Unless you left the country this weekend, you probably heard about CBS Sports releasing their annual top 50 players in the NFL. Ultimately these kind of lists don't mean a single thing and are basically compiled to incite conversation (mission accomplished). If you haven't looked over the list, take a look and give me your thoughts. For what  it's worth here are the Cardinals players who made the list and my beefs with some of the guys who made it and some of the guys who didn't.

31. Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals: The Cardinals gave him a new contract in March because he's their go-to guy. He teams with Anquan Boldin to form one of the top receiving duos.

Just missed: Adrian Wilson, S, Arizona Cardinals

Now, there's only guy I can make a legitimate case for who should be on this list , Anquan Boldin. I'd have a much bigger case if there were more receivers on the list but there were only nine: Moss (4th), Owens (13th), Steve Smith (21st), Wayne (22nd), Andre Johnson (26th), Ocho Cinco (28th), Fitz (31st), Braylon Edwards (34th) and Wes Welker (48th). Of the guys on that list, I'd personally put Boldin ahead of Welker considering that Q has three seasons that were as good as or better than Welker's sole standout season. I guess that's what happens when you play for a media darling like the Patriots versus playing in the desert.

Other head scratchers:

Quarterback: Is Carson Palmer really the 8th best player in the entire league and 3rd best quarterback? Before you answer consider this:

QB1 - 61 games, 64.1 completion %, a combined QB rating of 90.1 and per game numbers of 244 yards, 1.71 TDs and1.03 INTs

QB2 - 93 games, 65.1 completion %, a combined QB rating of 93.2 and per game numbers of 258 yards, 1.63 TDs and 1.07 INTs

In case anyone is wondering QB1 is Palmer and QB2 is Kurt Warner. Now I'm not in any manner trying to say that Warner deserves to be on this list or that he's a better quarterback than Palmer, but I am trying to say that Palmer is highly overrated if he's considered anywhere close to a top 10 player in the NFL.

Tight End: First I'll go ahead and state that this is possibly my favorite position (partly because that's where I played in school) so I always try and follow the better tight ends in the league. The tight ends who made the list were Gates (24th), Kellen Winslow (44th) and Tony G (46th), but the name that jumps out to me that is missing is Jason Witten. I'd personally take Witten over either Winlsow or Gonzalez because he's the not only an excellent receiver, but also a good blocker (which Winslow isn't) and he's still young (which Gonzalez isn't) at just 26 years old.

A couple of other things that rubbed me the wrong way:

• Where's Jason Taylor? Sure he's 33 years old and his best days are behind him, but to think that a guy that's averaged over 12.5 sacks the past eight seasons isn't even in the top 50 is ridiculous.
  
• Please don't show this list to Darnell Dockett. He likes to compare himself to Tommie Harris and Harris was ranked 36th.
  

So what do you guys think of the list? What tweaks would you make and who deserves to be on here that isn't and who would you boot off?

So I got to thinking, how can I compare the top two receivers of each team to try and statistically prove which team has the best top two wide outs? The answer would seem pretty simple looking at stats but as always there are more things to consider such as players' age and contract status as well as the type of offense that a particular teams employs. In the end though, to keep things simple I'm sticking to the stats mostly but since age is such a huge part of the NFL, I'll have to bring that up.

First let me explain the criteria that I considered. I only looked at wide receivers, meaning I didn't include tight ends as one of the top receiving options. I know that might not be fair to some teams where the tight end is a huge part of the passing offense (CLE, DAL, SD, KC), but life isn't fair, plus we're talking wide receivers here. Second, the duos had to total over 2,000 yards combined and each receiver had to have at least 70 receptions (I did make an exception for Marvin Harrison since he was hurt nearly all of 2007, I used his 2006 stats). So with the rules laid out here is the 'cream of the wide receiver crop,' with four duos in the running:

Arizona's Anquan Boldin & Larry Fitzgerald: 171 receptions, 2,262 yds,19 TDs

Indys' Reggie Wayne & Marvin Harrison: 199 receptions, 2,876 yds, 22 TDs

Cincy's Chad Johnson & TJ Houshmanzadeh: 205 receptions, 2,583 yds, 20 TDs

New England's Randy Moss & Wes Welker: 210 receptions, 2,668 yds, 31 TDs

Ok, so at first glance New England's combo seems like a run away winner, but after taking a second look at the numbers I noticed that Arizona's duo was the only one that didn't play all 32 games. In total they missed 5 games (roughly 15%) and if we projected those numbers out over 32 games (16 for each receiver) their numbers would rival any group. Their combined stats would be somewhere in the range of 203, 2,681 and 22 which would be third in receptions, second in yards and tied for second in touchdowns.

So the obvious next question would be is, which of these duos projects the best in the future? Well looking at each group, the Colts seem like the group closest to the downside of their careers. Their average age is 32 (Harrison, 35 & Wayne, 29) and Harrison suffered a significant injury in 2007 and Wayne could see increased defensive attention as Harrison slows down.The Bengals wide outs are both 30 years old and both posted career highs in receiving yards in 2007. The constant turmoil in Cincy though could keep these guys from maintaining such a high level of production. New Englands duo is carried by Randy Moss who just turned 31 but his advancing age did stop him from posting a career year in 2007. It will be interesting how far into his 30's he can continue that kind of production. Welker could also see increased attention this season after his breakout year in '07. The Cardinal's duo is the youngest of the four with an average age of 25.5 and has the worst QB situation of the group. If they can progress in the next couple of seasons and get consistent quarterback play, this could be the best group of wide receivers in the NFL. Thoughts? Am I being too much of a homer or could they legitimately be the best duo over the next couple of seasons?

Groups worth mentioning but just outside the cut:

Cleveland's Braylon Edwards & Joe Jurevicius: 130 receptions, 1,903 yds, 19 TDs

Denver's Brandon Stokley & Brandon Marshall: 142 receptions, 1,960 yds, 12 TDs

Green Bay's Donald Driver & Greg Jennings: 135 receptions, 1,968 yds, 14 TDs

New Orleans' Marques Colston & David Patten: 152 receptions, 1,994 yds, 14 TDs

Seattle's Nate Burleson & Bobby Engram: 144 receptions, 1,841 yds, 15 TDs