Cleveland Browns: Gary Barnidge at No. 94 on NFL’s Top 100 list
By Thomas Moore
Cleveland Browns tight end Gary Barnidge checks in at No. 94 on The NFL Network’s list of the Top 100 players from 2015.
The NFL Network began its annual listing of the league’s Top 100 players on Wednesday, and Cleveland Browns tight end Gary Barnidge checked in at No. 94.
The rankings, which will be revealed over the next 11 weeks, are based on voting by the league’s players.
Under the radar,
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) May 5, 2016
but not for long.
No. 94 on the #NFLTop100 - @Browns TE @garybarnidge pic.twitter.com/XD33yBAfqM
Barnidge had a career year in 2015, his third season in Cleveland and seventh year in the NFL. He finished with team highs in receptions (79), yards (1,043) and touchdowns (nine) after entering the season with career totals of just 44 receptions, 603 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
His receiving yards made him just the third tight end in franchise history – along with Ozzie Newsome and Kellen Winslow – and the 10th player in franchise history to have more than 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. And only three players in team history – Gary Collins, Paul Warfield and Braylon Edwards – have had more than nine receiving touchdowns in a single season.
Remember that between-the-legs @garybarnidge catch?
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) May 5, 2016
Insane. #NFLTop100 https://t.co/eHqNfPpJ33
“Maybe Gary has been a surprise because people didn’t see the value in him,” quarterback Josh McCown told Monday Morning Quarterback last fall. “Jordan Cameron and Antonio Gates—people are always looking for those guys, the flashier tight ends. You like Gary’s height and speed but say, ‘Eh, he’s probably not good at running routes.’ Thing is, he just knows how to get open. And make plays.”
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In addition to his on-field work, Barnidge was honored as the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2015 for his work organizing football camps in China, Turkey and Brazil through his charity, American Football Without Barriers. Barnidge created the charity in 2011 with two college friends – Breno Giacomini, who now plays for the Jets, and Ahmed Awadallah, who now lives in Turkey – with a goal to introduce the sport overseas.
“Basketball and baseball both recruit internationally, but in football they really don’t,” Barnidge told MMQB. “We just want to give kids an opportunity to play a sport they like.”
Barnidge is the first Browns player on this year’s Top 100 list, but he shouldn’t be the last. The Browns placed three players on the list last year in left tackle Joe Thomas, cornerback Joe Haden and safety Tashaun Gipson. While it is unlikely that Haden and Gipson will make it this year, Thomas should once again be on the list and there is the possibility that wide receiver Travis Benjamin, center Alex Mack and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who all left this off-season in free agency, could be in consideration as well.