Profiling their Top 100 players in the NFL list, NFL Network caught up with Aqib Talib to discuss his placement at 79th on that list. When asked straight out about his ranking, Talib said, "When it comes to the cornerbacks, man, it should only be about four cornerbacks who you should consider to be in front of me."
In case you were wondering, those four other cornerbacks happen to be: Richard Sherman, Patrick Paterson, Darrelle Revis and Joe Haden. Here's to hoping his confidence is well placed!
From there, they started talking New England Patriots. Naturally, they asked about the Wes Welker hit that ended his season in last year's AFC Championship game. Talib noted he watched that play 100 times and insisted it wasn't an intentional hit saying, "Me and Wes, we good. It's football, man. I'm 100% sure Wes didn't do it on purpose."
You could tell the big contract that Bill Belichek shoved Darrelle Revis' way irks Talib a little, but he brushed off the question with class. "Bill sure didn't want to give me that money, so hey, man, he gave it to Revis. It is what it is (laughter)." Out of the entire interview, that may have been the best line.
With Peyton Manning and Tom Brady being the rivals they are on the field, Talib was pigeonholed into giving his opinion on which was the better quarterback.
"You've got to go with Peyton Manning," Talib said. "I mean, Tom is my good friend of mine, but Peyton had an awesome year. He tore it up! He like set the record for touchdowns and beat Tom in the AFC Championship. You got to give it to Peyton."
Not to be left off the list, Von Miller also came in a few spots ahead of Talib, but 67 spots lower than his ranking in the previous year. It's remarkable Miller even made list having only played in just 9 games for the Denver Broncos in 2013, which Talib touched on in his response: "Ah no, definitely not. Von is definitely one of the top pass rushers in the game. If he would have been on the field, he would have been Top 10 for sure."