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David Richard/Associated Press

Editor's note: This is the second installment in Bleacher Report's NFL 1000 for the 2013 season. This signature series runs through April 24, with NFL Draft Lead Writer Matt Miller ranking the best players at every position. You can read more about the series in this introductory article. See the NFL 1000 page for more rankings.

The NFL is a passing league these days, which means the quarterback must be protected. So who is the best at keeping him upright? We take a look at the top left tackles in the league, not based on their total career, but based on 2013.

Throw away the past, the potential and the future. Look at just this year. Who was the best? Who was the worst? That’s what the NFL 1,000 aims to identify. Throw out the narratives and the fantasy football stats and dig into the film. Then we’ll see who comes out on top.

The B/R 1,000 metric is based heavily on scouting each player and grading the key criteria for each position. The criteria are weighted according to importance for a possible best score of 100.

Potential is not taken into consideration. Nor are career accomplishments.

Offensive linemen are judged on pass blocking (50 points), run blocking (50) and all the technique, athletic ability and football intelligence needed to do both.

In the case of ties, our team asked, "Which player would I rather have on my team?" and set the rankings accordingly.

Subjective? Yes. But ties are no fun.

Each player was scouted by myself and a team of experienced evaluators with these key criteria in mind. The following scouting reports and grades are the work of months of film study from our team.

All statistics from Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Players' heights, weights and seasons from NFL.com.