8 Players Games Pc

[Deb Cartelli]

The six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro struggled in 2023 after being ranked within the top 50 in the last two seasons. Heyward sustained a groin injury in Week 1 and struggled to find his stride after recovering from surgery and a stint on IR. His two sacks were the lowest in his career since 2012, and his 33 combined tackles were the lowest since 2016.

Known for his contributions off the field, Dawkins has emerged as a critical piece in the Bills offense. In 2023, Dawkins finished with the fourth-highest pass block win rate last season and allowed just a 6.9% pressure rate, which was the third-lowest among left tackles, per Next Gen Stats. After cementing himself as a regular starter, he earned his third consecutive Pro Bowl honor and signed a three-year contract to keep him with Bills Mafia through 2026.

Love earned his first ever Pro Bowl nod and spot in the Top 100 after a career-high four interceptions and 85 solo tackles in his first season with the Seahawks. His best performance of the season included two interceptions and eight tackles in a critical Week 15 win over a struggling Eagles team. Now with Aden Durde at the helm as Seattle's new DC, it will be interesting to see how Love continues to improve.

Smith posted 93 combined tackles and a career-best six QB hits in 2023. He also finished with three sacks, which all took place in Week 4 win over the Panthers. With six Pro Bowls and an All-Pro honor under his belt, the 35-year-old has cemented himself as one of the best safeties in the league and remains so as he enters his 13th season with the Vikings.

It's that time of year again, when NFL players cast their votes to identify the best in the league heading into the 2024 NFL season. Which players joined Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff from Nos. 50-41?

It's that time of year again, when NFL players cast their votes to identify the best in the league heading into the 2024 NFL season. Which players joined Stefon Diggs and Keenan Allen from Nos. 60-51?

It's that time of year again, when NFL players cast their votes to identify the best in the league heading into the 2024 NFL season. Which players joined Jaylen Waddle and Brandon Aiyuk from Nos. 70-61?

It's that time of year again, when NFL players cast their votes to identify the best in the league heading into the 2024 NFL season. Which players joined Justin Herbert and Minkah Fitzpatrick from Nos. 80-71?

Is Trevor Lawrence really the 14th-best QB in the NFL? Now that "The Top 100 Players of 2023" has concluded, Jeremy Bergman critiques the full list, pinpointing five things the voters got wrong this year.

It's that time of year again, when NFL players cast their votes to identify the best in the league heading into the 2023 NFL season. Which players joined Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey from Nos. 40-31?

But how high do you rank him? We're considering only accomplishments from 2000 on, and as great as Bonds was in those years, most of his career value came before 2000 (103.7 of his 162.8 WAR). The performance-enhancing-drug allegations complicate his place in history even more.

Indeed, this is an issue for others besides Bonds: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez ... legendary players, problematic legacies. And where do you rank Shohei Ohtani? He has won two MVPs as a two-way player and might win a third this season as a DH, but he's only seven seasons into his MLB career. Or Clayton Kershaw -- there's no denying his regular-season feats, but he has struggled in the postseason. Or the fabulous Ichiro Suzuki, whose impact goes beyond mere statistics. Or Derek Jeter, the ultimate winner. Or others in the middle of their careers, such as Mookie Betts and Bryce Harper.

It wasn't easy to sort through all these players. Disagree with our list, which was voted voted on by ESPN's baseball experts, if you must. In the end, however, there was a clear choice for No. 1. -- David Schoenfield

They called him The Machine. Pujols' swing was direct and to the point: power emanating from his lower half, firing through hands he used with the precision of a surgeon, his bat a weapon that placed Pujols among the game's greatest right-handed hitters ever. Rogers Hornsby, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Pujols. He belongs. A 13th-round draft pick who will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2028, Pujols' lone ding is an end-of-career fade with the Angels. In 12 seasons with the Cardinals, he was undeniable. -- Jeff Passan

Only three hitters have piled up more WAR since the century began than Trout, and all of them had more than a decade head start on him when he launched, fully-formed, into the majors at age 19, two years after going 25th in the 2009 draft. That's how quickly Trout leaped into the conversation about the game's historical elite. As perhaps the first star whose greatness was sharpened by contemporary analytics, Trout's all-around dominance was on display from the start. At 32, Trout has won three MVP awards and finished in the top five of balloting seven other times. Injuries have slowed his momentum, but if Trout can string together a few more healthy campaigns, the kid from Millville, New Jersey, could yet transcend his status as the best of his generation and challenge for the crown of best ever, period. -- Bradford Doolittle

More homers than Bonds? More WAR than Ruth? The 'what-if' legacy of Mike Trout3. Clayton KershawKey accomplishments: Three-time Cy Young winner, 2014 MVP, 10-time All-Star, five ERA titles, Triple Crown winner, Gold Glove winner, 2020 World Series champion, no-hitter in 2014.

Early in the 2016 season, then-San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner said of his great West Coast rival: "Are we watching the best ever at his best?" Maybe so. During his peak from 2011 to 2017, Kershaw went 118-41 with a 2.10 ERA. Even as he's battled injuries, he's remained effective: His career 2.48 ERA is the lowest for a starting pitcher since 1920 and his winning percentage the highest since 1900 for a pitcher with 2,000 innings. The Los Angeles Dodgers lefty was never the hardest thrower, but he was a perfectionist who once went nearly four seasons without allowing a home run on his curveball. -- David Schoenfield

Cabrera arrived in the major leagues at 20, found himself batting cleanup in the World Series, whacked an opposite-field home run off Roger Clemens and charted a course that would end two decades later with 3,174 hits. Cabrera's spray chart was a thing of beauty, with dots connoting his hits in all corners of the stadium -- and 511 over the fence. He managed to hit for power without sacrificing his innate bat-to-ball skill, and he peaked in 2012, when he became the first hitter in 45 years to win batting, home run and RBI titles in the same season. -- Jeff Passan

His most famous play is his "Star Wars" throw from his rookie season. His most famous record is the 262 hits he registered in 2004. He was 27 when he went to Seattle and still finished with more than 3,000 hits -- indeed, more career hits, if you can include his Japanese totals, than Pete Rose. The iconic Ichiro's hits started with the pull of the sleeve in the batter's box, the bat held high in front of him, then outracing the ball to first base. "No single number could ever explain a human as thrilling, as unusual, and as wonderful as Ichiro," Joe Posnanski wrote. -- David Schoenfield

Bonds is the best living baseball player, and never was he better than the eight seasons he played this century. In that time, he smashed the single-season home run record, got on base at a 51.7% clip -- a figure last reached in an individual year by Ted Williams in 1957 -- and came as close as anyone to mastering the art of hitting. Bonds' steroid use has kept him out of the Hall of Fame, but those who witnessed him play know: 21st-century Bonds was the closest we've seen to Babe Ruth. -- Jeff Passan

Will Verlander be baseball's last 300-game winner? He'll have to coax 40 more wins out of his Hall of Fame-bound arm, but if it's ever going to happen again, it'll be Verlander who does it. A true throwback to the days when ace pitchers held sway in the big leagues, Verlander has combined dominance and durability in a way that harkens back to the days of Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan. With 260 wins and 3,300-plus strikeouts and more on the way, this is what Verlander always wanted. "I love being a pitcher," Verlander said in 2018 "When I first started playing baseball, I always envisioned myself as a pitcher. I idolized Nolan Ryan, that old-school grit." -- Bradford Doolittle

A-Rod helped usher in the golden era of the jumbo-sized shortstop, a position long reserved for educated fielders who couldn't hit. Rodriguez mashed, for power and average, to all fields, a gifted batsman. His abundance of talent was unassailable. He also drew the longest steroid suspension in baseball history, coloring his achievements and cooking his reputation. History will see Rodriguez as one of the most talented players ever, but as is the case with all performance-enhancing drug users, the distinction comes with an invisible asterisk. -- Jeff Passan

Big Papi will be remembered most for feasting in the biggest of moments. As the game's greatest designated hitter, Ortiz had Cooperstown numbers -- 541 career homers and a .931 OPS -- but that's only the tip of Papi's boisterous iceberg. He had 17 career playoff homers as part of three championship Boston Red Sox clubs and hit .455 over 14 World Series games. That includes 2013, when, at age 37, he went 11-for-16 with two homers and eight walks in the Fall Classic against a St. Louis Cardinals team that almost literally could not get him out. After Ortiz was elected to the Hall of Fame, longtime teammate Dustin Pedroia said of him, "From day one, in a big moment, everything was in slow motion. He found a way to come through in moments where you dream of as a kid. He did it every single time." -- Bradford Doolittle

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