Our long national nightmare has come to an end. The NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2012 countdown concluded on Wednesday, with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers voted the game's best by his peers.
Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware was named the league's second-best defensive player behind only Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, and was listed as the sixth-best player overall.
Ware had 19.5 sacks last year, plus six tackles for loss, 40 quarterback pressures and two forced fumbles.
On the show, he was presented by Von Miller, Nick Barnett, Todd Herremans, Robert Mathis, Adam Carriker, Ryan Kerrigan and Fred Jackson.
"If you're talking outside linebackers, the buck stops with DeMarcus Ware," Mathis said. "The man puts up numbers and he gets to the quarterback. Anybody you put in front of him one-on-one, he beats them."
In the 2011 list, Ware was No. 12.
He was voted the top Cowboys player for the second year in a row, and was joined in the Top 100 by Jason Witten (No. 75) and Tony Romo (No. 91). Six Cowboys made the list last year, including nose tackle Jay Ratliff, wide receiver Miles Austin and center Andre Gurode, who was released by the team in the preseason.
The league's top 10 were unveiled on Wednesday night:
- QB Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay
- QB Drew Brees, New Orleans
- WR Calvin Johnson, Detroit
- QB Tom Brady, New England
- CB Darrelle Revis, New York Jets
6. LB DeMarcus Ware, Dallas - WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona
- RB Adrian Peterson, Minnesota
- DE Haloti Ngata, Baltimore
- LB Patrick Willis, San Francisco
