Jeffrey Simmons’ ranking 83rd on NFL Top 100 proves the list should not exist
The NFL is in the middle of releasing it’s annual Top-100 list and Jeffery Simmons’ placement is simply inexcusable.
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons landed at No. 83 on the NFL Top 100 list this year. The ranking is an embarrassment.
Simmons, the best interior defensive lineman in football last season by nearly every statistical measure, could not crack the top 80 on a list voted on exclusively by NFL players.
The Titans have dealt with their share of disrespect over the years, but this one cuts deeper than most. The NFL Top 100 is supposed to carry weight because it comes from the players themselves. It is not a media exercise. It is not a fan poll.
It is peer-to-peer evaluation, the kind of recognition that should mean something precisely because the voters line up across from these guys every Sunday.
So, do NFL players not know ball?
Simmons’ 2025 season left no room for debate
Last year was a career high for Jeffery Simmons, individually.
Double-digit sacks. Tops among interior defensive linemen in pressures. Near the top in tackles for loss. He was everywhere, all at once, because he had to be.
Tennessee offered him no help.
The Titans went through back-to-back 3-14 seasons, and Simmons was the lone bright spot on a roster devoid of difference-makers. He showed up to the 2025 season with a physically transformed body, playing closer to 295 pounds while maintaining what ESPN NFL analyst Greg Cosell has described as that “country strength” Simmons carries regardless of his listed weight. The result was a player who terrorized offensive lines with the kind of burst and violence that belongs in the conversation with the sport’s elite pass rushers.
Think about the sack Simmons had on the road this year against the Houston Texans.
Simmons timed the snap so perfectly that he was across the line of scrimmage and in Texans quarterback CJ Stroud’s lap before Stroud could process what happened. That is the kind of play you associate with Aaron Donald, Myles Garrett, and TJ Watt. Those are the names Simmons belongs alongside.
Any ranking that suggests 82 players in football were better than him is invalid.