal for the player I had ranked 21st on my list.

Stan: I can’t wait to see Jeremy Maclin wallow in misery when he doesn’t score any touchdowns. Cobb’s contract is pretty good. It’s just too bad the Giants decided to give Shane Vereen too much money. The years are alright but $16 million guaranteed is kinda ridiculous for a dude that just played a full season for the first time in his career.

Rob: You are such an Andy Reid/Alex Smith hater. The receivers couldn’t score touchdowns because the receivers were Dwayne Bowe, Jason Avant, Frankie Hammond, Junior Hemingway, Albert Wilson, Donnie Avery, and A.J. Jenkins. Vereen is a good player, and he could catch 85 balls if the Giants use him right, but you are getting off topic Stan.

The last guy I want to talk about from this group is Michael Bennett, who I ranked at 25. Bennett is a soul-crushing titanic monster who eliminates offensive linemen to feast on running backs and quarterbacks alike. And he could do so from any position along the defensive line. You asked what I have against DeAndre Levy, well my biggest criticism is he’s not Michael Bennett. It’s tough splitting hairs between some of the great defensive players around, but it would be even tougher to convince me that Bennett wasn’t one of the ten best defensive players in the league in 2014.

Stan: It’s not so much Alex Smith as much as its Andy Reid. I think Alex Smith is a capable quarterback and while the weapons he’s had in Kansas City leave much to be desired, none of them were so bad that they could go an entire season of professional football without a touchdown. That takes a certain level of ineptitude that only Andy Reid and very few coaches can achieve. Those receivers are pretty bad though.

Michael Bennett could honestly have been the Super Bowl MVP if the Seahawks had won. I heard he once ate a left guard with his rice because he needed a protein. I regret not ranking him higher.

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