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Pro Football Focus has been busy counting down its top 101 players of 2014, and the Detroit Lions put five total players on the list, although only four of them are still on the team. It's important to note that PFF put this list together "based solely on 2014 play." In other words, what players did before 2014 and what they might do this year and beyond is irrelevant.
What that in mind, here are the four current Lions and the one former player who made the list:
81. S Glover Quin
77. CB Rashean Mathis
65. LB DeAndre Levy
64. WR Calvin Johnson
25. DT Ndamukong Suh
Even with his injury issues, Calvin Johnson was still ranked higher than any other current Lions player. He was also the only offensive player from Detroit on the list, which I suppose isn't a huge surprise when you consider he finished 2014 with a grade that was 9.7 points higher than the next-best players on offense (Larry Warford and Riley Reiff).
On defense, the Lions' best player last season was unsurprisingly Ndamukong Suh. Actually, he was the Lions' best player overall by a pretty wide margin based on these rankings. I thought DeAndre Levy might rank a bit closer to him considering Levy's grade was only 3.6 points behind Suh's, but clearly there was a pretty big difference in overall impact in PFF's eyes.
Suh, of course, is now a member of the Miami Dolphins, but it's good to see that the Lions still have three defensive players from the top 101 returning this year. In addition to Levy, Rashean Mathis and Glover Quin are still on the team, and these three players will be integral in keeping the defense afloat with Suh heading to South Beach.