[PokerFink]

1. Quarterback
2. RB, WR, CB, K
3. LT, C, DE
4. DT, G, RT, MLB, TE
5. OLB, FS, SS, FB, P

The QB is by far the most important, and if you don't think that's true, you're crazy. He is involved in more plays than anyone else, he has the ball more than anyone else, and his mistakes kill the team more than anyone else's.

Other skill positions are very important. You can't have an offense without skill players, and you can't have a defense if you can't defend the pass. For all the BS about running the football, the truth is that the majority of NFL plays are pass plays and the majority of yards come from passing. You need WRs and CBs.

Along the lines, the most important postions are left tackle, center and defensive end. The left tackle protects the QB's blindside, and generally goes against the other team's best DE. When you think about the league's best pass rushers, most play LDE. Strahan is an exception. The center is very undervalued by the public, but extremely important, because it's the center's job to call blocking assignments at the line. If your center can't read the defense, your QB gets killed. Center is also important for the obvious reason that he has to snap the football. Defensive ends are your primary pass rushers, and a good pass rush is the most lethal thing a defense can have.

From there it gets pretty hazy. Lineman in general are undervalued by the public, and linebackers are generally overvalued. Linebackers make more tackles than defensive tackles do, but that doesn't make them more important. Running plays are generally decided by who wins at the point of attack; if a linebacker runs down the RB seven yards down the field on a run off-tackle, the LB made a good play but the offensive still won the play, and it's probably because the OT, TE and/or FB won at the point of attack. Of the linebackers, MLB are the most important, so I put them in the 4th category.

Safety is a goofy position. A good safety can have a tremendous effect on a defense; look how much Brian Dawkins has done for the Eagles over the years, or what Roy Williams did tonight. Safeties also cover the TE in many defensive sets. However, you can get by with passable, average safeties. Ditto for outside linebackers. Fullbacks just aren't very important any more, and for the most part aren't used much. There are very few stud fullbacks left in the league such as Lorenzo Neal (Chargers). But next time you watch the Chargers play, don't watch LT, just watch Neal lead block for him. A lot of LT's success comes from Neal.

The hardest position to quantify is TE, because TE is such a hybrid position. A good reciving TE can be considered an extra WR, and is just as important when he is running routes. On the flip side, TEs are not as good as actual lineman when it comes to blocking. A guy like Gates could be considered a WR and put in category two.

Kickers are massively important, not just for FG but for kickoffs and field position.

Punters are less important. A good punter can help a lot, but the skill variance for punters in the NFL is pretty low. With the exception of a couple guys, they're mostly the same, and it's hard to quantify because there aren't really any good statistics for punters besides touchbacks vs. inside 20 ratio.