Arizona Cardinals heavily represented in the top 400 players in the NFL

One of the greatest undertakings in any writing about any sport is rankings.

When you rank players, teams, stadiums, whatever, you open yourself up to criticism.

Whether that criticism is justified never really matters, all that matters is that your rankings are wrong, let me tell you why.

Such is the case of Monday Morning Quarterback’s Andy Benoit ranking of 400 players in the NFL,

Benoit listed the top 400 players in the NFL according to, well him. Benoit does a ton of film study and has a nice following, but his rankings are always eyebrow raising.

One of the rankings for the Arizona Cardinals was especially interesting, because that player seems to be more on the bubble than a player ranking among the best 23% of players in the NFL:

14 Patrick Peterson, CB

15 David Johnson, RB

45 Tyrann Mathieu,FS

103 Chandler Jones, 3-4 OLB

108 Larry Fitzgerald, WR

155 Carson Palmer, QB

206 Deone Bucannon, STACK LB

221 Markus Golden, 3-4 OLB

314 Mike Iupati, LG

346 Jermaine Gresham, TE

398 Andre Ellington, RB

Andre... Ellington?

The rest of the list can be debated and I can make an argument, but Andre Ellington, in the year of our Lord 2017 is one of the best 398 football players in the NFL?

Now, maybe just on game alone, I can see it, absolutely, but he is not on the field enough to warrant this, is he?

Here is what Benoit said:

RANK 398

Arizona Cardinals

Andre Ellington

RB

He was David Johnson before David Johnson in Arizona's offense, so to speak (just 30 pounds lighter). Ellington has that kind of versatility, but the Cards want to see him break more tackles.

As for the rest of the players:

Patrick Peterson is the top ranked cornerback

David Johnson is the 2nd ranked running back

Tyrann Mathieu is the 6th ranked safety

Chandler Jones is the 7th ranked 34 outside linebacker

Larry Fitzgerald is the 9th ranked wide receiver

Carson Palmer will be talked about later

Deone Bucannon is the 12th ranked “stack” linebacker

Markus Golden is the 11th ranked 34 outside linebacker

Mike Iupati is the 16th ranked guard

Jermaine Gresham is the 17th ranked tight end

What do you think?