NFL Pyramid Rankings: AFC Edition

This time of year brings me a ton of football stuff that I have been waiting for since the Super Bowl: training camp, all the articles and discussions on teams and players, and even that ubiquitous Madden game that I'm itching to get. 

One of the big things in that game that I can't wait to see every year is the player rankings. They inevitably rank young stars a little high (Amobi Okoye is a 92?) but it is still endlessly fascinating to look through the players and see how they're rated.

Pete Prisco at CBS-Sportsline also came out with his top 50 players and last year Peter King came out with an extensive list of his best 500 players. I absolutely love looking at these lists, and this year I thought I would come up with my own. 

When I decided I wanted to make a list, I wanted it to be unique to it's "competitors". After careful deliberation and nights and nights of thinking different formats and styles (ok, one night) I decided I would do a pyramid style list, not a countdown, or countup, if you will (you probably won't, I understand).

I am going to present my rankings in two installments: the AFC in this article and the NFC in the last article. As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts and hope this list is a fun read and a conversation starter, if nothing else. Well here goes.

At the top tier are the players who are absolute Hall of Famers. If these guys retired right now, they would go to the Hall, no question about it. 

Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Marvin Harrison, Champ Bailey, Tony Gonzalez, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jonathan Ogden

The next tier are the rest of the elite who are just below HOF level or have some milestones to hit. These guys are extremely good players and most are the best player on their team, or at least in the discussion. The younger players in this tier seem to be destined for greatness.

Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins, Jason Peters, Ed Reed, Chad Johnson, Carson Palmer, Braylon Edwards, Joe Thomas, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger, Andre Johnson, Mario Williams, Dwight Freeney, Reggie Wayne, Bob Sanders, Keith Bulluck, Albert Haynesworth, Larry Johnson, Antonio Gates, Shawne Merriman

Here's where we start getting tons of players. The third tier are players who are starters for their team and would start for nearly every other team, and are at least one of the five best on their team and around the top ten at their position, but not at the top of their position.

Vince Wilfork, Wes Welker, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Adalius Thomas , Marshawn Lynch, Aaron Schobel, Laveranues Coles, Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold, Kerry Rhodes, Todd Heap, Chris McAlister, Willis McGahee, Bart Scott, Terrell Suggs, Willie Anderson, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Lee Evans, Derek Anderson, Sean Jones, Shaun Rogers, Eric Steinbach, Kamerion Wimbley, Kellen Winslow, Willie Parker, Hines Ward, DeMeco Ryans, Joseph Addai, Antoine Bethea, Dallas Clark, Ryan Diem, Tony Ugoh, Robert Mathis, Jeff Saturday, David Garrard, John Henderson, Maurice Jones- Drew, Rashean Mathis, Fred Taylor, Chris Hope, Kevin Mawai, Dre' Bly, Jay Cutler, Elvis Dumervil, John Lynch, Brandon Marshall, D.J. Williams, Derrick Johnson, Brian Waters, Nnamdi Asomugha, DeAngelo Hall, Derrick Burgess, Kirk Morrison, Javon Walker, Luis Castillo, Antonio Cromartie, Quentin Jammer, Nick Hardwick, Marcus NcNeill, Philip Rivers, Shaun Phillips, Jamal Williams

The fourth level is the last level of our pyramid. These are the last of the starters left who are noticeable to fans. These guys usually have moderate to major flaws which are keeping them from the top level of players or are they are younger and their ceilings seem to be fairly low. Some veterans who have regressed in recent years are in this group. 

Laurence Maroney, Ben Watson, Derrick Dockery, Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown, Channing Crowder, Chad Pennington, Shaun Ellis, Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace, Damien Woody, Kelly Gregg, Dawan Landry, Derrick Mason, Jerricho Cotchery, Robert Geathers, Rudi Johnson, Levi Jones, Johnathon Joseph, Kenny Watson, D'Qwell Jackson, Jamal Lewis, Joe Jurevicius, Corey Williams, Casey Hampton, Santonio Holmes, Heath Miller, Owen Daniels, Dunta Robinson, Matt Schaub, Kelvin Hayden, Marlin Jackson, Ed Johnson, Freddy Keiaho, Gary Brackett, Ryan Lilja, Khalif Barnes, Cortland Finnegan, Nick Harper, Jake Scott, David Thornton, Kyle Vanden Bosch, LenDale White, Tony Scheffler, Tamba Hali, Patrick Surtain, Justin Fargas, Tommy Kelly, Gibril Wilson, Chris Chambers

I created two more tiers, and I want to explain my thinking on them now. The fifth tier are guys who have room to grow and include: Trent Edwards, Ted Ginn, Kellen Clemens, Brady Quinn, Vince Young, Troy Smith, Brodie Croyle, and Vincent Jackson. 

The sixth tier is guys I had no idea of how I wanted to rank them.

These are most second or third year guys who have shown a great deal of promise but I don't feel are good enough yet to put into tier three but also don't fit in tier four because that level is for established players who have shown flaws or have shown what they will be in their careers.

For example, Santonio Holmes is young, but he has shown his ceiling is as a big play threat who won't catch more than about 50-60 balls.

He seems to have peaked. The following guys haven't. They include: Donte Whitner, Darrelle Revis, Haloti Ngata, David Harris, Leon Hall, Amobi Okoye, Anthony Gonzalez, Justin Durant, Reggie Nelson, Dwayne Bowe, Bernard Pollard, Michael Huff, and JaMarcus Russell

Notes

1. I mean't for these rankings to include most starters, but I only spent about a week compiling these rankings, so if I missed someone who is a well-known established starter, feel free to send me a comment. 
2. I only included well known names and impact players/starters.
3. I did not include kickers, punters, or rookies. The first two are too volatile and seem to shift their performances too much year to year and rookies are just to raw, they would all fit into tier six for now if I had to make a decision. 
4. The last two tiers ( five and six) are not meant to be part of the actual pyramid.
5. These are my personal rankings and are subject to some bias, so I am looking forward to the comments that will ensue. 
6. My NFC rankings will hopefully come out sometime later this week or early next week.