Throwback Thursday: All-Time NFL Team

Recent postings of all-time favorite players and the, now annual, debate of best ever NBA player got me thinking about my All-Time NFL Team. A friend of mine recently posted his All-Time NFL Team. He probably did the right thing by limiting the team only to players that he had seen play. That's probably the best way to do it. I can read everything available about the players before my days and I can watch all of their highlights but it isn't the same as actually seeing them play. In their days. So, here are the best players that I've seen play. Or the best players of my days. In my opinion.

Quarterback
Tom Brady, New England Patriots

Deciding between Brady and Joe Montana was probably the most difficult decision on the team.

Runnning Backs
Walter Payton, Chicago Bears
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

Receivers
Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49ers
Cris Carter, Minnesota Vikings

Tight End
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots

Tackles
Art Shell, Oakland Raiders
Jonathan Ogden, Baltimore Ravens

Guards
John Hannah, New England Patriots
Randall McDaniel, Minnesota Vikings

Center
Dwight Stephenson, Miami Dolphins


Defensive Ends
Reggie White, Philadelphia Eagles/Green Bay Packers
J.J. Watt, Houston Texans

Defensive Tackles
Alan Page, Minnesota Vikings
Joe Greene, Pittsburgh Steelers

Linebackers
Jack Ham, Pittsburgh Steelers
Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears
Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants

The middle linebacker decision was nearly as difficult as quarterback. Jack Lambert, Ray Lewis, and Mike Singletary were serious contenders. I watch every Vikings game so there's a lot of Bears game film in my head. That decided the debate because I've seen few players wreck an offense's intentions like Urlacher. There were too many Vikings-Bears games that I felt were decided by a play, or plays, made by Urlacher. No one played the cover-2 middle linebacker position better.

Cornerbacks
Mike Haynes, New England Patriots/Oakland-LA Raiders
Deion Sanders, Falcons/49ers/Cowboys...

Safeties
Kenny Easley, Seattle Seahawks
Ed Reed, Baltimore Ravens

Four Vikings players. That feels light.

NFL's Top 100 Players of 2018: 40-31

The countdown of the NFL's Top 100 Player of 2018 continued on NFL Network Monday night with the players ranked 40-31.

40. Tyreek Hill, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
39. Tyron Smith, OT, Dallas Cowboys
38. Jared Goff, QB, Los Angeles Rams
37. Joey Bosa, DE, Los Angeles Chargers
36. Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings
35. A.J. Bouye, CB, Jacksonville Jaguars
34. DeMarcus Lawrence, DE, Dallas Cowboys
33. Kareem Hunt, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
32. Jadeveon Clowney, DE, Houston Texans
31. Matthew Stafford, QB, Detroit Lions

New to the Top 100:
Adam Thielen
A.J. Bouye
DeMarcus Lawrence
Kareem Hunt

Kareem Hunt opened the his 2017 rookie season with a fumble. He didn't have a second fumble.

Adam Thielen. Anyone that was surprised by Thielen's performance in 2017 wasn't paying attention in 2016. His NFL evolution has been steady and amazing. Not only was he not drafted out of itty bitty Mankato State in 2013 he had to tryout to earn a shot at training camp.
2013-practice squad
2014-special teams contributor
2015-special teams standout/occasional offensive contributor
2016-69 catches for 967 yards
2017-#36 on the NFL's Top 100 Players of 2018
Thielen's performance is no fluke. He gets open early in routes and often and catches everything thrown his way. That was a big reason for Case Keenum's stellar season. Thielen is a fantastic route runner, terrific hands, and very good speed. He signed a nice contract extension after his "breakout" 2016 season. He's already outperformed that contract. He's a humble, hungry football player and he's one of the best receivers in the game.

Tyron Smith at #39 doesn't feel right. He dropped 21 spots from his 2017 ranking through no fault of his own. The Cowboys running game went from explosive to pedestrian when a suspension put Ezekiel Elliott on the sideline. A backfield duo of Alfred Morris and Rod Smith still averaged over 4.5 yards per carry. That might be even more impressive than what the Cowboys line did in 2017. Smith is a beast.

Arizona Cardinals defensive end Chandler Jones is sure to show up on this list soon. Until then he's been excellent in his commentary on his peers. His breakdown of some of DeMarcus Lawrence's pass rushing technique's were fun and informative. It brought up fond Top 100 memories of Luke Kuechly talking about the difficulties of covering Charles Clay.

Thielen is the sixth Vikings player to appear on this year's Top 100.
Kirk Cousins
Linval Joseph
Strefon Diggs
Xavier Rhodes
Harrison Smith
Adam Thielen

Everson Griffen is sure to join them. Seven Top 100 players is a nice total. All but Diggs are in the middle of their prime years. Diggs hasn't even touched his yet.

Next week: 30-21! Ooh, the anticipation is building.

List Of Favorite Players

People's lists of their all-time favorite player in each sport have been bouncing around social media over the past week. I'll play.

NFL: Alan Page/Cris Carter
NCAAF: Joe Roth
NBA: Larry Bird
NCAAB: Bill Russell
MLB: Andre Dawson
NHL: Mario Lemeiux
Soccer: Pele
Wrestling: Dan Gable
Boxing: Joe Louis

That was fun but picking my all-time favorite football players at each position group is more fun. For that I prefer to do two lists. Vikings and non-Vikings. Doing a combined list would be stupid since it would be all Vikings.

Vikings Favorites
QB: Fran Tarkenton
RB: Adrian Peterson
WR: Cris Carter
TE: Steve Jordan
OL: Randall McDaniel
DL: Alan Page
LB: Matt Blair
CB: Antoine Winfield
S: Harrison Smith
K: Fred Cox
P: Greg Coleman
Coach: Bud Grant

Non-Vikings Favorites
QB: Dutch Clark
RB: Jim Brown
WR: Jerry Rice
TE: John Mackey
OL: Jim Parker
DL: Gino Marchetti
LB: Lawrence Taylor
CB: Night Train Lane
S: Ed Reed
K: Glenn Presnell
P: Ray Guy
Coach: Paul Brown

3 Colts and I didn't have Johnny Unitas. But I like Dutch Clark so damn much even though he was a single wing quarterback.

Fun stuff.

DeFilippo and Cosins

I try not to post entire columns written by another but I couldn't help myself with this one. I've been curious about the relationship between new Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. I've read and heard both talk about the offense but I hadn't really read or heard either talk about the other. In a June 2 article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Vikings beat-writer Ben Goessling addressed the relationship between coach and quarterback.

Vikings' John DeFilippo and Kirk Cousins: a melding of the minds

Vikings bring together offensive coordinator, QB. 

By Ben Goessling Star Tribune

JUNE 2, 2018 — 11:30PM

The moment seemed at the time like a fleeting interaction between a team that had already traded its top pick for Carson Palmer and a prospect whose NFL potential appeared uncertain.

But in that 2012 exchange in Indianapolis, 33-year-old Raiders quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo matched wits with 23-year-old Michigan State passer Kirk Cousins, and something clicked.

DeFilippo had been impressed by Cousins’ stirring speech at the 2011 Big Ten kickoff luncheon; Cousins was struck by the preparedness of an athletic director’s son who vowed at 10 years old he’d be coaching in the NFL. The meeting yielded no immediate fruit — the Raiders took Utah tackle Tony Bergstrom 95th overall, while the Redskins took Cousins seven picks later to be Robert Griffin III’s backup. But the two men, meticulous types not quick to forget a name, walked away impressed with one another, and made a point to follow the other from a distance.

The Vikings, who’d coached Cousins and Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson at the Senior Bowl that January, were preparing for their second year with Christian Ponder. They couldn’t have known then that the future of their offense — which would culminate six years later with an offensive coordinator job for DeFilippo and a record-breaking contract for Cousins — was being written in some other hotel suite.

That meeting in Indianapolis, though, ultimately sowed the seeds for a partnership between men who appear to be birds of a feather.

“I’ve always been a fan of Kirk’s,” DeFilippo said as he sat in his office May 25, with several neat stacks of papers and a can of Red Bull on his desk. “I don’t know the exact grade I gave him when he was coming out of college, but I know I liked him a lot. I’ll never forget that speech he gave at Michigan State. That was part of the evaluation process, just being like, ‘Wow, this guy’s really impressive.’ … Seeing the way he moves, the way he throws, I’ve always admired him from afar.”

In DeFilippo — the 39-year-old former Eagles quarterbacks coach who accepted the Vikings’ offensive coordinator job hours after the Super Bowl parade in his hometown — the Vikings appear to have a kindred spirit to Cousins. Of all the things working in the team’s favor as it courted Cousins this spring (stable leadership, Midwestern locale, talented roster), the fit with DeFilippo was high on the quarterback’s list.

The partnership was finalized with diligence typically befitting a corporate merger (and let’s be honest, the deal between Cousins and the Vikings carries the financial stakes and a level of attention to rival many such acquisitions). After accepting the Vikings’ job Feb. 8, DeFilippo was on the last flight from Philadelphia to Minneapolis on Feb. 13. He was in the office first thing the next morning, poring over film of the Vikings’ three free agents-to-be (Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford and Case Keenum).

Soon after, DeFilippo turned his attention to Cousins, who rented a car to scout the Twin Cities between public appearances during Super Bowl week. Cousins said he respected several coaches who had mentored DeFilippo, Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson among them, and started making calls to players who had worked with DeFilippo, such as Palmer and Eagles quarterback Nate Sudfeld.

DeFilippo called the Vikings’ quarterback search as thorough a process as he’s gone through. He would not name names, but said he evaluated more quarterbacks with coach Mike Zimmer, General Manager Rick Spielman and QB coach Kevin Stefanski than just Cousins and the Vikings’ three free agents.

But eventually, the search zeroed in on Cousins. The QB and the coordinator met at dinner March 14, talked more football the next day and Cousins signed his three-year, $84 million deal that afternoon.

“I have a lot of reps banked in doing things a certain way, so if there’s a lot of change, it’s going to change the way I can play,” Cousins said last week. “I love his intensity, how committed he is to being the best he can be and being on the best team possible.”

Raised to be a coach

DeFilippo lived in six states as a kid while his father, Gene, worked as a college football coach before becoming an administrator at South Carolina, Kentucky, Villanova and Boston College. The younger DeFilippo lingered around Kentucky basketball practices with current Gophers coach Richard Pitino while Pitino’s father, Rick, coached a perennial contender; he observed postgame football locker rooms after big wins and crushing defeats.

“When your dad is totally involved in it, you either go one way or the other,” Gene DeFilippo said. “You’re either all-consumed and you love it, or you go the other way. John could never get enough football. He just loves it.”

DeFilippo played quarterback at James Madison, spending his summers watching Kerry Collins and Peyton Manning during internships with the Panthers and Colts. Before he graduated, he accepted the quarterbacks coach job at Fordham, where Dave Clawson, who’d been Villanova’s offensive coordinator while Gene DeFilippo was the AD, was the head coach.

While there, DeFilippo drew on the people skills he said come from his father and the tenacity he picked up from his mother, Anne.

“John quickly earned my trust,” said Clawson, now the coach at Wake Forest. “It’s very difficult for young coaches to have that balance of coaching, mentoring and establishing a relationship, and John did that extremely well, early. He was hard and demanding with the players — and some of these guys, he was their age, or maybe a year older than them — yet they respected him, and enjoyed their time with him.”

His first job in the NFL, as a Giants offensive quality control assistant, exposed DeFilippo to Tom Coughlin’s exacting style.

“For my personality,” DeFilippo said, “that was by far the best way I could have been brought into the NFL. My personality totally fits that culture he had in New York.”

It probably also endeared DeFilippo to another Bill Parcells disciple in Zimmer. And when Zimmer and Spielman interviewed DeFilippo in Philadelphia, hours after that Super Bowl parade, the three coaches’ sons hit it off.

“All of us grew up in a very similar way. There’s a little bit of an edge to you,” John DeFilippo said. “You can see it in Rick, you can see it in Coach Zim. I think you can see it in me. It’s just the way you grew up.”

‘Wants to be coached hard’

The son of a pastor, Cousins has shown a similar fire; most of America knows him for his meme-worthy “You like that?!” moment during the Redskins’ drive to the playoffs in 2015 after Cousins replaced Griffin as the starter.

The early days of his working relationship with DeFilippo, even in the relative calm of organized team activities, have shown the coordinator and the quarterback that one has what the other needs.

“For a guy that’s had that much success, he wants to be coached hard,” DeFilippo said. “The guys that want to get better all have that trait. He has that quality, and he listens.”

DeFilippo held up his cell phone to show one of his coaching tics: the midnight practice film clips he became famous for sending quarterbacks in Philadelphia. Now, those clips are going to Cousins, backup Trevor Siemian and third-stringer Kyle Sloter.

“The guys in Philly used to make fun of me,” DeFilippo said. “We all need to be pushed, and there’s no pushback from [Cousins]. We’ll be in the film room, and those other guys on offense hear the second-highest-paid player in the league getting his butt chewed a little bit. There’s no prima donnas around here. I think that’s why he and I both made a transition into this culture, because those are qualities he and I both believe in.”

It remains to be seen how successful they will be together. Right now, though, they’re both confident they sized one another up correctly.

“[John] loves that Kirk’s a football junkie,” Gene DeFilippo said. “Just knowing what I’ve read about Kirk, and what I’ve heard, I think he and John are going to be really, really good together.”

***

Some takeaways:

Before I get to some takeaways I wanted to say a few words about the author of this article. Ben Goessling. I was worried about the state of the Vikings beat-writers after the exodus of the likes of Sean Jensen, Kevin Seifert, Tom Pelissero, and Matt Vensel over the years. Goessling has put away most of those worries. ESPN 1500's Courtney Cronin has help do so as well.

As for this article.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the Red Bull on DeFilippo's desk. I didn't think that he was ever in need of a jolt of energy from external sources.

From the start of this offseason, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer were outspoken about the team's top two needs of finding the right offensive coordinator to replace Pat Shurmur and the right quarterback to lead the team moving forward. Those needs might've been obvious but I don't think that I'd ever heard either be so specific or outspoken about offseason needs. They couldn't have filled those needs better.

As much as I loved Teddy Bridgewater as the Vikings quarterback the team made the right decision in signing Cousins. I believe that Bridgewater will return to the game from that brutal knee injury before the 2016 season. No matter how much I believe that his return will happen it's an unknown until he gets up from NFL hits in a regular season NFL game. The Vikings could not enter another season with an unknown at quarterback.

I still can't believe that Kirk Cousins is the Vikings quarterback. I can't believe that DeFilippo is their offensive coordinator either. If he wasn't going to get an head coaching job this offseason I assumed that the Eagles would find some way to keep him on their staff.

DeFilippo's stay in Minnesota could be a short one. If he has success as a play-caller for the Vikings he'll likely have head coach opportunities in January. If that happens, retaining quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski in January could turn out to be as crucial as hiring DeFilippo.

I'm curious to know which quarterbacks that the Vikings' decision-makers looked at that weren't their own three quarterbacks or Cousins. Trevor Siemian was probably one seeing as they acquired him in a trade as they were wining, dining, and eventually signing Cousins. Mike Glennon? A.J. McCarron? The draft prospects had to be involved. The Vikings made the right choice even though it was the most expensive one.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the DeFilippo-Cousins relationship play out on the field. It has to be the most anticipated coach-quarterback relationship in Minnesota since Childress-Favre. Here's hoping this one goes a couple steps further than that one.

Early Cal Commits

As with everything else in football, college recruiting is a year-round thing. As soon as the coaches wrap up spring football practices they are recruiting. There's no rest. It's the start of June and Cal has seven commits for their 2019 class.

Braxten Croteau, Liberty (Peoria, AZ), DE, 6-5 240
Blake Antzoulatos, Chaminade (West Hills, CA), ILB, 6-2 225
Zahran Manley, Upland (Upland, CA), CB, 6-2 176
Elijah Mojarro, Orange Lutheran (Orange, CA), TE, 6-4 225
Bradley Archer, Livermore (livermore, CA), TE, 6-4 240
Ryan Puskas, Liberty (Peoria, AZ), OLB, 6-3 210
Brett Johnson, Desert Vista (Phoenix, AZ), DT, 6-4.5 273

All California and Arizona and all defense and tight ends. It's no surprise that Cal is focusing on the tight end position. When Justin Wilcox was hired as head coach in 2017 he inherited a team in that had no tight ends. Former head coach Sonny Dykes had no use for the position. He had no use for defense either but Wilcox improved that problem immediately with decent coaching. Cal recruited a tight end in each of the past two recruiting classes, converted some big receivers, and will add two (for now) in 2019. The Golden Bears are now approaching a more appropriate number of tight ends for the offense.

For those that are interested in that sort of thing, all seven commits are rated as three-star recruits.

Cal already has a commit for the 2020 class in rising junior tackle Everett Johnson out of Turlock High in the fine town of Turlock, California.

While a total of seven commits at the start of June might be a fine showing for Cal it's lagging compared to some of college football's giants.

Alabama: 14
South Carolina: 14
Texas A&M: 13
Miami: 13
Clemson: 12
Mississippi: 12
Oklahoma: 11
Michigan: 11
Notre Dame: 11
LSU: 11
Mississippi State: 11
TCU: 11

The current national commit leader doesn't belong to any of the above. Or Florida State, Florida, Oregon, or Texas. The current national commit leader is itty bitty Miami of Ohio with 17. One of those commits is Blaine Gabbert's little brother Brett Gabbert.

It's only June. And none of these commits are final until they are.

Elite 11

24 of the top high school quarterbacks will be in Redondo, California this weekend competing to be among 12 of the top high school quarterbacks by Sunday. This event is called the Elite 11 Finals but it really isn't the finals. It's more like a semi-finals as it's for a shot to be one of the 12 quarterbacks invited to The Opening Finals in Dallas June 29-July 3. The Elite 11 is a misnomer since 12 quarterbacks actually make the grade. Despite all that it's a fun, prestigious event and Trent Dilfer and his team of terrific football coaches do a fantastic job with it. The quarterbacking fun has been going on for the past few months at regionals to get to this point but it really heats up this weekend and later this summer in Dallas.

2018 Elite 11 Roster

Zach Calzada, Lanier High (Georgia), 6-3 193
Uncommitted

Brendon Clark, Manchester (Virginia) 6-2 213
Wake Forest

Jacob Conover, Chandler (Arizona) 6-0.5 194
BYU

Jayden Daniels, Cajon (California) 6-3 190
Uncommitted

Max Duggan, Lewis Central (Iowa) 6-1.5 189
TCU

Ty Evans, Palmer Ridge (Colorado), 6-2 185
Colorado

Grant Gunnell, St. Pius X (Texas), 6-5.5 213
Uncommitted

Ryan Hilinski, Orange Lutheran (California) 6-4 222
South Carolina

Sam Howell, Sun Valley (N.C.), 6-1.5 225
Florida State

Roschon Johnson, Port Neches-Grove (Texas), 6-1 203
Texas

Michael Johnson Jr., Sheldon (Oregon), 6-2.5 192
Uncommitted

Dwan Mathis, Oak Park (Michigan), 6-4 197
Michigan State

Brian Maurer, West Port (Florida), 6-2.5 180
Uncommitted

Cade McNamara, Damonte Ranch (Nevada), 6-1 202
Michigan

Graham Mertz, Blue Valley North (Kansas), 6-3 205
Wisconsin

Cale Millen, Mount Si (Washington), 6-3.5 192
Oregon

Dylan Morris, Graham-Kapowsin (Washington) 6-0 192
Washington

Bo Nix, Pinson Valley (Alabama), 6-3 204
Auburn

Spencer Rattler, Pinnacle (Arizona), 6-1 173
Oklahoma

Shae Suiaunoa, Clear Lake (Texas), 6-2 185
Uncommitted

Taulia Tagovailoa, Thompson (Alabama), 5-11.5 202
Alabama

Paul Tyson, Hewitt-Tressville (Alabama), 6-4.5 213
Alabama

Isaiah Williams, Trinity Catholic (Missouri), 5-9.5 170
Illinois

Jacob Zeno, John Jay (Texas), 6-2.5 188
Baylor

***

Two of the more interesting quarterbacks competing this weekend are the two Alabama commits. Taulia Tagovailoa and Paul Tyson. The brother of Tagovailoa is Elite 11 veteran and current Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tyson has an even stronger tie to Alabama. He's the great grandson of Bear Bryant.

Six of the 24 quarterbacks have yet to commit to a college.
Zach Calzada
Jayden Daniels

Grant Gunnell
Michael Johnson Jr.
Brian Maurer
Shae Suiaunoa
Cal is in Grant Gunnell's final four with Arizona, Ohio State, and UCLA. Cal is also recruiting Jayden Daniels but he's reportedly leaning towards UCLA. If one of these top quarterbacks does commit to Cal it'd be nice to see it stick. It was frustrating last year to see JT Shrout all-Golden Bear for several months only to see him flip to Tennessee as soon as they came calling.

Past Elite 11 MVPs

1999  Brock Berlin, Florida/Miami

2000  Brodie Croyle, Alabama

2001  Ben Olson, BYU/UCLA

2002  Kyle Wright, Miami

2003  Rhett Bromar, Oklahoma/Sam Houston State

          Matt Tuiasosopo, Washington-played baseball instead

2004  Mark Sanchez, USC

2005  Matthew Stafford, Georgia

2006  John Brantley, Florida

2007  Blaine Gabbert, Missouri

2008  Aaron Murray, Georgia

2009  Jake Heaps, BYU/Kansas/Miami

2010  Jeff Driskel, Florida/Louisiana Tech

2011  Neal Burcham, SMU

          Jameis Winston, Florida State

2012  Asiantii Woulard, UCLA/South Florida/Clarion University

2013  Sean White, Auburn

2014  Blake Barnett, Alabama/Palomar College/Arizona State

2015  Shea Patterson, Mississippi/Michigan

2016  Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama

2017  Justin Fields, Georgia

Some Thoughts

Here are some football thoughts that have bounced through my head recently.

1. Former New England Patriots complaining about having "no fun" when they were with the team is getting tiresome. Actually it's not getting tiresome. It's been tiresome from the start. Philadelphia Eagles guard Brandon Brookis complained about the Patriots and he's never been on the team. He figured that playing for Bill O'Brien with the Houston Texans was close enough so he felt like joining the bitching. Even worse, Brooks' linemate Lane Johnson was one of the first to bitch about the lack of football fun in New England. He never played for the Patriots or a Belichick disciple. You'd think that a team that beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl wouldn't be so infatuated with them. To quote Jay Cutler: "Who caaaares?"

2. Gambling. I know that I'm in the minority on this but I've never understood the thinking that people need some "action" on a football game to make the football game interesting. Football is fun. Football is interesting.

3. The New York Jets beat writers and the national talking heads seemed quite surprised that Teddy Bridgewater looked good, even great, at the offseason workouts. I guess that the expectation was that he'd still be rehabbing the knee that he busted more than two seasons ago. I guess that they forgot that he was cleared to practice with the Minnesota Vikings last season and even appeared in a game. He didn't do much in that game but he was on the field in a live, regular season, NFL game. It was against a Cincinnati Bengals team that had pretty much packed it for that game and the season but it was the real thing. Really. It was. He was cleared to do football things then so it shouldn't be surprise that he's doing them now. What Bridgewater's doing shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that knows anything about him. He's a terrific quarterback and an even better person. As great as he's looking now his return from that brutal knee injury won't be complete until he's taken a live NFL hit and gotten up for another play. He will take that hit and he will get up. And it wouldn't surprise me if he keeps Sam Darnold on the bench for a while.

4. I could see a Minnesota Vikings-Los Angeles Chargers Super Bowl. I'd especially like to see the Vikings part of that vision. It's been too long.

5. There's still nearly two months before training camp but I'd sure like to see the Vikings sign first round pick, cornerback Mike Hughes. They signed seven of their eight draft picks within the first week following the draft. Nearly a month later and Hughes is still unsigned. This unfinished business just kinda nags at me.

6. I've enjoyed NFL Network's Top 100 Players countdown since the first one in 2011. It's fun. I like that it runs from the week after the draft through June. The supposed down time of the NFL calendar. I like that the players do the voting. It's their list. Players never get a say in rankings like this. Now they do. The best part of all is the player commentary. It's always informative and often hilarious.

7. I still can't believe that the Chargers were able to select Derwin James with the 17th pick.

8. Injuries at the end of last season forced the Vikings to move right tackle Mike Remmers to right guard in Week 17 and left guard for the playoffs. He played much better at right tackle for 15 games than he did at guard for three games many. Much better. I guess because he finished the season at guard many beat writers and fans seem to think that he's now a guard. They seem to ignore the fact that Remmers was only playing the position because injuries forced the move. The Vikings are going to try and get the best five offensive linemen on the field. Maybe that combination has Remmers at guard but it's a bit silly to assume that. If his play last season is any indication he's a much better tackle than guard. Much better. In six NFL seasons he's played three games at guard. There's a reason for that. Remmers is a tackle. He's a tackle that might move to guard if that benefits the entire offensive line. A training camp at guard will be much better for him and the team than a handful of practices at the end of the season. If Remmers does move to guard I hope that it's because second-round pick Brian O'Neill is ready to step in at tackle as a rookie.

9. I'd sure like to see Adrian Peterson sign with a team soon. And stay healthy throughout the season. When he wraps up his fantastic NFL career I want it to be on his terms. He can still play.

10. I still can't believe that Kirk Cousins is the Vikings quarterback.