we’ve reach the part of the offseason where ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler is working with NFL execs to rank the top 10 players at each position. On Monday they ranked running backs and Jahmyr Gibbs found himself at the number nine spot there. A pretty big deal that NFL execs already consider him to be a top 10 running back.
On Tuesday they ranked defensive tackles and one would think that Alim McNeill might find himself on that list. After all, McNeill had one of the better seasons of any defensive lineman in the league last year. He was Pro Football Focus’s eighth highest graded interior defensive lineman. He was in the top five until he suffered an injury in Week 12.
Still, he was not included in the top 10. Ok, that’s understandable. It really is. McNeill is still a very young player and he has a chance to make it in that top 10 spot in 2024. Surely he’s included in the honorable mention section right? No he’s not there either even though he had a better year than guys like Cameron Hayward and Daron Payne.
Ok, one last hope. Maybe he’s in the “other receiving votes” section? No, he’s not there either. They named 22 players in this article and McNeill isn’t one of them. It’s hard to believe that league execs think there are 22 defensive tackles better than McNeill. It seems a little disrespectful that he would be so forgotten after such a good season.
Could it be the injury? McNeill was on fire for 11 weeks and then suffered an injury that held him out for four games. Most of the guys ahead of him managed to play out the year and stay healthy or missed less games. Perhaps that’s what held him back. McNeill should have, at the very least, got a mention from the league in this one. Maybe he gets more than that next year.