4 NY Jets who could make the NFL Top 100 this year

For those who are unaware, the NFL Top 100 is a list compiled by NFL Network where active players get to vote on who they believe are the best players in the league today. In my opinion, this honor is just as good, if not better, than any other individual award because it's voted on by the warriors who compete in the trenches each and every day.

There are plenty of people in front offices and in media who crunch numbers from the couch or spew opinions behind keyboards, but this list is the purest form of peer review that the league has today — therefore it holds added weight to the participants.

The 13th edition of this tradition starts in a mere two days, on July 24th, and will continue throughout the summer as they tend to only reveal 10 or so players at a time. As you can imagine, it's been a little bit of time since an edition of this list featured anyone wearing a Gotham Green jersey in the footage.

The last time was in 2020 when safety Jamal Adams ranked 27th, but by the time the list was voted on, he was already a member of the Seattle Seahawks. This is an important distinction to make before we get further — for this piece, we are looking at players who were on the Jets last year as opposed to this year.

So Aaron Rodgers, who almost undoubtedly will be on this list (he has been in the Top 20 of it every year), will not be a candidate here. Looking at it this way, when a player who was featured on the list played for the Jets during the season in question and remained a Jet that offseason, this has only happened once since 2016 — Jamal Adams in 2019, who was ranked 37th.

With the type of year the Jets just had, I'd imagine at least one Jet makes an appearance on this year's edition and ends the drought.

Fun fact, the most Jets to appear on any of these lists is four, which happened twice — Darelle Revis (8th), Nick Mangold (47th), Santonio Holmes (76th), and D'Brickashaw Ferguson (79th) in 2011, and then Revis (24th), Brandon Marshall (25th), Muhammad Wilkerson (39th) and Chris Ivory (78th) in 2016.

Let's see four players from last year who could be on this year's edition.

4. C.J. Mosley, LB, NY Jets

C.J. Mosley is the one and only person we're going to discuss today that has ever been on this list before. He made his debut in 2015 at the No. 94 spot before eventually getting voted back in at 98 in 2018.

He seemed to truly be ascending that year, so he made his highest appearance ever on the 2019 list (71), coming off a fourth Pro Bowl selection and fourth second-team All-Pro selection.

That is also the year that Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan made him one of the highest-paid linebackers in football. A few injuries and a COVID opt-out later, Mosley hadn't been seen in the Pro Bowl or any Top 100 list since. Until now, maybe?

Mosley made his illustrious return to the Pro Bowl this past season as the captain of one of the most stout defenses in the entire NFL. He was great at stuffing runs and had an interception while finishing ninth in the league with 158 tackles.

That means there were 158 times where someone felt Mosley's hits, and if these players are active in this year's vote, it's very possible that he could make his fourth appearance on this list in addition to his fifth Pro Bowl nod this year. What a comeback.

3. Garrett Wilson, WR, NY Jets

I know Jets fans are enamored with Garrett Wilson's dynamic rookie season and the media has acknowledged him with Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, but will his peers be as generous? There are lots of positions to cover in a Top 100 list, and while the wide receiver is a popular one, how much room do they have for receivers on this year's list?

Last year's list had 13 receivers, but the three years before that had 19, 17, and 20 receivers, respectively. Madden creators might not think Wilson is top 20, but a legitimate argument can certainly be made among rational thinkers that he is.

He finished top 20 in targets, catches, and yards and probably would've finished with more than four touchdowns if his team had a quarterback who threw for double-digit touchdowns last year.

Are the NFL players keenly aware of these numbers? Maybe they simply recall times when they tried to bring Wilson down, and he was just too elusive — that's why he gets their nod.

All in all, I think it's a numbers thing. If 20 get selected, I think Wilson can sneak in there. If it's closer to 13, he will probably miss the cut, but it's possible those AFC East cornerbacks get him into the top 13. Regardless, it's probably much safer to bet that he's a lock for this list next year.

2. Sauce Gardner, CB, NY Jets

The first of two Jets players who I would be shocked if they were omitted, Sauce Gardner also had a fantastic rookie year. He was acknowledged by the media as the Defensive Rookie of the Year, and then coaches and GMs also voted him the second-best cornerback in the entire NFL.

It's pretty much a universal truth that Gardner is an elite cornerback who statistically had one of the better rookie seasons in the history of the position, but there are two factors that make me nervous about his ranking (or his inclusion altogether).

Part of being human is human error, and we tend to show bias and cloud our judgments with certain biases when different things happen. That explains why Asante Samuel went off last week, but it could also explain why perhaps Gardner's peers may slight him on this list.

A lot of jawing with top receivers like Tyreek Hill, Ja'Marr Chase, and DK Metcalf while holding them to modest numbers may cause resentment — especially compounded with all the media coverage hailing this kid as the next big thing.

Perhaps they vote for a veteran with inferior stats all across the board like Jalen Ramsey over Sauce because 'he's already so hyped.' We hope not though, as real does truly recognize real, and Gardner isn't the first person with hype to come into the league.

It should be noted that Revis was also a shutdown corner who beefed with top receivers in the game, and he was on this list every year from 2011-2016, including two appearances in the top ten. We don't know where Sauce will land this year, but it will be a travesty if it's outside the list.

1. Quinnen Williams, defensive tackle

It's been a breakout season of epic proportions for Quinnen Williams. He led the Jets in sacks, was named to his first Pro Bowl, and received his first first-team All-Pro selection as well.

As the NFL leader in sacks from the defensive tackle position over the last three years, he signed an extension to be the NFL's second-highest-paid tackle for the next four years.

Do you think Trevor Lawrence remembers getting tossed on national television and losing the football? What about the "stiff arm heard 'round the world" on Tyreek Hill? Josh Allen surely remembers who Quinnen Williams is.

He simply has made too many big plays on too many big names to be excluded from this list. He is a true difference maker in both the passing game and in the run game that too many people in the league lose sleep about how they will avoid Quinnen Williams on gameday.

Madden has surely acknowledged this by making him the fourth-highest-rated defensive tackle in the game, and if the players agree with Madden, he's a lock to make it since there have been at least five defensive tackles selected every year. A cherry on top of an incredible breakout year.