The NFL's annual Top 100 Players list seems to spark controversy every offseason. This year was no different as the the latest list revealed who THE PLAYERS think are the best 100 players going into the 2024-2025 season. The list concluded with the players voting Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill as the best player in the league, sparking outrage from NFL fans.
Tyreek Hill had an incredible season in Miami last year. The game's most dangerous skill player tied a career high in catches with 119, gained a career-best 1,799 yards and had 13 receiving touchdowns. Hill's numbers do not even do him justice because while they were incredible, he did miss one game. Given that Hill's season-high in receiving yards this season was 215, it is very possible that he could have produced a 2,000-yard season, something that has never been done by a wide receiver in league history.
It is also clear that Hill is by far the scariest skill position player in the league. Hill can run every route, has incredible hands and is nearly impossible to bring to the ground due to his shiftiness. When he entered the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs as a rookie in 2017, he was mainly a "return specialist", in the words of his now teammate and former Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Fast forward to 2024, Hill is the best wide receiver in the NFL and on track to be a first ballot Hall of Famer if he continues to produce big numbers consistently throughout his prime.
Hill has had an incredible career, but despite his greatness, he cannot be the best player in the NFL when his success is predicated on his quarterback to getting him the football. Hill could do everything right during a play including get in position, get a good release off the line of scrimmage, use his hands properly to create separation and run the perfect route to get open. However, if his quarterback cannot get him the football in a timely and accurate manner, all the work he does before that would be for nothing.
The player that should have been ranked as the best player in the league did not even crack the top three. Hill's former teammate and already all-time great quarterback for the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the NFL and it is not close. Mahomes, who was ranked No. 4 on the list, had a "down" year for his Hall of Fame standards with 4,183 passing yards and a career-low 27 touchdown passes. Still, Mahomes found a way to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory and has shown that no matter who he has at wide receiver, he can get the job done. It will always be one of the biggest "What If's" when it comes to thinking about how different Hill's resume could look if Mahomes was still throwing him the football. The players believe the league's best player is Tyreek Hill, let's see if this holds true as Miami looks to finally break through and make a deep playoff run in the AFC.
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