When you’re a Dallas Cowboy you innately have a large spotlight on your game. When you’re a Dallas Cowboy that’s also great at what you do you’re either a superstar or massively disrespected on a continual basis. It’s the latter that seems to be going on with Cowboys Center Travis Frederick, who was ranked #87 on the NFL Top 100.
Center @tfrederick72's debut on the #NFLTop100! pic.twitter.com/c23xFWEIlQ
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) May 2, 2017
Travis Frederick’s career is four years old – where has the time gone?! – and he has a pretty glowing resume after a Dak Prescott amount of time:
- 2014 Pro Bowler
- 2014 Second-Team All-Pro
- Led the way for 2014’s Leading Rusher DeMarco Murray (1,845 yards)
- 2015 Pro Bowler
- 2015 Second-Team All-Pro
- 2016 Pro Bowler
- 2016 First-Team All-Pro
- Led the way for 2016’s Leading Rusher Ezekiel Elliott (1,631 yards)
Look NFL I’m not one to tell you how to handle your business or anything, it’s not like your commissioner is getting relentlessly booed in public or anything, but this is flat-out idiotic.
The NFL Top 100 is kind of an experiment in “are they serious???” every year, so nobody is exactly shocked at the non-legitimacy of it; however, having a brain makes it difficult to comprehend some of the decisions that these players are supposedly making.
Ultimately what the NFL Top 100 typically comes down to is a popularity contest. The NFL hands players a blank sheet and asks them to write down names… that’s it. The polling takes place during the middle of the season – as we reported during 2016 – so players are typically in a prisoner-of-the-moment type of place.
Typically it’s only the premiere/skill positions that people think of in that moment. They’re the sexy ones. Centers aren’t exactly at the forefront of most players’ minds, Frederick is actually the only Center on this year’s list, which explains Travis’ absurd ranking.
Speaking of, let’s get back to Travis Frederick for a second. We’re talking about a player who has, in four years, experienced a variety of things:
- Tony Romo, Kyle Orton, Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel, Kellen Moore, and Dak Prescott as starting quarterbacks.
- DeMarco Murray, Joseph Randle, Darren McFadden, and Ezekiel Elliott as starting running backs.
- The addition of Zack Martin to his immediate right on the offensive line, adding to the whole unit’s effectiveness.
- The addition of La’el Collins to his immediate left on the offensive line, adding to the whole unit’s effectiveness… again.
- The changing between La’el Collins and Ronald Leary to his immediate left, never missing a beat.
There’s one word to describe Travis Frederick, and it’s a word that NFL personnel men want in their players more than anything – consistency. Travis Frederick is consistently great on and off the field, he was a Team Captain for the first time in 2016, and Cowboys Nation is way too smart to believe that he’s the 87th best player in the NFL.
Where would you rank Frederick on the Cowboys roster? Unless you’re telling me he’s our single best player, #87 really isn’t bad when you consider that there are 32 teams. Let’s say Frederick is one of the Top 3 Cowboys….
32 x 3 = 96
See what I’m getting at? Maybe we should see how many other centers and guard make the list. Could be that this is more a slight on his position over him personally, or the Cowboys.
1st team all pro. That is the 22 best players in the league (plus some special team guys) by default I think he has to be no lower than that, right?
Honestly I couldn’t care less about somebody’s subjective top 100. I don’t know where he ranks and it doesn’t matter. Its on NFL Network right now and I’m watching a recorded episode of The Voice. That’s how much I care about it.