Stephen A. Smith ranks his top five NFL players
The NFL season grows closer by the minute and kick-off is now less than two weeks out. Before the year does commence, First Take host Stephen A. Smith decided to reevaluate his list of the top five players in the NFL.
Monday morning, Smith shared his updated top-five ranking on ESPN, leading the way with a fairly obvious selection. Meanwhile, there are some selections a little bit further down the list that might raise an eyebrow or two.
You can view his top-five in the graphic below or read about his picks a little bit lower down:
1. Patrick Mahomes
After winning his second Super Bowl at age 27, the Chiefs QB1 is chilling on the summit of the mountain, looking back at basically a five-year career that includes more accolades than 90% of the players in the Hall of Fame.
There is no hot take here. Even Stephen A. Smith, king of the outlandish sports opinion, understands that a multi-time MVP winner and multi-time Super Bowl MVP, by age 27, has to wear the crown.
2. Joe Burrow
With the flawless 2019 season at Alabama and the deep playoff runs in ’21 and ’22, Joe Burrow feels like a fixture of January football. Yet, the Cincy star hasn’t even played 50 career games as a pro.
In just 2.5 full seasons of play and 43 total games, Burrow made the Super Bowl, made two AFC titles, won the AFC North back-to-back seasons and is now the second-best player in the NFL behind the impenetrable Mahomes, per Stephen A. Smith. Plus, Joey B is also the only active QB to defeat Mahomes in the playoffs — and he’s 3-1 against the guy so far.
3. Nick Bosa
The top defensive player in the NFL, according to Stephen A.? It’s the Associated Press’ Defensive Player of the Year from 2022 in Joey Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers.
Once again, he anchored an elite 49ers defense with a career-high 18.5 sacks to go along with 51 total tackles, 19 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. Bosa also finished sixth overall in the AP’s MVP voting for 2022.
4. Josh Allen
At fourth place is the third AFC quarterback on the list with Buffalo’s Josh Allen. Yep, it’s a brutal world if you’re a team in that conference who doesn’t have a player on this list.
Year No. 5 was pretty good to Allen as he surpassed 4,000 passing yards for the third straight season and totaled 42 touchdowns throughout the regular season. The playoff exit is hard to swallow but there’s no question Allen is a top QB entering the 2023 season.
5. Justin Jefferson
The first receiver on this list and second superstar off that electric 2019 LSU team is most folks’ No. 1 fantasy football options in Justin Jefferson.
Statistically speaking, JJ is the obvious pick as the best receiver in the NFL coming off last season. He led the NFL in receptions (128), yards (1,809) and yards per game (106.4).