Patrick Mahomes' ranking proves NFL's Top 100 list to a joke once again

One would think that players in the National Football League would know each other better than this.

This past week, the NFL's Top 100 Players list was released and, in case you missed it, the Kansas City Chiefs only had three players listed in the top 100. All three came in the top 10. Pretty good, right?

Based on that information, who do you think the No. 1 player in the league is based on the opinion of their peers? It's not hard. It's Patrick Mahomes.

Except it's not. Nope, Mahomes was not considered the NFL's top player. Okay, how about No. 2? Still no. Strange, but maybe a case could be made that he is the third-best player in the league. Still wrong! Mahomes was ranked as the #4 player in the NFL.

Let's just stop right there. WHAT? This seems like reasonable evidence for mass drug testing. I can understand Travis Kelce being ranked at No. 9 and Chris Jones at No. 6, respectively, but Mahomes at No. 4? Are you kidding?

What's crazy about this list though is that even if you can fathom that Mahomes is somehow the fourth best player in the NFL, it's who was ranked ahead of him that is even more astounding.

Christian McCaffrey? Lost to Mahomes in the Super Bowl, but sure I can see it. Lamar Jackson? Also lost to Mahomes in the AFC Championship game, but he's a great quarterback, too, so kind of understandable. But neither of those players was first. That honor goes to Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill—also known as former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

Now I love Hill, still have his jersey, and would love to see him retire as a Chief one day. He's also one of the greatest wide receivers of all time. But he ain't the best player in the NFL. Maybe the best wide receiver, but even that's debatable. The case could probably be made that Hill wouldn't even be Hill had it not been for those seasons with Mahomes. He might not even be in the league still without the grace of Andy Reid and company.

Now I've heard that this list was voted on back in November of last year, so the players were voting based on what they knew at the time. To be fair, things were different. Nobody really had the Chiefs winning another Super Bowl. But did they really have Tyreek as the best player?

I don't know how the NFL should fix this list going forward, but there's got to be a way. Maybe survey the players right after the season is over? Include it in team exit interviews? Stick a microphone in their faces on the parade buses? Whatever they do, it has to produce more accurate results than what we got this year.