A.J. Green and Andrew Whitworth make PFF top 101 NFL players

Pro Football Focus is continuing its countdown of the NFL's 101 best players from the 2015 season.

Earlier in the week, we learned that Tyler Eifert and Adam Jones made the list, ranked between the 76th and 101st best players. Now, the two latest Bengals to make the list are wide receiver A.J. Green and offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth, both of whom made the top 41. The top 25 players will be announced tomorrow.

You would think defensive tackle Geno Atkins, defensive end Carlos Dunlap, safety Reggie Nelson and quarterback Andy Dalton are in contention to make the list too given they were among the best at their respective positions in 2015 as well.

Here's what PFF wrote on Green and Whitworth:

34. A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals (92)

A.J. Green managed 86 receptions for 1,297 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, and while those numbers look merely average in the NFL landscape of 2015, that shouldn’t undermine the impressive season he produced to generate them. Green had the fourth-highest PFF grade for receivers behind only Antonio Brown, Julio jones, and Alshon Jeffery, and trumps the latter because he didn’t miss significant time over the season. Green is one of the league’s most consistently productive receivers, and had another excellent season in 2015.

Best performance: Week 3 at Baltimore: +3.3

Key stat: When Green was targeted, he had the second-highest WR rating in the league (121.9).

41. Andrew Whitworth, LT, Cincinnati Bengals (16)

There are few more consistent players than Bengals LT Andrew Whitworth, who posted the ninth-consecutive positively-graded season of his career, representing every season PFF has been grading, with a retrospective 2006 in the works to complete his career. Whitworth allowed 23 total pressures over 1,124 snaps (including the playoffs) in 2015, and again graded positively as both a run-blocker and pass-protector—as he has every season of his career. The Bengal may be getting up there in years, but there remains few more consistently-excellent tackles than Whitworth.

Best Performance: Week 9 versus Cleveland: +4.6

Key stat: Whitworth allowed 20 total pressures over the season.

This a well-deserved honor for both Green and Whitworth, who easily were among the best at their respective positions in 2015. Green is carving his name into the Bengals' record books and should finish his career as the leader in every franchise receiving category.

He currently ranks No. 6 in catches (415), No. 5 in yards (6,171) and is No. 4 in touchdowns with 45. Every other Cincinnati receiver ahead of him on the list spent at least eight seasons with the team, and we should expect Green to have most, if not all of those records broken by his eighth season.

This past season, Green caught 86 passes for 1,297 yards (15.1 yards per catch) and 10 touchdowns, marking the fifth straight season in which Green topped the 1,000-yard mark. Only one other wideout in NFL history previously accomplished five straight 1,000 yard seasons in the first five years of his career, Randy Moss.

As for Whitworth, who is now entering his 11th NFL season, he started every game last season at left tackle and has been a major contributor to Cincinnati ranking seventh in the NFL in scoring (26.2 points per game). Whitworth also leads the Cincinnati roster in career games played as a Bengal (157) and starts (153).

Whit has been one of the NFL's best blindside protectors for much of his career, and this is a well-deserved honor.