The annual NFL Top 100 ranking used to be a fun exercise. After years of media members compiling lists, fans finally got to hear from the players themselves about who the league's best were. Because it was voted on by their peers, it was deemed more accurate, esteemed and well-informed.
However, the plot has been lost sometime over the years. It has felt like either the criteria weren't clear to the players, or they were simply voting for their friends or familiar names and not really evaluating every component that goes into a list like this. Analyst Lindsay Rhodes confirmed this reality.
So, while it is still a tremendous honor to be included in the NFL Top 100 ranking for a player, it also needs to be taken with somewhat of a grain of salt for fans. Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers being ranked behind Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix is the perfect example of this.
Broncos' Bo Nix edges out Raiders' Brock Bowers in NFL Top 100 ranking
Just an hour after Bowers was announced as the No. 60 player in this year's rankings, which is down 36 spots from last year, the NFL revealed that Nix had crept just ahead of Bowers, checking in at No. 59, which is up five spots from last season.
Now, let's be entirely fair here: Denver was light-years better than Las Vegas was a year ago, and Nix has been better than most of Raider Nation expected when he was drafted. He is a solid player who can execute Sean Payton's system well.
But that still doesn't mean that Nix deserves to be above Bowers, nor Lamar Jackson or Jordan Love (which he is on this list).
And this is where the lack of specific criteria for the players really comes in. If the question is about who had a better season in 2025, an argument at least exists for Nix, who helped lead his team to the No. 1 seed and a spot in the AFC Championship Game, even though he had pedestrian numbers.
Bowers was hampered by injuries during the 2025 campaign and clearly wasn't himself, even if his numbers, for a tight end, are pretty much in the same ballpark as Nix's when it comes to quarterbacking, if not better.
As Rhodes said, though, this list is supposed to answer who the best player in the NFL is right now. It is supposed to be a forward-looking list that takes into account a player's résumé. In no world is the All-Pro, generational talent of Bowers any worse than Nix, a mundane QB carried by an elite defense.
Perhaps this is just me looking at things through Silver and Black glasses. I will concede that Nix has performed better in the NFL than I expected him to out of Oregon, and he and the Broncos are poised for success again this season. Probably more than the Raiders are, at least right now.
That said, Bowers has also exceeded expectations in the NFL and achieved much more individually than Nix has. This is an individual list, not a team one. So, while understanding the weight that quarterbacks hold in this league, I firmly disagree with Nix being ahead of Bowers.
Is it still a great thing that Las Vegas has a young skill position player regarded so highly among NFL players? Of course. But is the list tainted a bit with this obvious miscalculation? In my opinion, yes, and it's not just this ranking that stands out as ridiculous.
At the end of the day, it'll be on Bowers to stay healthy and show the NFL once again why he was an All-Pro in 2024, and on the Raiders to win and start finally earning some serious respect around the league.
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