The NFL's 101 best players for the 2025 season: 80-71

20/08/2025 14:00

Everybody in this business has their own favorite and best players, and their own methodologies for their rankings. The NFL Network does the annual Top 100 players based on ratings from other players, which is an interesting way to go, if not fully and ideally comprehensive — most players are focused on their upcoming opponents, as opposed to the entire NFL on an agnostic basis.

Others will do their rankings based on their conversations with NFL coaches and executives, which is also interesting in its own way, and we'll get into some of the more… um… "creative" takes from some of those folks as we tread up these particular rankings.

My method isn't really "better" than anybody else's, and hopefully not too much worse. I do my annual Top 101 player lists (which I've been doing for years, at times with current SB Nation colleague Mark Schofield) based on tape study and advanced metrics. And in this case, shifting my focus from the 2024 season to what things might look like in 2025.

As far as positional value, I find that the trend on most lists is to overcook quarterback importance at the expense of crucial players elsewhere — especially those who have become key to the modern NFL, such as slot receivers, multi-position defenders, offensive guards, and interior defensive linemen. Ideally, such a list presents a more balanced view of what matters in today's game.

With all that preamble out of the way, here are my 101 best players in the NFL today. We began with Nos. 101-91, which you can read right here, and Nos. 90-81, which you can read right here, and these will roll out in 10 separate installments before the regular season begins.

Here are our best players in the NFL today, Nos. 80-71.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).

80. Antoine Winfield Jr., Safety, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

If your last memory of Antoine Winfield Jr. comes from the 2024 season, that's unfortunate, because he was not the player he has been for the most part since the Buccaneers selected him with the 45th overall pick in the second round of the 2020 draft out of Minnesota. Foot and knee injuries limited Winfield to 10 games last season, and when he was on the field, he was working through a lot. 

The metrics show this. In 2024, Winfield allowed 13 catches on 19 targets for 141 yards, 85 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, no interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 125.1 – by far the highest of his career. 

Now fully healthy coming into Season 6, Winfield is determined to make the highlight plays for which he had become famous before that relatively lost season. 

“I have to continue to build off that, and at least make one splash play a day,” Winfield said after a recent training camp week in which he bagged two interceptions and got pressure on a blitz.. “I know that when it comes gametime, I am going to be trying to do that the whole time, so I have to continue to make those splash plays.”

Preseason doesn't always mean a thing, but as the Bucs are desperately hoping to see the guy who was an absolute terror in 2023 everywhere from the deep third to the defensive line, it's a good start. That Antoine Winfield, who allowed 31 catches on 44 targets for 399 yards, 167 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, three interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 85.3… and also had six sacks, 20 total pressures, 90 solo tackles, 27 stops, and six forced fumbles, might be the difference between the 2025 Bucs making a Super Bowl run, or not. 

79. Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

If you're a great player on the Dallas Cowboys' roster these days, it's unlikely that anybody is actually talking about how great you are, or what makes you great. It's far more likely that people are discussing how Jerry Jones messed up your contract situation because he's living in the 1960s from a player negotiation perspective. 

Rayne Dakota Prescott, who finally got his four-year, $240 million contract extension with $129 million guaranteed in 2024 after the usual dumb drama, thus finds himself relatively disregarded as far as actual analysis of his particular greatness or not. 

When you live inside a soap opera, nobody cares how well you read Shakespeare.

Last season, Prescott's performance was equal parts The Godfather and Naked Gun. In Mike McCarthy's final season as head coach and offensive shot-caller (Lord help us), and with a hamstring injury that shut him down for the rest of the season in Week 9, Prescott completed 185 of 286 passes for 1,978 yards, 11 touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a passer rating of 86.0 – the lowest of his career. 

So, why is Prescott on this or any other list of top players? Let's start with the fact that as usual, McCarthy's passing game did little to help his receivers get and stay open. There's also the fact that the receiver corps was basically CeeDee Lamb and the Pips, with the underrated Jalen Tolbert as the lone exception to that on-field anonymity. Now, there's former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver George Pickens, who can be quite explosive both on and off the field. For the first time in a long time, Prescott will have a cadre of credible targets. 

We don't yet know what the passing game will look like under new head coach Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams will look like, but we do know that in 2023, when Prescott was fully healthy, he managed to bypass the schematic handicap that is Mike McCarthy to lead an offense that ranked first in the NFL in points scored. 

That's what Dak Prescott can do when he's not hamstrung, both literally and figuratively. 

78. Kyren Williams, RB, Los Angeles Rams

Over the last two seasons, Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams have completely changed their modus operandi when it comes to the run game. In 2021, the Rams led the NFL with 215 inside zone runs. But by the time 2023 and 2024 rolled around, McVay was calling more rushing attempts with man blocking than any other NFL shot-caller – 205 in 2023, and 189 in 2024. Kyren Williams, selected in the fifth round of the 2022 draft out of Notre Dame, has been a major reason why. 

Williams got just 35 rushing attempts in his rookie season for 139 yards in his rookie season, but in 2023, he busted out with 241 attempts for 1,203 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. Last season, he made it abundantly clear that he was here to stay, with 351 carries for 1,481 yards and 14 rushing scores, adding 38 catches on 42 targets for 197 yards and three touchdowns in the passing game. 

Williams is perfectly capable of running inside and outside zone when required, but in each of his last two seasons, it's been more about straight bully-ball. Last season, out of straight Wham or Duo blocking concepts, no other back had more attempts (70) or yards (311), and when you expand that into other non-zone ideas, Williams has been as or more prolific than any other back in the league. 

Williams also gained 716 zone yards (eighth-most in the NFL) on 177 carries (fifth-most in the NFL) with five touchdowns – so again, it's not as if he's limited to one thing. Williams just allows the Rams to do more of what they want to do in the run game at the highest possible level.

On August 5, the team made their appreciation of Williams' efforts official with a three-year, $33 million contract extension including $23 million guaranteed. It ensures that Williams will continue to be the epicenter of one of the league's most effective ground games. 

77. Jaylon Johnson, CB, Chicago Bears

2024 wasn't just a lost season for the Chicago Bears on offense, though the travails of Caleb Williams and his eleventy billion offensive coordinators got all the headlines. The 2024 Bears finished 22nd in Defensive DVOA, and defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned three weeks into the season, which led to head coach Matt Eberflus calling the defense down the stretch. There was drama everywhere with no end in sight. 

Similarly, while new head coach Ben Johnson's offense is the story in the Windy City, don't sleep on the importance of new DC Dennis Allen. In his time as the New Orleans' defensive coordinator and then head coach, Allen proved quite adept at multiple shifting pressure fronts, aggressive coverage, and tying those two things together. 

Which should be exceedingly good news for Jaylon Johnson. Before 2024's dumpster fire, Johnson has established himself as one of the NFL's best cornerbacks with a 2023 season in which he allowed 25 catches on 50 targets for 195 yards, 115 yards after the catch, one touchdown, four interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 33.3 – the NFL's lowest for any cornerback playing more than 50% of his team's defensive snaps. 

Johnson was still as good as he could be last year, allowing 32 catches on 51 targets for 424 yards, 180 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 85.7. Given Johnson's playing personality – he gets pissed off if anybody catches a ball in his general area – and technique in both press and off coverage, Johnson will set the tone for Allen's defense as much as anyone. 

76. Tyler Linderbaum, Center, Baltimore Ravens

This year's Top 101 list features two centers, and they're both young guys. We might also see Zach Frazier of the Pittsburgh Steelers here next year, as he just missed the cut this time around. I'm guessing you already know that Creed Humphrey of the Kansas City Chiefs will be on the list a bit higher up, but for now, let's get to Tyler Linderbaum of the Baltimore Ravens. 

Selected with the 25th overall pick of the 2022 draft out of Iowa, Linderbaum allowed three sacks in his rookie season, and he hasn't given one up since in the 1,248 pass-blocking reps he saw in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. In addition, he's become the perfect center in one of the NFL's most complex, multi-faceted, and productive run games in the NFL. 

While Linderbaum can obviously pass-protect all day long, it's the ways in which he embraces the nuances of run-blocking that sets him apart. He'll bull through a tackle's shoulders to gain the physical advantage and seal the edge, he's deadly when it's time to break to the second level and demolish a linebacker, and his pancake reel is an absolute delight. 

75. Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner, CB, New York Jets

"I just feel that I could have gotten the ones back that I didn’t. Make the most of those opportunities. At the end of the day, I’m not getting targeted much, but I still had those opportunities earlier in the season."

That's what Sauce Gardner told me in December 2023 when I asked him about the myth that interceptions tell you everything you need to know about a cornerback's effectiveness, and the fact that Gardner hadn't bagged (and ultimately didn't bag) a single pick that season. Through his first three years in the league, it has been an issue. Gardner has just three interceptions in 1,715 career coverage snaps, and while you want more than that out of the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft, that one number doesn't reveal the whole story. 

Not by a long shot. 

In those 1.715 career coverage snaps, Gardner has allowed just three touchdowns – one each season – and he has allowed 87 catches on 171 targets for 1,003 yards, 373 yards after the catch, an astonishing 31 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 67.5. Overall, Gardner has become one of the NFL's true shutdown cornerbacks for the most part, and proof positive that great cornerback play is about more than interceptions, just as any pass-rusher should be judged on the basis of the pressure he generates as opposed to just how many sacks he racks up. 

And now, with Aaron Glenn as his head coach, you can expect Gardner's aggressiveness and technique in tight coverage to be rewarded in a schematic sense. As the Detroit Lions' defensive coordinator, Glenn never met a press coverage opportunity he didn't love, and when targeted in press last season, Gardner gave up nine catches on 25 targets for 96 yards. Double that total in 2025, and maybe turn a third of those deflections into interceptions, and where would Sauce be then? 

74. Kobie Turner, DI, Los Angeles Rams

Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead became famous for his "F Them Picks" philosophy in recent years when it was time to exchange draft capital for what the franchise thought would be better ways to win with established stars. That said, when the Rams rolled without a first-round pick every year from 2017-2023, they were very good at plucking future franchise cornerstones from the later rounds. 

One such cornerstone is Kobie Turner, who the Rams stole with the 90th pick in the third round of the 2023 draft out of Wake Forest. Turner was a credible enough quarterback disruptor in college, with three sacks and 34 total pressures for the Demon Deacons in 2022 after four years at Richmond, but it's safe to say that few expected what Turner would do in his rookie season and beyond. 

In 2023, Turner amassed 12 sacks and 50 total pressures. That wasn't just the most sacks for any rookie interior defensive lineman – it was more than any rookie edge-rusher had. Not that we're comparing Turner or anybody else to Aaron Donald, Destroyer of Worlds, but with Donald's retirement following the 2023 season, it was Turner who took the crown as the undersized (6'3, 288-pound) guy on that line who could blow things up from every gap on a play-to-play basis. I am fortunate to have an AP All-Pro/MVP vote, and Turner was my Defensive Rookie of the Year in a landslide. 

Turner proved that 2023 was no fluke with a 10-sack, 62-pressure season in 2024; he also added 44 solo tackles, 47 stops, 14 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and three pass breakups. Like Donald, Turner is primarily an explosive three-tech player determined to crash through guards, but he's just as conversant with pressure everywhere from nose tackle to the edge.

The only people saying "F That Pick" when it comes to Kobie Turner now are the opposing quarterbacks and running backs who have to deal with him.

73. Xavier McKinney, DB, Green Bay Packers

It's amazing what the right kind of multi-position defender will do for a defense. The Green Bay Packers learned this after signing former New York Giants defensive back Xavier McKinney to a four year, $67 million contract in the 2024 preseason with $23 million guaranteed. That deal became one of the NFL's best last season, because McKinney took the great 2023 season he had with Big Blue and maxed it out under Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. 

In 2024, the 2020 second-round pick out of Alabama allowed 26 catches on 37 targets for 320 yards, 91 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, eight interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 57.1. And unlike a lot of players who generate multiple interceptions, McKinney simply doesn't allow touchdowns – the last one he gave up was for the Giants against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round of the 2022 season. 

McKinney played 51% of his snaps in 2024 as a single-high deep safety, 22% as a two-deep safety, 19% in the box, and 8% in the slot. But in his case, the lines become blurred because of the rare athleticism that allows him to scream down from the deep third to blow up a short pass just as easily as he can run from the slot to the deep third in no time to do the same to any vertical pass. 

The Packers' pass defense DVOA rose from 26th to ninth with McKinney on the roster, while the Giants' pass defense DVOA plummeted like Monty Python's dead parrot from 13th to 30th without him. 

If that isn't player value, I don't know what is. 

72. Ronnie Stanley, OT, Baltimore Ravens

When Ronnie Stanley is healthy, he's one of the NFL's best left tackles. There's no question about that, and Stanley has made that just as clear over the years in his absence as with his presence. Fortunately, Stanley was able to work through knee, ankle, and toe injuries, not to mention a concussion, to play in all 19 Ravens games in 2024, and he allowed just two sacks, four quarterback hits, and 34 quarterback hurries in 634 pass-blocking snaps. 

Of course, health has been an issue for the sixth overall pick of the 2016 draft out of Notre Dame. 2024 was Stanley's first fully healthy season, he played a grand total of seven games in the 2020 and 2021 seasons combined, and he missed 10 games total in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In 2023, when Stanley was off the field, Baltimore's Offensive EPA dropped from 0.07 to 0.00, the Rushing EPA dropped from 0.06 to -0.07, the sack rate rose from 6.4% to 7.5%, the blown block pressure rate rose from 16.9% to 19.5%, and rushing yards per attempt fell from 5.4 to 4.5. These numbers indicate what the tape shows – as well as Stanley does in pass protection, he's also a nasty and formidable run-blocker.

So, it was good that the 2024 Ravens didn't have to parse through those "Without Ronnie Stanley" numbers, because they're never as good. To keep Stanley in the fold, and to prevent him from testing free agency, the franchise gave him a new three-year, $60 million deal with $44 million guaranteed that will take the veteran through his age 33 season.

In that time, Ronnie Stanley may help bring the Ravens their first Lombardi Trophy of the Lamar Jackson era. One thing's for sure – doing so would not be nearly as easy without him.

71. Jessie Bates III, Safety, Atlanta Falcons

Since 2018, his first year in the NFL as a second-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals out of Wake Forest, Jessie Bates III has amassed 26 interceptions. Only Justin Simmons, mostly of the Denver Broncos (but who became Bates' teammate with the Falcons in 2024) has more in that time with 28. 

With Bates throughout his career, it's obviously important that he gets all those picks, but how he gets them is also worth mentioning. Bates has lined up 5,562 snaps as a true deep safety in 7,886 total defensive reps, and that 70.5% rate is incredibly important at a time when every NFL team needs at least one deep-third eraser. In 2024, Bates' second with the Falcons after signing a four-year, $64 million contract with $36 million guaranteed, he allowed 28 catches on 40 targets for 249 yards, 148 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, four interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 71.8.

It was the usual fine work from Bates, but in his seventh NFL season, Bates was asked to do things a bit differently. He played in the box 12% of the time, and in the slot 10%, and he excelled in those situations, as well. Two of Bates' pass breakups, and two of his interceptions, came when he was playing the slot or the box, and either came down to break up a play, or matched a receiver step-for-step. Simmons' addition as more of a pure free defender allowed Bates to branch out, and it worked very well in Bates' case. 

The more you can do, the more valuable you are for your team. Everybody already knew about Jessie Bates as a deep-third negater; his added versatility in 2024 put him in a different pantheon.