NFL writer takes issue with Terry McLaurin’s omission from Top 100

For the 12th straight year, NFL’s player-voters constructed a highly controversial list of the league’s top 100 talents. For the third consecutive year, Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin wasn’t voted in by his peers.

The Commanders weren’t expect to have many debutants on the esteemed list, but it was pretty shocking — well, not really given how they’re treated by the national media — that Jonathan Allen was the only one who made the cut.

It was a fully deserved nod for Allen after he was one of the most prolific pass-rushers among interior defenders last season, finishing with nine sacks, 30 QB hits and 10 tackles for loss en route to making his first Pro Bowl.

But what about McLaurin?

If you don’t have him inside your top 10 receiver rankings, that’s fine. However, you simply can’t tell us there are 100 players — 49ers fullback (!) Kyle Juszczyk chief among them, second-year tight end Kyle Pitts and Bears running back David Montgomery chief among them — who are better than McLaurin.

McLaurin’s omission is nothing short of an abomination and writer Jeremy Bergman of NFL Media made sure to point that out in a recent article where he highlighted five things the voters got wrong in this year’s Top 100.

How did Commanders star receiver Terry McLaurin not make the NFL’s Top 100 Players list?

Not only did Bergman take issue with McLaurin’s omission, but he thinks voters royally botched the receiver position as a whole. Bergman mentions Bucs stud Chris Godwin as someone who should have a bone to pick with voters.

Additionally, the 2019 draft class was highly disrespected by the final ballot, as McLaurin, AJ Brown and DK Metcalf all missed the cut.

"“Speaking of Brown, Metcalf and McLaurin, should they be penalized for subpar and inconsistent quarterback play?” Bergman wrote. “Their inclusion, or at least consideration, is warranted here far more than CeeDee Lamb (No. 95), who benefited from Dak Prescott and a top-flight Cowboys offense, and Odell Beckham Jr. (No. 90), who forced his way out of Cleveland midseason and thrived last year as Matthew Stafford’s No. 2 option behind a triple-crown winner.”"

These are all great points, especially the CeeDee Lamb one. You probably won’t believe this, but McLaurin and Lamb totaled the exact same amount of receiving yards (2,037) over their first two seasons despite the latter having superior (to say the least) quarterback play, and yet McLaurin didn’t sniff the Top 100 last year.

Beckham, meanwhile, finished 2021 with less than 600 receiving yards during the regular-season. We suppose recency bias helped him squeak over the finish line after he totaled 316 yards and two touchdowns in the Ram’s playoff run.

Throw in the aforementioned Montgomery, Juszczyk and Pitts and you’re talking five players McLaurin should’ve gotten in over. And that’s just a rough estimate. Imagine we analyzed the entire list? We’d find at least 10 more players.

McLaurin should be a safe bet to make the Top 100 next year, but you can’t guarantee that given how heinous this year’s WR rankings were.