Two Washington Redskins-adjacent players have been named to the Pro Football Focus All-Decade Top 101 players list, thanks to the accolades they’ve picked up in the NFL since 2010.
Redskins running back Adrian Peterson comes in at No. 35 on the list, and former Redskins left tackle Trent Williams slots further down the list at No. 59. Peterson, who built most of his Hall of Fame resume in Minnesota with the Vikings, is now holding it down in Washington and proving that Father Time may be willing to wait for some people. As for Williams, he saw his long-tenured relationship with the Redskins come to pass last month when the two sides finally agreed to trade him away to the San Francisco 49ers.
Though both players might have dropped off a bit from their playing peak, the nominations are well deserving. For Peterson, his time in Minnesota was spent becoming one of the best running backs to ever play in the NFL and remaining dominant despite having a non-presence in the passing game.
“Peterson’s MVP season of 2012 was the highest single-season grade we ever gave to a running back over the decade,” PFF’s Sam Monson wrote. “In over 10 years of action, he gained more than 6,000 rushing yards after contact, breaking 364 total tackles over the regular season.”
As for Williams, he made it to seven consecutive Pro Bowls with the Redskins before his relationship with the team started to fray and eventually, break.
Trent Williams took a season or so to get going in the NFL — his rookie year earned a PFF grade of just 63.4 — but once he was cooking, he quickly became one of the best linemen in the league,” Monson wrote. “Since that rookie season, he hasn’t earned a grade lower than 75.0 and was above 80.0 for six straight seasons. His 2016 season was perhaps his best, surrendering just 16 total pressures over the season. Injuries have been the only blight on his career, but his on-field play has been exceptional, grading well consistently as both a run-blocker and pass-protector over the majority of the decade.”
While the Redskins representation was thin for the 2010s, we can at least hope that the list for the 2020s will have a bit more Burgundy & Gold on it.
