The Lead
Pro Football Focus' ranking of the top 101 players of the decade is complete.
After the four-day rollout, PFF's full list included seven players who were on the Broncos during the previous decade. Six of those seven played key roles in the Broncos winning Super Bowl 50, and two others — former Broncos WR Brandon Marshall (No. 61) and current Broncos DL Jurrell Casey (No. 96) — have ties to the team but did not play for Denver during the decade.
7. Von Miller (2011-pres.)
12. Chris Harris Jr. (2011-19)
14. G Evan Mathis (2015)
18. Peyton Manning (2012-15)
85. Aqib Talib (2014-17)
86. Jamaal Charles (2017)
87. Emmanuel Sanders (2014-19)
Miller was ranked as the third-best defensive player and the top edge rusher.
"There has been no better pure pass-rusher of the decade than Von Miller, who hit the ground running as a rookie and posted eight consecutive seasons with a PFF grade north of 90.0 to begin his career," wrote PFF's Sam Monson.
Perhaps most notably, Peyton Manning came in at No. 18 — a fitting spot, wouldn't you agree?
But some fans might be wonder if Manning be ranked too low. After all, Manning may have had the most prolific season by a QB in NFL history during this decade. I'd argue it's worth considering that it might be impressive that he still ranked so highly. He missed the entire 2011 season with a neck injury and retired after the 2015 season. In that time, he proved he was still one of the best quarterbacks in the league. His place in this list still recognizes that.
Below the Fold
Though Courtland Sutton only has 32 NFL games under his belt, no other wide receiver on the Broncos roster has more NFL experience. That has made him grow up fast — and, now, two years after he entered the league, he is taking on his role as a veteran leader, as 9NEWS’ Mike Klis writes.
Around the NFL's Gregg Rosenthal is projecting each team's starting lineups and sharing his thoughts on how they stack up, and he tackled the AFC West on Thursday. I particularly liked his assessment of Alexander Johnson ("He makes the entire defense look faster.") and Noah Fant ("If Fant's improvement down the stretch sticks, the offense is littered with players who can go the distance.").
In case you missed it, A.J. Bouye and Courtland Sutton talked to the media on Thursday. Here are our stories on how Bouye is preparing to return to Pro Bowl form and Sutton’s thoughts on the offense’s potential in Pat Shurmur’s new scheme.
