Josh Norman's top-five wide receiver list is missing a very obvious name
Somehow Odell Beckham Jr. isn't included on Josh Norman's list of top-five wide receivers.
By
Will Brinson
•
2 min read
No matter who you are, if you're putting together a list of the top-five wideouts in the NFL today, the list should include Odell Beckham, Jr. The Giants wide receiver established himself over the past two seasons as one of the most dominant forces in the passing game.
Unless you're Josh Norman. The Panthers cornerback and Beckham are still feuding this offseason, months after things got weird and aggressive on the field. (It even inspired a new NFL ejection rule, although somehow Beckham wouldn't have been booted from the game.)
Norman's not helping matters by creating a top-five list of wide receivers on NFL Network and not including OBJ.
On the list are two obvious names: Julio Jones of the Falcons and Antonio Brown of the Steelers. Also included are worthy candidates Dez Bryant of the Cowboys and A.J. Green of the Bengals.
But the fifth guy is Panthers teammate Kelvin Benjamin, who just missed the entire season with a torn ACL.
So where is Beckham?
"This is my top five, alright? I don't know if he would put me on his -- I really don't care -- but this is my top five," Norman said. "So this is what I see. If he wants to get up there, do something to show me. Shoot, man, I played it, I saw it. I don't know, I just didn't think that. But he's working there.
"I think he's definitely a top 10. He's working in the top-five bracket. Maybe if I play him again, he'll show me different."
This is strong work from Norman, calling Beckham "definitely a top-10" wide receiver. What a delightful back-handed compliment. Norman's group also included a pretty solid bail-out option, with Benjamin getting the "he's my teammate so I've got to give him love" nod.
Beckham is a top-five receiver by most any standard. He finished 10th in receiving yards in a shortened rookie season and fifth in receiving yards in 2015.
Brown, Julio and DeAndre Hopkins of the Texans (conspicuously absent from this entire discussion!) are the only three guys who absolutely qualify as worthy of inclusion over Beckham.
Green, Bryant, Allen Robinson of the Jaguars, Demaryius Thomas of the Broncos, Brandon Marshall of the Jets and Larry Fitzgerald of the Cardinals all round out the top 10 in receiving yards, not counting newly retired Calvin Johnson.
You can make a compelling case for many of those guys as top-five wideouts. But it's pretty difficult to not include Beckham.
