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Tom Brady Voted No. 3 Player In NFL By Fellow Players

BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady may be the best quarterback of all-time, but he's still got some work to do if he wants to be considered the best player in the NFL.

That's at least according to the players, whose votes this year ended up ranking Brady as the No. 3 player in the NFL.

That's the same rank Brady had after the 2013 season, despite improving his completion percentage (60.5 to 64.1), touchdown total (25 to 33), interceptions (11 down to 9) and passer rating (87.3 to 97.4). Brady also, you know, went out and beat a generational defense in the Super Bowl to secure his fourth title and third Super Bowl MVP. So that was pretty good.

Nevertheless, Brady's rank remained the same, this year finishing behind Aaron Rodgers at No. 2 and J.J. Watt at No. 1. (Last year, Peyton  Manning was No. 1, and Calvin Johnson was No. 2. This year, Manning ranked fifth, and Johnson ranked sixth.)

Brady's favorite target, Rob Gronkowski, ranked 10th in this year's player vote, a massive jump from last year, when he ranked 41st.

"He tries to get the best out of you. He's trying to throw touchdowns, he's talking crap while he's doing it," Patrick Chung said of his team's quarterback. "It brings the competitiveness out of everybody."

"Tom -- he's the fiercest competitor I've ever been around," said fullback James Develin. "You can never count out the Patriots when Tom Brady's in the huddle. ... He's just got something special about him, and he makes things happen that you never thought could happen."

Other 2014 Patriots to make the list include Darrelle Revis at No. 17 and Julian Edelman at No. 91.

Of course, Brady ranking No. 3 is sure to ruffle some feathers among New England fans, because despite our great accomplishments and strides as human beings, we still somehow cannot read an ordered list that arbitrarily ranks athletes without completely losing our minds. This whole week has been littered with hot sports debate because someone decided to rank Russell Wilson as the 12th-best quarterback in the league. And now Tom Brady has to settle for the bronze in a vote among players. The horror!

So instead of freaking out, just watch the videos, people. Life is too short to get mad about rankings.

You can watch both the Brady video as well as the Gronkowski video at NFL.com.

Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.

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