This last week, Pro Football Focus has been naming their Top 101 NFL Players from the 2015 Season and six Denver Broncos made the cut (SPOILER: Peyton Manning wasn’t one of them).
Here’s how they had them ranked:
7. Von Miller (10th last season)
36. Chris Harris Jr. (4th last season)
69. Emmanuel Sanders (42nd last season)
75. Malik Jackson (43rd last season)
76. Evan Mathis (59th last season)
90. Derek Wolfe (Unranked last season)
The first thing you might notice is that, despite winning the Super Bowl and sporting one of the best defenses in NFL history, four of the six Broncos actually went down in standing. Only Miller (who was other-worldly at times) and Wolfe (who took a massive leap forward in the second half of the season) moved up in their rankings.
For Harris, who was considered a top-five player in the NFL by PFF a year ago, his drop can be attributed to one thing: the Pittsburgh Steelers.
According to Sam Monson of PFF, “Harris Jr. recorded a PFF cumulative game grade of -7.4 against Pittsburgh this past season, and a +23.4 grade against everybody else.”
Eliminate Antonio Brown (PFF’s 2nd-ranked player) from the equation, and Harris may be a top-five player again.
Make sure you take a look at the rankings and let us know who you think got snubbed!