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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Robert Zeglinski

NFL fans were baffled that Trevor Lawrence only finished 96th on the NFL’s top-100 list

If a jury of his talented football-playing peers is concerned, Trevor Lawrence apparently has a lot more to prove as a professional quarterback.

On Monday, the NFL began unveiling its latest edition of the top-100 list: a catalog known to consistently inspire controversy and fervent debate amongst the football-loving (crazed) populace. Of course, even with active players voting on the top 100, the list is often rife with flaws, and baffling decisions abound.

It’s certainly nothing like a scientific list of the top-102 NFL players in 2023 from two brilliant football writers. We’re one episode into the league’s newest rollout, and Lawrence — fresh off a 25-touchdown, eight-interception, 4,113-yard campaign while winning a playoff game — finished at a paltry No. 96 overall.

Uh-huh. I’m sure that makes sense to someone.

I can see where the players who voted on this list are coming from because I can buy that Lawrence hasn’t arrived as a bona fide “superstar” yet.

It wasn’t until extremely late in the 2022 calendar that Lawrence and his Jacksonville Jaguars started putting “it” together. The Jaguars, due in large part to Lawrence playing like a deer-in-the-headlights pumpkin, were a first-half afterthought. Before the third-year signal caller can be a household name penciled amongst the Mahomes, Allens, and Burrows of the world, he should probably have at least one great season from wire to wire. A consensus there isn’t outlandish.

But I’ve seen enough flashes from Lawrence to understand he’s already one of the sport’s biggest difference-makers, regardless. He might not yet be “elite,” per se, but I don’t think there are 95 football players better than him. The logic doesn’t add up.

Then again, it rarely does on this list.

This was how Twitter reacted to Lawrence's No. 96 selection

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