For three straight years, NFL Network has produced a list of the Top 100 Players of 20xx. Many people have criticized the results, and this summary from Bill Barnwell hits on some of the main issues. But my issue isn’t with the mistakes the players may be making in the voting booth, but the mistakes made in tabulating the votes. I want to suggest to the fine folks at NFL Network an alternative method for deriving a list of the top 100 players. This method has three big advantages over the current process:

(1) It will take players only a few minutes — or as long as they like — to participate.

(2) More players will be part of the judging, since the time commitment will be lessened.

(3) The results will be more accurate.

Instead of asking players to write down a bunch of names from memory, my suggested method would involve asking them a bunch of simple and straightforward questions. Imagine a player sitting in front of a computer screen, and asked to pick an answer to each of the following:

“Who should be ranked higher: Adrian Peterson or Max Unger?” [Clicks Peterson.]
“Who should be ranked higher: Tyvon Branch or Ben Roethlisberger?” [Clicks Roethlisberger.]
“Who should be ranked higher: Reggie Bush or Andy Dalton?” [Thinks for a second… picks Bush.]
“Who should be ranked higher: Patrick Willis or Joe Flacco?” [Thinks…. picks Willis.]
“Who should be ranked higher: Jimmy Graham or Jacoby Jones?” [Clicks Graham.]

That’s a lot better than the current system, described below by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk:
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