00:00CBS Sports' Pete Prisco every year, right around now, does his top 100 NFL players list entering 2026.
00:14These lists, we're at list time of year.
00:18List, rankings, predictions, and we will get another two or three of these top 100 player lists.
00:28I think the one that we spend the most time on typically is the one that players vote on, which
00:34is the NFL.com NFL Network countdown of the top 100 players entering 2026.
00:41But this is the first one that's out, or at least the first one that I've seen, and he does
00:46it every single year.
00:49He's got the number one player in the league.
00:53It would be hard to argue this, but positionally, I don't know if I would do it this way, but
00:58he's got Myles Garrett as the number one player in the league.
01:02He's coming off, obviously, the single-season sack record he set last year in Cleveland, and now he's going to
01:09be with the Rams and that team.
01:11Look, I think Myles Garrett's been a top three, top five player in the league for a while now.
01:16Now, I'd still probably go quarterback, number one overall, but Garrett, he's got at one, and then he's got at
01:24number two, Matt Stafford.
01:28Okay, he won the MVP last year.
01:31They didn't win the Super Bowl.
01:32It was not his fault getting to the Super Bowl.
01:35It was the fault of the special teams, and even the defense wasn't great at the end of the year.
01:39He would not be my number two player.
01:42I mean, in ranking the quarterbacks, I love Matt Stafford.
01:45I've always been a big Matt Stafford fan.
01:47Pete Prisco didn't even rank in the top 100 last year, Matt Stafford.
01:53That tells you something about NFL seasons, right?
01:56Patriots, Seahawks, over-unders of seven and a half games last year.
02:00Nobody picked them.
02:01Weren't even in the top half of the league in odds to win the Super Bowl, and they ended up
02:06facing each other in the Super Bowl.
02:08And a top 100 list of players last year didn't include the player that won the MVP, Matt Stafford.
02:17Number three is Josh Allen.
02:19Number four is Jamar Chase.
02:21And number five is Joe Burrow.
02:24Rounding out the top 10, Pete Prisco has on his top 100 NFL players entering 2026.
02:31Lions tackle Panay Sewell, then Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson, Puka Nakua.
02:37And he's got Lamar Jackson at 10.
02:41How many Washington players made this top 100 list?
02:46Did I already tell you what the answer to that question was, Max?
02:50I think I did.
02:52Two.
02:53Yeah.
02:54Two players.
02:55Now, last year, there were a few more.
02:59I think Terry, Jaden, Wagner, and I think Tunsell, even though he hadn't played for Washington yet, but he was
03:06getting traded to Washington.
03:07I think they were all in the top 100.
03:09This year, just two in the NFL top 100 players.
03:14Jaden Daniels comes in at number 69.
03:18By the way, that's the 11th quarterback.
03:22And Laramie Tunsell comes in at number 76.
03:27Those are the only two Washington players on the list.
03:33You know, I was looking through this to see, you know, where players that they went after and didn't get
03:40in free agency ranked.
03:41Well, Alec Pierce isn't on the list.
03:45Not on the list.
03:46Top 100 players.
03:48I kind of agree with that.
03:51I thought Alec Pierce, I think Alec Pierce is a good receiver.
03:54I don't think he was worth the money that he was demanding and got.
03:59By the way, wanted to stay in Indianapolis.
04:03And then Romeo Dobbs is not on this list either.
04:06Tyler Linderbaum is on the list.
04:09Because he is a true A-level player.
04:13And he got overpaid.
04:14There's no doubt about that.
04:16But both of those things are true.
04:20I'm just, you know, in thinking of Washington's roster, I'm sure some of you are like, wait a minute.
04:24Terry McLaurin's not on the list?
04:26No, he's not.
04:27And he probably won't be on the players list either, I'm guessing, when that comes out.
04:31It is very much skewed towards recency bias, these lists are.
04:38And Terry had his first legitimate off year and injured year of his career.
04:44So he's likely not going to be on anybody's list.
04:48Other than Tunsil and Jaden, I don't see anybody on their roster that's going to be on this list.
04:56Nobody.
04:59So there you go.
05:02That's what you're dealing with entering this season.
05:04It's subjective, obviously.
05:06And some people, you might find a list with Terry on it.
05:08You might find a list with, who else would even be on it?
05:11So, Jaden and Tunsil are your A players.
05:16I think Terry's an A player.
05:17Don't get me wrong.
05:18I don't think he's an elite player.
05:19There are 13 receivers, by the way, on this list that Terry is not on.
05:24So that would make him, at best, according to Prisco, the 14th best receiver.
05:29But there are others that are missing that seem kind of obvious.
05:34But, by the way, Drake London is on the list, for those of you that called me an idiot when
05:38I said I would take Drake London over Terry.
05:40Again, it's one person's opinion.
05:42Who cares?
05:43But London's younger.
05:44He's bigger.
05:45He's better.
05:45Flat out.
05:47That's it.
05:48That's the list of players that can be on that list.
05:51Cosme isn't coming off a year that anybody's going to remember.
05:55He didn't start playing until week six.
05:58Chig is not really known yet.
06:01I mean, it's possible he could be on this list this time next year.
06:04And defensively, I mean, who would be on the list?
06:07They don't have, you know, last year Wagner was on it, but obviously after last year he's not going to
06:14be on it.
06:14Nobody from this defense from last year's roster is going to be on it.
06:18And of the players they acquired, they didn't, I mean, Owe may have been on the list had he played
06:24the way he played in L.A. all season long.
06:27But he didn't.
06:30So, more of these to come over the summer, I'm sure.
06:36Including the NFL Network list.
06:39Which is always interesting because it's the players voting and you wonder what the players think.
06:43Maybe you don't.
06:45Here's something else that I just saw that came out this morning.
06:49And, man, you talk about sort of an NFC East crapshoot heading into 2026.
06:59This was a column titled, NFC East, Can Cowboys, Giants, or Commanders unseat Eagles?
07:07Who became the first team in the NFC East in 21 years to go back-to-back, winning the division
07:13title in 2024 and in 2025.
07:18And this is where, you know, the beat reporters for each of the four teams weigh in on several questions.
07:25Tim McManus is the Eagles reporter, Todd Archer is the ESPN Cowboys reporter, Jordan Renan is the Giants reporter, and,
07:34of course, John Keim is the Washington ESPN reporter.
07:38So, there are questions like, what do the off-season moves mean for your quarterback?
07:45Keim writes about Blau and writes about, you know, Akan Kuo and Antonio Williams and what they didn't do.
07:51What's the biggest concern for your team?
07:54Keim writes, you know, more receiver help.
07:57What has been the most underrated move by your team?
08:01Keim says there are many moves that, you know, might be underrated, but a lot of the so-called splash
08:07ones have been discussed.
08:09Owe, Chason, Chenal, and Stiles.
08:11But he goes with the signing of veteran Nick Cross.
08:15I like that one.
08:16They love Nick Cross.
08:18Terp.
08:19And then, who will win the NFC East in 2026 from each reporter's perspective?
08:28Let me just tell you, this is not something where they have to, they can pick whoever they want.
08:34Keim, Archer, McManus, Renan.
08:36They can pick whomever they want to win the division.
08:40And I've seen this column out many times in recent years where they all picked, you know, or three of
08:46them picked the Cowboys, one picked the Eagles.
08:47Three of them picked the Eagles, one of them picked the Cowboys.
08:49But listen to what happened this year in the question to the four ESPN beat reporters covering the NFC East
08:57teams.
08:58Who wins the NFC East?
09:00Tim McManus in Philadelphia.
09:02He says the Eagles.
09:04Todd Archer in Dallas.
09:06He picked the Cowboys.
09:08Jordan Renan in New York.
09:10He picked the Giants to win the NFC East.
09:15And then John came in and his selection, Washington.
09:22All four picked their own teams.
09:25John wrote, the division will be much tighter, a much tighter race than perhaps many anticipate.
09:31At this point, you'd still have to go with the Eagles simply because they've been the class of the division.
09:36But they have their own questions and always seem on the verge of collapse, only to always recover.
09:42But their roster is so well constructed that entering camp, you'd have to save them.
09:47We also know that last season was the first repeat winner since 2004 when the Eagles won four in a
09:53row.
09:54However, Washington will be improved and a threat if Daniels stays healthy.
10:00Dallas has an explosive offense.
10:03So if its defense improves, then the Cowboys can dethrone the Eagles.
10:07The Giants have made lots of changes, but they have holes and more questions than the other three teams and
10:13are perhaps a year away from taking a big step.
10:16So John basically makes the case for the Eagles, Cowboys, and Washington.
10:21But his pick is Washington.
10:26So kind of too early to make a pick on the division.
10:31But I would say this about Washington in 2026.
10:37Write 2025 out of your mind.
10:41They shouldn't do it.
10:43They shouldn't coach to that.
10:45But 2025, as I have said many times, should not be the foundation of your Washington 2026 prediction.
10:55It would be super silly to do that.
10:59This is an entirely new football team defensively.
11:04And if all of the players that didn't play a lot of football last year on offense do play a
11:11lot of football in 2026 offensively,
11:14it's going to be a completely different team week in and week out that takes the field than the team
11:19that took the field last year.
11:21It's really absurd to look.
11:26First of all, any NFL season to look back is dangerous, you know, unless the team was a juggernaut and
11:35brings back all of the same players and the quarterback is consistent year to year and elite.
11:41Those are the safest teams to pick in terms of they're going to have success.
11:46Everybody else, man, you have no idea how it will come together.
11:51Will they stay healthy?
11:52Will it come together chemistry wise?
11:54What will their schedule?
11:55How will it actually play out in real time?
11:57Because it's not who you play.
11:59It's not what it looks like now.
12:00It's when you play those teams that matters more than anything else.
12:04Because something that looks very difficult today, by the time you get to it, it might be your easiest game
12:09on the schedule.
12:09You don't know that right now.
12:13But to use 25 for Washington as a, they weren't very good last year, so they got a, I mean,
12:22they really are going to have to play much better than they did last year.
12:25No, that's actually not what needs to happen.
12:28They have to have different players on the field in 2026 than they had in 2025.
12:36And we already know that defensively, they're going to have a lot of new players on the field.
12:42Six new starters, minimum.
12:44You know, offensively, you are counting on, and this is the biggest, this is the number one for 2026.
12:52Will Jaden Daniels be healthy and play 17 games?
12:57Or, you know, no less than 15, 16.
13:01And if he misses a game, it's a minor kind of a thing.
13:07That's number one on the list.
13:09Because if your best player who plays that position doesn't play 15, 16 plus games, you are doomed almost always
13:20in the league, like last year.
13:23So that's number one.
13:24And then, obviously, you want Terry for a full offseason, full training camp, healthy, upright, having a Terry kind of
13:32a season.
13:33You want that offensive line to continue to grow from where it was last year.
13:38Tunsell and Connerly, and big question at center, you're going to have a new center.
13:43Cosme's going to be here, hopefully ready to go for an entire season instead of just a partial part of
13:48the season.
13:49What are you going to do at guard? Is Chris Paul going to be the guy?
13:52Or will Brandon Coleman be starting at left guard?
13:57New tight end, very likely at least one of the two backs that gets a lot of snaps, brand new
14:05in Rashad White.
14:07Totally different team, not to mention the two coordinators, of course.
14:11Totally different team.
14:12I think Washington, if Jaden Daniels, if you tell me right now, here's the question.
14:20If I told you right now, Jaden Daniels, healthy, starts all 17 games and completes all 17 games.
14:32What's the best case for Washington in 2026?
14:37Because that matters so much more than anything else individually, and really a lot of things in combination with each
14:47other.
14:47If I told you Jaden Daniels, assume this, Jaden Daniels, healthy, 17 games start to finish.
14:56What does that equal in terms of number of wins and what kind of team Washington has?
Comments