Patrick Peterson is the best player in the 2011 NFL Draft.

For the last few weeks we’ve been going through our Pewter Plank big board, highlighting the best players at every position in the 2011 NFL Draft. We’ve already gone through each positional group, starting with quarterbacks and working all the way to safety (you can check out the positional rankings here), now it’s time to rank them all independently of their spot on the field. Here are my top 100 players in the 2011 NFL Draft.

For what it’s worth, this wasn’t easy. I’ve watched more film than I care to admit along the way to putting together these rankings. I’ve consulted literally dozens of scouting reports, tried to get as many perspectives as I could and I’ve probably forgotten an entire year’s worth of high school math just to remember inane facts about players that will probably never even come close to playing for the Bucs.

My point is this was a massive undertaking, and unless I’m being paid for this like Mel Kiper or Todd McShay, I hope I never have to do it on my own again. There’s a reason teams have entire departments dedicated to this stuff.

I’ve tried to weigh the level of competition, the athletic potential, the statistics and the projections for all the top players in the 2011 draft and this is what I came out with. I do tend to favor players on winning teams, to favor bigger conferences and to value athleticism over technique. You can always be coached up, you can’t learn quickness, you can’t learn instincts. Some things you either have or you don’t, other skill-sets, fundamentals, techniques, etc… can be improved.

This is not like a lot of the other lists you will read, and that’s something I take pride in. This is my list and my opinion, and you may not agree with it but this list was not compiled by throwing darts. It was scrutinized (probably overly so) and adjusted until I felt good about it. There’s also a reason this list wasn’t done until the Combine and Pro-Days were done. With all the information available, these are my top 100 players in the 2011 Draft.

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