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Now that free agency is inching nearer and nearer and teams have begun making moves, ranks of the top free agents are coming out around the major media outlets and sites. These provide a lot of fun discussion about different players but instead of just looking at one list I wanted to combine them to get a better picture of what the media as a whole thinks instead of just one opinion. To compile this I took 17 top 100 lists from reliable and respected media sources.
So for this table here is what I've include for each player:
- Their rank
- Name
- Position
- Their average of the compiled rankings
- The standard deviation
I've included the standard deviation for the reason of showing how consensus each players average was, the lower the standard deviation, the more people agreed while the higher it is means that player's ranks were all over the place and less consistent. Take CB Vonte Davis who could have an average rank of 14.2 and a standard deviation of 6.55. Compare that to OT Brandon Albert who could have an average rank of 14.3 but a standard deviation of 11.08, when you look at both players, while their ranks are similar, Davis was the stable selection with fewer high or low picks while Albert's rankings were more erratic depending on the source.
Any Broncos on this list will be in Bold.
Rank | Name | Position | Average | StDev |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Byrd, J | S | 4.1 | 1.57 |
2 | Johnson, M | DE | 8.6 | 4.93 |
3 | Bennett, M | DE | 8.7 | 6.95 |
4 | Monroe, E | OT | 9.1 | 4.34 |
5 | Verner, A | CB | 9.6 | 4.12 |
6 | Ward, T | S | 9.9 | 5.01 |
7 | Mack, A | C | 11.4 | 5.44 |
8 | Albert, B | OT | 13.1 | 10.59 |
9 | Talib, A | CB | 14.7 | 3.55 |
10 | Rodgers-Cromartie, D | CB | 15.1 | 7.31 |
11 | Davis, V | CB | 15.6 | 7.04 |
12 | Houston, L | DE | 16.1 | 5.67 |
13 | Veldheer, J | OT | 18.0 | 10.94 |
14 | Decker, E | WR | 19.1 | 5.67 |
15 | Hatcher, J | DT | 27.3 | 22.94 |
16 | Starks, R | DT | 29.4 | 20.88 |
17 | Moreno, K | RB | 31.1 | 13.87 |
18 | Nicks, H | WR | 32.1 | 21.75 |
19 | Whitner, D | S | 33.6 | 21.35 |
20 | Joseph, L | DT | 37.6 | 35.65 |
21 | Shields, S | CB | 38.0 | 18.75 |
22 | Melton, H | DT | 38.4 | 27.04 |
23 | Jones, A | DE | 40.1 | 24.13 |
24 | Dansby, K | LB | 42.4 | 23.68 |
25 | Thurmond, W | CB | 42.9 | 22.45 |
26 | Soliai, P | DT | 46.9 | 19.88 |
27 | Munnerlyn, C | CB | 47.7 | 19.59 |
28 | Pitta, D | TE | 51.3 | 31.58 |
29 | Vick, M | QB | 51.9 | 28.03 |
30 | Collins, A | OT | 53.0 | 22.79 |
31 | Tate, G | WR | 53.4 | 29.70 |
32 | Tate, B | RB | 53.9 | 17.52 |
33 | Spikes, B | LB | 54.9 | 21.18 |
34 | Schwartz, G | OG | 54.9 | 39.41 |
35 | Raji, B | DT | 56.0 | 25.45 |
36 | Tuck, J | DE | 56.3 | 17.75 |
37 | Wharton, T | OG | 57.3 | 22.93 |
38 | Strief, Z | OT | 57.9 | 16.48 |
39 | Jones-Drew, M | RB | 58.0 | 13.04 |
40 | Edelman, J | WR | 60.4 | 24.54 |
41 | Jones, J | WR | 60.6 | 26.73 |
42 | Tillman, C | CB | 62.4 | 26.74 |
43 | Griffin, E | DE | 63.7 | 32.50 |
44 | Smith, D | LB | 63.7 | 24.33 |
45 | Finley, J | TE | 64.4 | 23.97 |
46 | Smith, A | DT | 66.1 | 22.30 |
47 | Saffold, R | OT | 66.3 | 25.24 |
48 | Sanders, E | WR | 66.7 | 20.99 |
49 | Asamoah, J | OG | 67.7 | 21.96 |
50 | Spencer, A | DE | 67.9 | 31.77 |
51 | Clemons, C | DE | 68.6 | 36.72 |
52 | Ayers, R | DE | 69.4 | 18.40 |
53 | Allen, J | DE | 69.6 | 27.95 |
54 | McDonald, C | DT | 69.9 | 24.37 |
55 | Sims, P | DT | 70.3 | 29.60 |
56 | Jackson, T | DE | 71.0 | 33.57 |
57 | Young, W | DE | 71.1 | 20.89 |
58 | Brown, T | CB | 72.3 | 20.93 |
59 | Bethea, A | S | 74.9 | 26.70 |
60 | McCown, J | QB | 75.6 | 20.43 |
61 | Delmas, L | S | 75.6 | 14.06 |
62 | Beadles, Z | OG | 76.1 | 12.05 |
63 | Howard, A | OT | 76.4 | 17.61 |
64 | Blount, L | RB | 76.6 | 17.41 |
65 | De La Puente, B | C | 76.9 | 28.93 |
66 | Babineaux, J | DT | 77.1 | 17.56 |
67 | Dietrich-Smith, E | C | 77.4 | 26.63 |
68 | Phillips, S | DE | 78.9 | 19.93 |
69 | Jennings, R | RB | 79.3 | 16.87 |
70 | Brown, D | RB | 79.3 | 25.18 |
71 | Starks, J | RB | 80.0 | 9.92 |
72 | McDaniel, T | DT | 80.3 | 34.21 |
73 | Jenkins, M | S | 80.4 | 31.25 |
74 | Pettigrew, B | TE | 81.6 | 19.42 |
75 | Freeman, J | QB | 85.0 | 11.87 |
76 | Neal, M | DE | 86.4 | 11.57 |
77 | Rinehart, C | OG | 87.4 | 27.37 |
78 | Mitchell, M | S | 88.7 | 21.95 |
79 | Colon, W | OG | 89.0 | 19.36 |
80 | McFadden, D | RB | 89.1 | 23.06 |
81 | Benson, J | LB | 89.3 | 19.75 |
82 | Ihedigbo, J | S | 89.6 | 20.12 |
83 | Peters, C | DT | 89.9 | 26.90 |
84 | Cassel, M | QB | 90.0 | 11.14 |
85 | Chandler, S | TE | 92.4 | 25.77 |
86 | Mitchell, E | DT | 92.9 | 18.69 |
87 | Rey, V | LB | 92.9 | 27.82 |
88 | Goodwin, J | C | 93.3 | 23.92 |
89 | Williams, K | DT | 94.0 | 25.09 |
90 | Jones, J | WR | 94.6 | 24.96 |
91 | Lewis, K | S | 94.6 | 24.96 |
92 | Simpson, J | WR | 94.7 | 23.13 |
93 | Riley, P | LB | 94.7 | 24.74 |
94 | Giacomini, B | OT | 94.9 | 24.53 |
95 | Pickett, R | DT | 95.0 | 24.32 |
96 | Mitchell, M | S | 95.4 | 23.73 |
97 | Hauschka, S | K | 95.9 | 31.41 |
98 | Jennings, M | FS | 96.4 | 17.25 |
99 | Florence, D | CB | 96.7 | 22.19 |
100 | Woodyard, W | LB | 97.0 | 21.90 |
Here are where the Broncos were ranked:
- #10 Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
- #14 Eric Decker
- #17 Knowshon Moreno
- #53 Robert Ayers
- #63 Zane Beadles
- #69 Shaun Phillips
- #100 Wesley Woodyard
That's quite a list, especially since there are three Broncos in the top 20 and all six in the top 75. Decker, DRC, and Beadles are all pretty stable in their rankings with low standard deviation, while Moreno isn't too far out their either. Ayers and Phillips on the other hand were a bit all over the place. Ayers for example is ranked as high as 36 and as low as 93, so quite a variety of views, but that is what this table is meant to reconcile.
For those wondering, here are the open sources that I used for this table. I am excluding some since they are either part of a paid site (ESPN Insider, Ratings/Value in the NFL, NFL.com media's section, Football Outsiders, and Statista the five that are paid that I used). Here are the links, remember some of these were may before certain signings or may have been changed, I use screen shots of the original data as well:
- Monday Morning Quarterback
- Bloguin
- USA Today
- CBS Sports
- NFL.com
- Rotoworld
- Walter Football
- SB Nation
- NJ.com
- NFL Draft Rumors
- Pro Football Focus
- Yahoo! Sports
I've also done my best to remove players who have been re-signed recently by other teams but if you see any I missed, please let me know and I'll update the list. Thanks.