@Zik:
Roger was never the strongest man in the world. Most likely tied for strongest man in the world with WB. Getting One Piece did not make Roger stronger than WB or the strongest, just Pirate King. I don't know where you got any of this from.
Don't know where you're getting this slap around admirals like they were nothing either. Seeing WB brush some of their attacks or Rayleigh fight with Kizaru doesn't mean Roger was slapping the admirals around 20+ years ago
We obviously don't know enough about Garp for you to say this. Assuming that the gap between VA and admiral can be applied to Garp doesn't make sense. He's most likely stronger than the rest of these VAs
@Zik:
No. It doesn't.
Maybe you don't know what slap around means. Roger wasn't doing that to admirals 20+ years ago. Wouldn't make any sense for him to be getting cornered by a vice admiral if he could slap around admirals.
Also hasn't it been revealed that in one of the data books that Sengoku fought with Roger evenly? (or is that just a bad rumor?)
Actually it doesn't.
WB is currently the strongest man in the world.
Roger, who fought numerous times with WB and wasn't ever beaten and actually beat WB to One Piece, was equal to WB.
Garp, who we know for a fact fought to the death with Roger several times and was not defeated, was equal to Roger.
Therefore Garp=WB=Roger in their prime.
Garp and WB are not equal now, probably because WB is a half-giant and ages slower or some shit like that. We also do not know if WB had the Gura Gura DF back then, although he probably did. We don't know if Garp was an admiral back then along with Sengoku, and is not one anymore for whatever reason.
What we do know is that Garp in his prime and WB now are stronger than any admiral in the present because we know that 22 years ago Garp could beat an admiral (because he was one of the 3 strongest people in the world) and one of those three in their current deteriorated state is still the strongest man in the world, meaning stronger than any one current admiral alone.
What most people assume with this latest chapter is that Sengoku's words "I won't go easy even on you" mean that his is stronger than Garp. They use the words "If I could, I would have" said by Garp to argue that he can't beat Sengoku when these words could easily mean that he can't break free from his principles of being a Marine and sacrifice his whole life's work and reputation on such a betrayal. It could mean that he wants to be selfish but he is bigger than that, and that Sengoku is equal to him or around his level, but not far above it. In fact, this is a more likely reading, considering that the three people that WB deemed worthy to mention are Sengoku, Garp and Roger.
Rank has nothing to do with it. If anything, I'd place Garp at the level of the Admirals or perhaps even at the level of Sengoku, who I believe is stronger than the Admirals. His VA status could be due to a number of things, but the truth of the matter is that his title is still "Hero of the Marines" and that is not a title to be taken lightly.
Through the little tidbits of info that we were given, the most logical order is to my belief the following:
Whitebeard (obviously)
Sengoku (mentioned by Whitebeard, was an Admiral and got promoted, is still quite young, at most in his forties as he has no graying hair or wrinkles)
Garp (was probably stronger than Sengoku once, but now has gotten too old)
Admirals (their strongest military force title is due to the destructive capabilities of their DFs, but in my opinion not representative of their strength in single combat, where they can be beaten)
Just to be extra clear, WB, Roger and Garp were clearly stronger than the current Admirals in their prime, like WB is now.