Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

[untrugby]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

You missed it. With two quality opponents, there isn't going to be much differentiation in the first three quarters, so whoever makes a move in the 4th wins. In the playoffs, you usually have two quality opponents. That's how most championships are won.

no you missed it. play style doesnt have anything to do with quality. teams that are streaky can be quality. it has nothing to do with "stepping up", if they could have "stepped up" their game why not play at that level all game?

[lonewolf371]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

no you missed it. play style doesnt have anything to do with quality. teams that are streaky can be quality. it has nothing to do with "stepping up", if they could have "stepped up" their game why not play at that level all game?

Because players aren't robots. You don't turn them on and have them perform at some sort of specifically engineered level. Do you perform the same way at work every day? How about if your job was to go around and get the crap beat out of you for 60 minutes?

[Shroom]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

I would probably say the top 5 in no particular order are:
1. LaDainian Tomlinson
2. Antonio Gates
3. Peyton Manning
4. Tom Brady
5. Ray Lewis

[The Big Squeezy]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

No order:

Peyton Manning
LaDanian Tomlinson
Derrick Brooks
Randy Moss
Ray Lewis

Honorable mentions:
Jon Ogden
Tom Brady
Ronde Barber
Ed Reed
T.O.
Orlando Pace

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Honestly Manning, Brady, Lewis and LT should be locks on EVERYBODY'S Top 5 list and i'll even throw in Tony G(even though he's not on my list) Especially how considering for most, if not ALL of the 00s these 4 have been among the top 2-3 at their position the entire time and in some cases still are.

Guys like Big Ben, Moss, etc....yeah that I don't get.

[untrugby]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Guys like Big Ben, Moss, etc....yeah that I don't get.

you dont get how a guy widely considered the 2nd best WR of all time could be on the list for top 5 players of the 2000s?

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

I get Moss. Big Ben's name shouldn't be brought up at all in my opinion.

[Dog]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Honestly Manning, Brady, Lewis and LT should be locks on EVERYBODY'S Top 5 list and i'll even throw in Tony G(even though he's not on my list) Especially how considering for most, if not ALL of the 00s these 4 have been among the top 2-3 at their position the entire time and in some cases still are.

Guys like Big Ben, Moss, etc....yeah that I don't get.

you dont get how a guy widely considered the 2nd best WR of all time could be on the list for top 5 players of the 2000s?

Look at his avatar

[Reed the Raven]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

1) Ray Lewis
2) Tom Brady
3) Peyton Manning
4) LaDainian Tomlinson
5) Ed Reed

I have a reason for putting Ray Lewis as the #1 player of the 21st Century. I think he's the #1 player of the 21st Century because the 2000 - 2001 season that the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl they had no Quarterback and a very mediocre offense. Ray Lewis and his defense had to do everything themselves. I cannot give as much credit to Tom Brady for his Super Bowls, because he had a much better supporting cast and there is even speculation that the Patriots cheated around the time they won the majority of their Super Bowls. No disrespect to Tom Brady or the Patriots, but I think what Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens did was a lot more challenging and amazing than most other Super Bowl wins in the 21st Century. There has only been 1 Linebacker to get Super Bowl MVP on the winning team. There have been 24 Quarterbacks total to get the Super Bowl MVP award, therefore my #1 player of the 21st Century is Ray Lewis.

[lonewolf371]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Well the 2002 Bucs didn't need an offense, even though they had one. Where's Derrick Brooks? Are you a Ravens fan?

[DukeC]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Look at his avatar

Pack got me there. I fell for the troll hook,line, and sinker. I was just about to rant about how Moss is one of the greatest receivers this generation...then you posted and reminded me he was a Packers fan. Well played Pack. Well played

Honestly Manning, Brady, Lewis and LT should be locks on EVERYBODY'S Top 5 list and i'll even throw in Tony G(even though he's not on my list) Especially how considering for most, if not ALL of the 00s these 4 have been among the top 2-3 at their position the entire time and in some cases still are.

Guys like Big Ben, Moss, etc....yeah that I don't get.

I got sucked in by the Big Ben comment, which he had me agreeing on...and then slipped in Moss like he was an afterthought

Can't believe I fell for it. SMMFH.

[wwharton]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

Honestly Manning, Brady, Lewis and LT should be locks on EVERYBODY'S Top 5 list and i'll even throw in Tony G(even though he's not on my list) Especially how considering for most, if not ALL of the 00s these 4 have been among the top 2-3 at their position the entire time and in some cases still are.

Guys like Big Ben, Moss, etc....yeah that I don't get.

The problem with this way of thinking is there are more than 5 positions, so it'd be possible to have more than 5 guys at the top of their position over the timeframe... still gotta sort through them. Plus (using an extreme), where would the best punter rank? What if he was by far the best punter of all time? It's just hard to rank across positions.

BTW, fellas, the green shade on Pack's glasses isn't that strong... continue to feel free to question his exclusion of Moss from consideration.

1) Ray Lewis
2) Tom Brady
3) Peyton Manning
4) LaDainian Tomlinson
5) Ed Reed

I have a reason for putting Ray Lewis as the #1 player of the 21st Century. I think he's the #1 player of the 21st Century because the 2000 - 2001 season that the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl they had no Quarterback and a very mediocre offense. Ray Lewis and his defense had to do everything themselves. I cannot give as much credit to Tom Brady for his Super Bowls, because he had a much better supporting cast and there is even speculation that the Patriots cheated around the time they won the majority of their Super Bowls. No disrespect to Tom Brady or the Patriots, but I think what Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens did was a lot more challenging and amazing than most other Super Bowl wins in the 21st Century. There has only been 1 Linebacker to get Super Bowl MVP on the winning team. There have been 24 Quarterbacks total to get the Super Bowl MVP award, therefore my #1 player of the 21st Century is Ray Lewis.

Since I'm also a Ravens fan I feel like I need to reply to this. First, the Ravens offense wasn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. Ogden, Sharpe, Jamal Lewis and Preist Holmes have all proven to be great NFL players and all had a big role in keeping that D off the field and fresh. To say the D carried the team is accurate, but very vague. To say Ray was the best player is also accurate, but it's still football... he had A LOT of help. And finally, that team went on an amazing run at the right time of year. It's not like they went into the playoffs 15-1 and then dominated to a championship. They were a wild card team and had some battles before destroying the Giants.

[lonewolf371]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

The problem with this way of thinking is there are more than 5 positions, so it'd be possible to have more than 5 guys at the top of their position over the timeframe... still gotta sort through them. Plus (using an extreme), where would the best punter rank? What if he was by far the best punter of all time? It's just hard to rank across positions.

BTW, fellas, the green shade on Pack's glasses isn't that strong... continue to feel free to question his exclusion of Moss from consideration.

I don't think anyone else the last decade has been at the top 2-3 of their position as long as those guys have.

And punters are, well, punters. All that needs to be said, really.

[wwharton]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

I don't think anyone else the last decade has been at the top 2-3 of their position as long as those guys have.

And punters are, well, punters. All that needs to be said, really.

Doesn't really matter. Overall point is that it's very difficult to compare across positions, and just saying "they were the best at their position" doesn't take the difficulty out of it. For example, many say QB is the most important position on the field. If there happen to be 5 QBs that played over that time and all are locks for the HOF (like the guys we're mentioning across positions) then would we not consider the worse 4 out of this group of 5 just because there are 4 guys that have been the best at their position? I don't know.

IMO, unless we're doing each position individually, that shouldn't be used to determine whether someone should be considered or not. Now obviously, someone shouldn't be considered if there are other players we'd think better than them at the same position that aren't considered, but other than that they've gotta be compared across the board (despite how virtually impossible that is).

[Bellsprout]

Re: Who Are Your Top 5 Players of the 21st Century?

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