NFL's Top 100 Players of 2015: Calvin Johnson makes top 10

By his standards, Calvin Johnson had a bit of a down year in 2014. The Detroit Lions went 11-5 and made the playoffs, but Johnson missed three games and "only" had 71 catches for 1,077 yards and eight touchdowns. Many other receivers would gladly take numbers like that, but for the man known as Megatron, it was a slight step backward.

Despite this, Johnson is still viewed as one of the top players in the NFL by his peers. I say that because he has not yet been revealed in NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2015, and the series is now down to the top 10. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, J.J. Watt, Marshawn Lynch, Antonio Brown, Andrew Luck, Rob Gronkowski and DeMarco Murray have also not appeared in the rankings at this point.

Considering that Johnson has been consistently near the top of this annual countdown in recent years, I suppose it's no surprise that he's once again back in the top 10:

2011: 27th
2012: 3rd
2013: 3rd
2014: 2nd

So far this year, four Lions players have been included in the Top 100 Players of 2015:

66. LB DeAndre Levy
82. DT Haloti Ngata
85. WR Golden Tate
88. S Glover Quin

Once the final 10 spots are revealed next Wednesday night, the Lions will have five total players in this year's rankings.