CBS Sportsline writer Pete Prisco revealed his top 50 players in the NFL last week. Naturally I disagree with a bunch of his rankings, but there a few that are so glaringly absurd I felt I needed to call him out in my own online article. I have no problem with his top five: (in descending order) Champ Bailey, Randy Moss, LDT, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady. I personally still put Manning ahead of Brady, but I have no problem with people that put Brady number 1. The second we step outside of the top 5, however, we come across the most egregious error in rankings since Joan Osbourne’s “One of Us” (#54), was in VH1’s 100 greatest songs of the 90s along with “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (47), “Ice Ice Baby” (29), and “MMMBop” (20).

If you haven’t seen the list you could take ten guesses at who Pete claims is the sixth best player in the NFL and would likely not come up with it. If I gave you a hint and told you it was a defensive player you still could take ten guesses and probably still not name the player who Pete Prisco singles out as the second best defensive player in all the land. It’s not Shawne Merriman, he hasn’t quite been the same since being forced to end his steroid use. It’s not Patrick Willis who led the league in tackles with 174 while the next best had 141. It’s also not Ed Reed, DeMarcus Ware, Bob Sanders, Kevin Williams, Albert Haynesworth, Brian Urlacher or Jared Allen. No, according to Pete Prisco the sixth best player in the NFL is Mario Williams. Granted, Mario had a great 2007 and has so far vindicated the Texans for picking him ahead of Vince Young and Reggie Bush by so far being the best player in that draft class, but there is no way that at this moment he is the second best defensive player in the NFL. Every player I mentioned above forces the offense to change their game plan merely with their presence. I don’t think Super Mario does that quite yet. He’s close, and maybe in a year or two he becomes the sixth best player in the NFL, but right now I don’t think he’s there yet. Let’s not forget, Mario has only had one good year and I don’t think you can rate a player this high based on one good year. And if you do, a guy like Patrick Willis with 33 more tackles than the next most productive player should get the nod over a guy who’s supposedly a sack specialist but didn’t even lead the league in sacks.

Another problem I have is an omission. Antonio Cromartie, who led the league with ten interceptions last year is not even on the list. If Mario Williams gets ranked sixth because of one solid year, Cromartie has to make the list somewhere. Even without Mario so high, Cromartie’s performance in 2007, including three picks of #2 on the list Peyton Manning, should earn him a spot in the early 40s.

Other less heinous errors/omissions:
Chad Johnson #28: this may be a little controversial, but I don’t think Chad Johnson is nearly as good as many people (or he) think he is. He should not be ahead of Braylon Edwards. He should not be ahead of Larry Fitzgerald. It’s arguable that he’s even the best receiver on his own team.

Fred Taylor #49 & Larry Johnson off the list: Fred Taylor is a good running back. That’s about it – good. He’s not a top 50 player. Like Chad Johnson, he’s not even the best running back on his own team. Larry Johnson is a great running back. He has a great combination of power, speed, vision, and quick feet. If he had any kind of offensive line in front of him last year he’d have been an all pro without question. He is substantially better than Fred Taylor. I don’t think too many people will argue that point with me.

Troy Polamalu unlisted: He’s another guy who offenses have to pay close attention to when installing their game plan. He’s a game changer in the secondary against the run and against the pass. He’ll make mistakes, but he’ll make huge plays to compensate. I think he has to show up somewhere in the 40s.

Ed Reed #23: Ed Reed is easily a top 15 player. He’s in the discussion for the top defensive player in the league. The guy is great against the run and equally great against the pass. How he’s not even in the top 20 is beyond me.
Tommie Harris #36: Tommie Harris is a man-child at DT for the Bears. He’s arguably their most important player on defense (sorry Brian). He’s solid against the run and is one of the best pass rushing defensive tackles in football. He’s the total package and one of the top 3 DTs in the game. The most important player for one of the top defenses in the league (save for last season) has to be ranked in the top 25.

Patrick Willis #43: He led the league with 174 tackles – a full 33 more than the number two tackler DJ Williams, and more than anyone has had going back to 2002 (that’s as far back as I bothered looking). Like Cromartie, if Mario Williams is ranked ridiculously high because of one very good season, how is Willis left so far back after 1 great season? As I alluded to before, I like to see more than one great season before I put a guy super high, still you have to consider Willis in the high 20s along with Urlacher (who should have been a little higher) after an incredible season like his 2007.

Some might find it interesting that there is only 1 member of the World Champion New York Giants in the top 50 players in football, and ZERO in the top 40. Osi Umenyiora at 42 is the lone Giant in the top 50 which at first I was a little upset about. After all, they are the Super Bowl Champions. But upon further examination, who else on the Giants roster belongs in the top 50? You certainly can’t put Eli there. If last year’s playoffs were all we had to go on for Eli you’d have to include him in the top 50 because he was simply amazing. But every Giants fan remembers the 3 ½ previous seasons in which he was less than stellar. And those performances are enough to keep him out of the top 50. If he can continue to play like he did in the playoffs leading up to and including Super Bowl XLII there will be no keeping him off this list next year. Michael Strahan could have made an interesting argument but he’s now retired. The only player I can see a legit argument for is Plax. He is a stud receiver who is nearly uncoverable (I know it’s not a real word) when he wants to be. There can definitely be an argument made for him to make the list in place of Wes Welker or Tony Gonzalez. But if you look at the stats Plax didn’t quite stack up to those two in 2007. The fact that only 1 player from the Super Bowl champs made the top 50 (and he was way back at 42) shows how great a TEAM the Giants were last year in the ultimate team sport.

Actually, why bother? We all know what’s going to happen anyway…

“Obviously the Jets know something that, you know, the people up here don’t.”

Green with envy, it looks like Woody Johnson wants his own parade down the Canyon of Hero’s after watching the Giants celebrate their historic Super Bowl upset of the Patriots. To accomplish this objective, the Jets have spent close to 140 million dollars in the opening week of free agency to improve their roster. Instead of emulating the Giants and Patriots’ blueprint of frugally building their respective rosters, they have adopted the big-spending philosophy of the Washington Redskins and San Francisco 49ers, throwing money at free agents like they’re Eliot Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel. Mark my words— the Jets are going to regret their decision to spend big in a mediocre free agent market.

The Jets current spending spree reminds me of Gang Green’s last big free agent bonanza. Remember, Jet fans, when your favorite team imported big names such as Boomer Esiason and Pepper Johnson to bolster the roster? They suffered from an extreme case of buyer’s remorse as the Boomer Esiason-led Jets sucked ass. Apparently, they never learned their lesson.

Calvin Pace was given a 45 million dollar contract (20 million guaranteed) for one good season. Prior to last year, he was considered a first round bust. This move smacks of Jets’ resigning of Bryan Thomas. Like Pace, he was considered a disappointment until he switched to a 3-4 linebacker in Eric Magnini’s scheme. And, like Pace, he produced one good season. Thomas was rewarded with a fat contract extension and quickly reverted back to his “bust” days. That doesn’t bode well for Pace.

In addition to making Pace one of the highest paid linebacker’s in football, they made Alan Fancea the highest paid offensive lineman. Now don’t get me wrong— Fancea is (was) a great offensive lineman, but he’s now 31 and he is a guard. This signing is also curious because they could have simply resigned Pete Kendall for an extra 1 million dollars. Moreover, they gave a 35 million dollar contract Damien Woody, who was benched much of last season and only played 5 games at right tackle. Combined with the salary of D‘Brickashaw Ferguson, the Jets probably have the highest paid/underachieving offensive line in football (sound like any other big spending/small results team from NY?).

Then for good measure, they made a big trade for Kris Jenkins… and of course gave him a big contract. This is a big commitment to a player who has battled weight issues and has had some major injury problems in the past (he didn’t in the 2005 and 2006 seasons). Committing 20 million dollars to oft-injured and out of shape defensive tackle is probably the riskiest proposition the Jets made.

If history is any indicator, then the Jets are not going to make the playoffs. Jet fans need go no further than 4-hours down I-95 to see what the spend-big-and-lose-big Washington Redskins have been doing to know what lies ahead. I’m sure fans will point to the Patriots big free agent acquisitions last year as a reason for hope, but that belies the fact that the Pats had a franchise quarterback and a strong core to build upon, while he Jets lack a QB (Pennington and Clemens suck) and don’t have any core to speak of. My prediction— Woody Johnson will be looking for a new coach and GM after a 6-10 season.

Supposedly the Jets have given disgruntled LB Jonathan Vilma the right to seek a trade with any team in the NFL… except the Patriots, of course. Now what shocked me about this story wasn’t that the Jets are refusing to send Vilma to the Pats; all the bad blood spilled over Spygate explains that all away. And Vilma asking for a change of scenery didn’t surprise me either considering Eric Mangini delayed Vilma’s season-ending knee surgery so he could play a game of charades with Vilma’s name on the injury report for two weeks. No, what got me was the fact that there’s another football team in New York not named the Giants. Who knew?