3 NY Jets stars shockingly excluded from NFL Top 100

The final 10 players of the 2025 NFL Top 100 were unveiled on Monday night.

While we knew that no New York Jets players would be featured in that batch, it officially confirms what was long brewing: three of the New York Jets’ brightest stars were excluded from this year’s top 100 after making last year’s list.

Quinnen Williams is the Jets’ lone representative on this year’s list, checking in at No. 87, a 50-spot drop from his 2024 placement. Three of his teammates, though, fell off the list entirely.

Sauce Gardner

Gardner debuted at No. 23 on the 2023 list after a standout rookie season. He made the list again in 2024 following another first-team All-Pro season, but dropped 15 spots to No. 38.

After a down year in 2024, Gardner dropped off the list entirely. It’s a shocking exclusion for a player who has two first-team All-Pro appearances in three years. Even in his down year, Gardner was still a good starter.

While these lists are prone to recency bias, it typically doesn’t lead to top-40 players dropping off the list if they have a strong body of work to stand on.

Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey still made the list at No. 66 despite allowing a 93.5 passer rating and missing a career-high 14 tackles – four more than Gardner, whose tackling was chastised by fans and media members. Gardner also allowed a much lower passer rating (79.3).

Running back Christian McCaffrey, who has an equal number of first-team All-Pro appearances to Gardner (in five more seasons), made the list despite playing four games and scoring zero touchdowns.

It sure feels like players around the NFL have some sort of vendetta against the Jets’ confident young star. Either that, or they just aren’t very good at player evaluation. There’s a reason some of the worst hot takes in sports media come from former players.

Garrett Wilson

Wilson debuted at No. 74 after his rookie season and climbed to No. 72 after his sophomore campaign.

Despite a third consecutive 1,000-yard season, featuring career-highs in receiving yards (1,104; albeit by one yard over his previous high), touchdowns (7), and receptions (101), Wilson dropped off the list.

Perhaps it was due to the underwhelming nature of Wilson’s numbers compared to the lofty expectations entering the year. With the move from Zach Wilson to Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, many expected Wilson to compete for the league’s receiving title. He did not come close to that.

It shouldn’t take away from Wilson’s accomplishments, though. If he was already a top-75 player in back-to-back seasons, it is surprising to see that a slightly improved season resulted in him being excluded from the list.

Not to mention, Rodgers actually turned out to be a detriment to Wilson. Sure, he was no Zach Wilson, but Rodgers missed Wilson time and time again throughout the season.

Wilson is also a highlight-reel machine, which should earn him points on lists like this one that are based on popularity and reputation more than nuance. There are finer points of his game that he must hone to maximize his potential, and because of those, he probably isn’t one of the NFL’s top 100 players if we are being honest. Still, it is surprising to see him omitted after he was already a top-75 player in back-to-back years and only improved his raw box-score numbers.

Quincy Williams

After a first-team All-Pro season in 2023, Williams made his Top 100 debut all the way up at No. 32 on the 2024 edition, not far behind established superstars like Nick Bosa and Mike Evans.

Williams was not quite as dominant in 2024, experiencing declines in most categories and failing to make his second consecutive All-Pro team. However, similar to Gardner, it is not as if Williams suddenly became a bad football player.

After leading linebackers with 80 defensive stops in 2023, Williams dropped all the way down to 60 stops in 2024, but that was still third-best at the position. The two players above him, Bobby Wagner (61) and Zack Baun (69), both made the Top 100, ranking 74th and 26th, respectively.

Nobody outside of Florham Park is viewing the Jets in a positive light entering the 2025 season. That seems to be just the way they like it.

Sunday is their first chance to turn doubters into believers – including their peers around the league who overlooked them on the Top 100 ballot.