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

[slickdtc]

Quote: Originally Posted by shnuskis

Brady Manning Ray Lewis LT Marshall Faulk Honorable Mention to Priest Holmes, the second coming of MF.

Good look on the honorable mention of Holmes.

He's going to get overlooked by a lot of people, probably already forgotten. But from 01 to 04 (4 seasons), he was insane. Nearly 5,500 yards (missed 8 games in 04 [was on pace for 1750+, 28 TD] and 2 in 02). But the TD's... 48 in two years and 62 in 3 years (that's including the year he missed 8 games, still scored 14 times).

Oh yeah, caught the ball too. 62, 70, 74 rec in 01-03, 600+ yards each time.

Wow.

Some pretty big HB years in the 2000's though. Jamal Lewis' 2000 yard season, LT being money for pretty much the whole 2000's, Shaun Alexander scored 20+ times, Larry Johnson came in after Holmes and put up back to back 1700 yard seasons. That TD record fell a few times this past decade but damn if Holmes wasn't the best at finding the end zone. Even though I'm not a big fan of celebrations, always liked his little TD shuffle into the endzone.

[Dice]

- Tom Brady: Championship pedigree, the modern day Joe Montana.
- Peyton Manning: The most talented and cerebral QB of the modern day.
- Ray Lewis: The second best linebacker of all time next to Lawrence Taylor.
- Randy Moss: A threat to score anywhere on any play.
- Ladainian Tomlinson: A poor man's Walter Payton.

[BleacherBum2310]

Tom Brady
Peyton Manning
LT
Troy Polamalu
Ray Lewis

[dpmx21]

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Ray Lewis
Ed Reed
Ladanian Tomlinson

[TheBrothers24]

Not in order:

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Ray Lewis
Ladainian Tomlinson
Tony Gonzales(had to give love to the person who may hold every record for TE when he retires)

[guaps]

I think I'll go with some of the less obvious players. Everybody seems to agree that Brady, Manning, Ray Lewis, LT are among the best of the 21st century, so I'm not going to mention them on my list. I also think Ed Reed is a stellar safety and wouldn't hesitate putting him in my top 5.

I think my list (without the obvious names) would include:

• Charles Woodson - 7 Pro Bowls and DPOY in 2009.
• Dwight Freeney - 6 Pro Bowls and DPOY in 2005.
• Andre Johnson - 5 Pro Bowls and currently ranks first all-time in NFL history in receiving yards per game (80.7 yds/game) for a career.
• Steve Hutchinson - 7 Pro Bowls and all of them as an All-Pro. Has paved the way for a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his 10 NFL seasons.
• Tony Gonzalez - 11 Pro Bowls of which 9 were as an All-Pro. Holds basically every record for a tight end.

I considered putting Michael Strahan on my list, but half of his career was in the 20th century, so I opted for Freeney instead.

Also I though it was a bit funny to see somebody mention Darrell Revis as a top 5 player of the 21st century. He's good, but he's only been in the NFL for 4 seasons, of which he's only been consider elite for the last two seasons. It's a bit of a stretch, in my opinion, to put him in a top 5 with so many other fantastic players out there.

[Brandwin]

In no particular order -

LaDainian Tomlinson
Terrell Owens
Tom Brady
Peyton Manning
Ray Lewis

[MagicMan1315]

Tom Brady
Peyton Manning
Tony Gonzalez
Champ Bailey
Drew Brees