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After 17 weeks of grading, noting injury replacements and position switches, and arguing among ourselves as to which particular attributes are most important at every position, the NFL1000 team has come to the end of its first regular season in this particular iteration.

It's been an amazing journey—the ability to assemble a team of 17 scouts to analyze and grade every player in every game has given us (and hopefully you, dear reader) unique insight into how football is played, coached and schemed.

Throughout the year, we've done comprehensive write-ups every week with our player grades and explanations of those grades. But for the regular-season finale, and in the work-up to the postseason (because we're not nearly done yet), it's time to hand out the awards for the best players overall. We have come up with cumulative grades, and you can now see which players we deemed to be the best at their positions and the best overall.

Our top two overall players show the extreme value of quarterback protection. Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams was graded as the best overall player, though he missed four games with a league-mandated suspension. There is no blocker in the NFL with Williams' combination of strength, agility and meanness.

The Dallas Cowboys offensive line is the centerpiece of its current success, and left tackle Tyron Smith graded second overall league-wide. No surprise there—Smith has been dominant for the last few years, as pass-rushers can rarely get around him.

Two Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen ranked in the top six—left tackle Jason Peters and right tackle Lane Johnson, the latter of whom's absence demonstrated his importance. Johnson missed 10 games after being suspended for a performance-enhancing-drug violation, but he was so dominant when he played that it's fair to wonder whether the Eagles would have made the playoffs had he been active all season. Philly's backups never measured up.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers ranks third overall—again, no surprise there. While he may lose the NFL Most Valuable Player award to the Atlanta Falcons signal-caller Matt Ryan, and he did have bouts of inconsistency in 2016, Rodgers was on fire during the second half of the season, showing his rare combination of accuracy, mobility and arm talent. When he's on, he's the best quarterback in the league (and one of the best ever). His grades reflected that throughout the season.

We had specific criteria for entry into the year-end NFL1000 lists: Players had to play at least five games. There are instances in which players switched positions throughout the year (Green Bay receiver/running back Ty Montgomery is a prime example), and for the most part, we graded those players at all of the positions they played and kept them there for the review. We saw scheme changes with the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets defense over the season and switched them from their original 3-4/4-3 designations, so you'll see examples of Jets and Raiders players in our grades for both kinds of ends and linebackers.

As it has been through the season, there is no predetermined narrative with these grades. No mysterious "clutch factor." No tweaked-out quarterback ratings that defy explanation. Our grades are based on pure scouting, and lots of it. We grade the key criteria for each position based on a series of attributes and add in a score for positional importance.

In the case of a tie, our scouts ask, "Which player would I want on my team?" and adjust accordingly.

Is it a subjective process? Of course—that's what scouting is, and as we like to say, ties are no fun.

Each player is evaluated and graded by our crack team of scouts, who possess more than 100 combined years of experience in playing, front-office work, coaching and media. Cian Fahey, John Middlekauff, Marcus Mosher, Mark Schofield, Duke Manyweather, Ethan Young, Joe Goodberry, Justis Mosqueda, Charles McDonald, Zach Kruse, Derrik Klassen, Jerod Brown, Ian Wharton, Kyle Posey, Mark Bullock, Chuck Zodda and Doug Farrar have watched tape for months to bring you these grades.

Here are the final NFL1000 player grades for the 2016 NFL regular season.

All advanced stats are courtesy of Pro Football Focus.