If you are a regular reader in this space, then you know that I am a major enthusiast for the annual NFL Top 100 Players rankings, which comes out every summer (since 2011) and is currently in the middle of its annual two-player-per-day trickle release. This past Friday, they released players number 72 and 71 on the list. In case you’re wondering, they were Green Bay QB Jordan Love and Baltimore WR Zay Flowers, respectively.
So we have 70 more players to go on the countdown to, what I assume, will be either Myles Garrett, sack record breaker, or Matthew Stafford, reigning MVP, at number one overall. Scary enough, they are now teammates in Los Angeles after the Browns traded Garrett to the Rams several weeks ago. The countdown is on!
Thus far, 30 players into the countdown, we’ve only seen one Houston Texan named to the list, with linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair making his Top 100 debut. I had originally predicted as many as nine Texans making the list, but for me to be correct about that, the Texans would now have to have eight fo the top 70 players in the NFL, in a vote done by current players.
We know that some of last season’s stalwarts, who are already high level Top 100 alum, will make it. Derek Stingley, Danielle Hunter, Will Anderson, and Nico Collins were all in the top 46 last summer. They did nothing in 2025 to diminish their cachet around the league. They are locks. I thought there would be a good chance for Jalen Pitre, Calen Bullock, and Kamari Lassiter to make their Top 100 debuts, but with each passing reveal, I have my doubts.
This leaves the most polarizing assessment prediction, perhaps in the entire league and certainly among current Texans — quarterback C.J. Stroud. I cautiously predicted Stroud, who’s finished 20th overall and 39th overall in his two eligible seasons thus far, would make the list, but probably in the bottom third of the 100 players.
Thus far, we’ve seen the following quarterbacks come out of the shoe:
98. Bryce Young
85. Brock Purdy
77. Baker Mayfield
72. Jordan Love
When Young was revealed on the second day of the unveiling, at number 98, I immediately thought “Stroud is a lock to make the Top 100, because there is no way the players around the league see Young as a better player than Stroud.” When Purdy came in at number 85, I was still confident for Stroud, given that many around the league are still hesitant on Purdy, given his pedigree as a seventh round pick. (I’m not saying that thinking is right, I’m merely saying it exists.)
Now, we get to Mayfield at 77th and Jordan Love at 72nd. I don’t think either is a slam dunk better than Stroud. Frankly, I think a case can be made for Stroud over either one of them. However, this is kind of my point — we are now having quarterbacks revealed where there is a legitimate argument that they are better than C.J. Stroud, which begs the question — will Stroud tumble from 39th overall all the way off the list, bouncing off of 98th ranked Bryce Young as he tumbles into the non-Top 100 players abyss?
The biggest factor for Stroud’s evaluation was always going to be that loss to the Patriots in the playoffs, in which Stroud chucked four first half picks, including a game changing pick six. That performance made Stroud the biggest social media punchline in recent league history.
We are ascending to a point on the list where one extreme or another is true. If Stroud lands somewhere in the 60s or above, still in the Top 100, then his peers have essentially given him a mulligan for that performance and said “That just was NOT C.J. Stroud.” However, if he has indeed plummeted out of the Top 100 altogether, then it’s safe to say that not only did Stroud lose that game for the Texans, but he lost a lot of the respect he had accrued in his first three seasons in the league.
Indeed, in the dog days of summer, the NFL Top 100 is giving us Texan fans several storylines to sink our teeth into.
