NFL 'Jenga pieces' who are vital to their teams' success in 2025

16/07/2025 14:00

Who do you think are the most essential Jenga pieces across the entire NFL?

You are likely familiar with the popular board game, assuming it qualifies as one, Jenga. The point of this game is to stack blocks in a tower and when you run out to pull them from within the tower and continue upward. The strategy involved is that you have to ensure you remove the right pieces so that the whole structure remains its integrity and doesn't come tumbling down.

The great Dave Dameshek used this game once upon a time in talking about NFL rosters. He posed the question as to which players were the ultimate Jenga pieces on their teams, the ones who, without them, the rest of the roster would implode and crumble like the proverbial Jenga towers when you play the game.

It is important to note that we all understand quarterbacks play a larger role on their teams than anyone else. Professional football is structured so that the quarterback is the most critical to success as they are the most involved. For our conversation today we will be talking almost exclusively about non-quarterbacks.

The conversation here at The Skinny Post between us, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, is simple: Who are the most pivotal Jenga pieces across the entire NFL?

Justin Jefferson might be No. 1 overall

RJ:

We noted that quarterbacks are not a part of this and so including a star wide receiver feels like cheating in that sense. Too bad.

Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the NFL, which puts him in this conversation no matter what. Beyond that though, the context of our current moment is that he is working with a quarterback who has zero experience in the NFL in J.J. McCarthy. It goes without saying that Jefferson has an inordinate amount of pressure on him.

To be clear, Jefferson is fortunate to play in an offense that has another star wideout in Jordan Addison and an amazing play-caller in head coach Kevin O'Connell. There are elements to the Minnesota Vikings that make the team great from a "where is their floor" perspective, but Jefferson raises the ceiling so high that without him they would be truly lost.

Michael:

If Jefferson isn't No. 1 overall, than I'm not sure who is outside of one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL.

Jefferson had a number of years playing with Kirk Cousins, who arguably is one of the better quarterbacks off of play-action which is something the Vikings like to feast off of. However, he's also had a number of games under his belt where the Vikings have used a backup or third-string passer due to injuries. No matter who has thrown him the ball, Jefferson has found a way to not only contribute but put up elite numbers.

So I have to agree here strongly because without Jefferson — and even with Addison — the Vikings would be such a worse team offensively without him.

Brock Bowers is the only thing keeping the Raiders passing game from being a basement unit

Michael:

Bowers was named a First-Team All-Pro as a rookie last season.

AS A ROOKIE!

At a position that is historically known to take a year or two to get acclimated to the professional game. That's insane!

All of this is to say that I firmly believe Bowers is the Jenga piece to this Raiders passing game. Now if they hadn't just drafted Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick in the draft I'd go as far as to say that he's the linchpin of the entire Las Vegas offense. Without Bowers, new Raiders quarterback Geno Smith would have a very middling group of pass catchers. His top three wideouts are Jakobi Meyers, Tre Tucker, and rookie Dont'e Thornton. Secondary tight end Michael Mayer has been fine, but he's nothing close to Bowers as a difference-maker.

Bowers was wildly under-drafted somehow, and he still went 13th overall.

RJ:

Bowers is an excellent choice. Sometimes the "bad" teams fly under the radar in exercises like this, but the spirit of the question works really well here.

Another way I like to look at this is "which player's jersey would you buy" for different teams. If you took a 10-year-old to a Raiders game and asked them (offensively, to the point here) which Raiders jersey they would want... with all due respect to everyone else, the only answer prior to the Jeanty pick was Bowers.

It is strange to watch an NFL offense funnel purely through a tight end, but Bowers is a bit of a unicorn. Without him the Raiders would be totally lost, which is crazy to say about someone who barely joined the roster a year ago.

It is hard to not include Saquon Barkley in this conversation

RJ:

The reason that I love this exercise is because there, in my opinion at least, different levels to it.

Sometimes when you play Jenga you pull a block from the very bottom and everything comes tumbling down. You can argue that these are the more foundational blocks/players.

But sometimes you pull a block from an intermediate part of the tower and the portion above it collapses which causes what is underneath it to fall. This player may not be as "foundational" in that sense, but their departure could be too much to overcome. It is my estimation that this is what Saquon Barkley is.

Without Saquon the Philadelphia Eagles were very good, which is why he is only an "intermediate" block. But with Saquon the Eagles were able to find and tap into their fifth and final gear, the one that they rode to prominence by crushing the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

There are blocks of different kinds. I don't care what kind Saquon is, but he is one.

Michael:

Barkley was definitely an important block for the Eagles en route to them winning the Super Bowl earlier this year, but I feel like we're splitting hairs here. He is nowhere near the type of block that would make the tower of the Eagles tumble to the ground, but he did make the whole thing a bit sturdier for a long period of time.

I mean, come on. He's an elite player on a team full of elite players across the entire roster. It's the best organization in football. They can build a good Jenga tower a billion different ways and they all seem to work.

Matthew Stafford is the only player keeping the Rams as a contender

Michael:

Over the past five seasons, the Rams have won double-digit games in every year except for one, the 2022 season where Stafford missed roughly half the year to injuries. They finished 5-12 that season, including 2-6 without Stafford, which is a huge difference from their usual status quo.

Stafford is a phenomenal quarterback and he unsurprisingly elevates every team that he is a part of, but the numbers tell us that the Rams may only be as good as the guy throwing the passes or handing the ball off. If the guy under center is not a threat, defenses would stack the box and that offensive line isn't good enough to play through that kind of adversity.

Thankfully the Rams nailed their recent draft picks and landed some elite young talent on the defensive line to help shoulder the load on a weekly basis.

RJ:

Let me be clear and say that I am not trying to be argumentative, but I think that we have to consider who Jared Goff has become with the Detroit Lions in this overall discussion.

Obviously the Rams won the Super Bowl with Stafford in their first year together. Did you know that was four years ago? That is kind of wild, isn't it?

To be fair I agree with the point that Stafford is the only thing keeping the Rams in serious contention on an annual basis. I just don't know that this necessarily means much in the big picture now. It works for the sake of the point and the Jenga discussion, but the Rams are still eh to me.