It’s Christmas in January. Once the 2012 All-Pro teams were announced (my thoughts here), my buddies Mike Kania and Neil Paine worked through the weekend to provide us with Approximate Values for every player in the NFL this year. For the uninitiated, you can review how AV is calculated here. And if you’re so inclined, give a thanks to Neil or Mike or PFR on twitter.
Here’s a list of the top 100 players. AV is also listed for each player on each team’s roster page on PFR (for Dallas, it’s Tony Romo). You can use the PFR player finder for all sorts of AV-related fun, too. For example, you could see the player with the most AV on your favorite team (for the Jets, it’s Antonio Cromartie), or by position (among inside linebackers, it’s Patrick Willis), or by age (among those 35 or older, it’s Tom Brady, or Tony Gonzalez for non-quarterbacks), or by draft status (Wes Welker had the highest AV in 2012 among undrafted players).
Here’s a list of the top 20 players by AV.
| Rk | Player | Age | Tm | G | AV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Brady | 35 | NWE | 16 | 18 |
| 2 | Robert Griffin III | 22 | WAS | 15 | 18 |
| 3 | Adrian Peterson | 27 | MIN | 16 | 18 |
| 4 | Matt Ryan | 27 | ATL | 16 | 18 |
| 5 | Aaron Rodgers | 29 | GNB | 16 | 17 |
| 6 | Cam Newton | 23 | CAR | 16 | 16 |
| 7 | Russell Wilson | 24 | SEA | 16 | 16 |
| 8 | Drew Brees | 33 | NOR | 16 | 15 |
| 9 | Marshawn Lynch | 26 | SEA | 16 | 15 |
| 10 | Eli Manning | 31 | NYG | 16 | 15 |
| 11 | Peyton Manning | 36 | DEN | 16 | 15 |
| 12 | Alfred Morris | 24 | WAS | 16 | 15 |
| 13 | Julius Peppers | 32 | CHI | 16 | 15 |
| 14 | J.J. Watt | 23 | HOU | 16 | 15 |
| 15 | Wes Welker | 31 | NWE | 16 | 15 |
| 16 | Andre Johnson | 31 | HOU | 16 | 14 |
| 17 | Calvin Johnson | 27 | DET | 16 | 14 |
| 18 | Doug Martin | 23 | TAM | 16 | 14 |
| 19 | Tony Romo | 32 | DAL | 16 | 14 |
| 20 | Roddy White | 31 | ATL | 16 | 14 |