The NFL’s 101 best players for the 2025 season: 101-91

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 begin with Nos. 101-91, and these will roll out in 10 separate installments before the regular season begins.

Are we ready? Let’s go!

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

101. George Karlaftis, EDGE, Kansas City Chiefs

When most people talk about the Kansas City Chiefs’ pass rush, they start and end with Chris Jones, and that’s justified to a degree, as Jones in on a future Hall of Fame pace. But in doing so, they’re short-changing George Karlaftis, who has become one of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s most important pieces over the last two seasons.

The 30th overall pick in the 2022 draft has been quite consistent throughout his NFL career. After posting an eight-sack, 49-pressure rookie season in just 536 pass-rushing snaps, Karlaftis had 15 sacks and 83 total pressures in 605 pass-rushing reps in 2023, and 12 sacks with 76 total pressures in 644 pass-rush snaps in 2024.

At 6’4” and 264 pounds, Karlaftis isn’t the “bendiest” edge-rusher on the planet, but he’s learned to use the attributes he does have, like fundamental strength, speed to the pocket, and relentless effort to the quarterback, to maximize his potential. With 30 stops last season, Karlaftis is more than just a quarterback disruptor, as well – he’s become a complete defender at the highest possible level.

100. Puka Nacua, WR, Los Angeles Rams

“Legitimate strength and hands and RAC [run after catch] ability, plays big in critical moments — probably doesn’t have the high-end ability as some of the others on the list.”

Welp. That’s what one AFC executive told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler when Fowler recently put together his list of the NFL’s best receivers. All I can say about this AFC executive is that either his team has never played the Los Angeles Rams, or he was away from the facility when it was advanced scouting time.

If the 6’2. 205-pound Nacua, who the Rams absolutely stole out of the fifth round in the 2023 draft out of BYU, doesn’t have top traits in the minds of some, the production isn’t in question. In his first two seasons, Nacua ranks sixth all-time in NFL history (including the postseason) with 299 targets, third all-time behind only Ja’Marr Chase and Michael Thomas with 204 receptions, fourth all-time behind only Randy Moss, Chase and Justin Jefferson with 2,798 receiving yards, and a bit further down the list with 10 receiving touchdowns.

Were you to tell Sean McVay that Nacua doesn’t have high-end ability, my guess is that McVay would tell you to go soak your head. And he’d be right. No, Nacua isn’t the NFL’s premiere deep threat – he caught just four passes of 20 or more air yards on 11 targets last season – but when it comes to getting open from any alignment, berating defenders with yards after the catch, and making ridiculous contested catches, there aren’t too many in Nacua’s ballpark.

With Cooper Kupp off to Seattle this offseason, Nacua will be even more of a featured part of McVay’s offense. Which could bump him up these rankings considerably in 2026. I’m already feeling a bit dumb for having him this low.

99. James Conner, RB, Arizona Cardinals

When I recently put together the “HIdden Gems” article for the Arizona Cardinals (featuring one veteran, one free-agent signing, and one draft pick), the veteran in the piece was easy to choose. Conner is the most underrated player on the Cardinals’ roster, and one of the most underrated running backs in the entire NFL.

Since 2021, Conner ranks 12th in the NFL with 4,922 yards from scrimmage, and while the general public doesn’t talk about him as they do the guys at the top of the list like Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley, and Jonathan Taylor, the people in the Cardinals’ building know exactly how valuable Conner is to whatever offensive scheme they prefer to run at any given time.

2024 may have been Conner’s best season to date — he gained 1,094 yards and scored eight rushing touchdowns on 236 carries, added 414 yards and two touchdowns on 47 catches, forced 68 missed tackles, averaged 3.30 yards after contact per rushing attempt, and had 16 runs of 15 or more yards.

You may look at Conner’s 6’1, 233-pound frame and think that he’s your basic big headbanger, but there’s more to his game than that.

“You guys kind of know we have some different variety in the run game, and he can really do it all,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said of Conner last December 22, after Conner riddled the Carolina Panthers’ defense for 117 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, adding four catches on four targets for 49 yards to the equation. “He can run wide zone, he can run inside zone, he can run gap schemes, and he can do it from gun, from under, from pistol. He’s got a skillset that warrants [us] to be able to call those certain runs. All of the different ones. He doesn’t do any of those bad. Then, obviously, his style of running. He’s a premier player. He hits it, he’s got good vision, he’s got good balance, he’s hard to bring down, he’s got juice. He’s doing a good job.”

Not at all bad for a guy who was diagnosed with, and overcame, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during his collegiate days with Pitt.

98. Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

TRAVIS KELCE RANKED 98TH?!?!?!? WHAT KIND OF IDIOT ARE YOU? THE SWIFTIES ARE ASSEMBLING EN MASSE TO MOW YOU DOWN!!!

Sure, but hear me out. Is Kelce still a dynamic weapon in Andy Reid’s offense, with his amazing ability to sync up with Patrick Mahomes and make something out of nothing as the NFL’s best freelancer?

Now, let me pose this question: Based purely on the 2024 tape, would you put Kelce ahead of George Kittle, Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, or Sam LaPorta?

Because that was the decision I had to make here. There are five tight ends on the list, and Kelce made it on ahead of T.J. Hockenson, Zach Ertz, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, Jonnu Smith, and Dallas Goedert. So, maybe I’m not just imbibing Haterade.

Last season, Kelce caught 110 passes on 149 targets for 994 yards and four touchdowns. That’s his lowest target and reception total since 2017, his lowest yardage total since his rookie season of 2014, and his lowest touchdown total of his career, tied with the four he scored in 2016. And over his last four seasons, Kelce’s Average Depth of Target (7.3 yards) isn’t a patch on the 9.225 aDOT he put up from 2017-2020.

I’m not saying that Kelce, who will turn 36 on October 5, is washed by any means. But as a true field-stretching tight end who forces defenses to adjust at all three levels, that’s not who he is anymore. Truth is, that isn’t who he’s been for a while, and though it’s a serious tribute to his intelligence and passion for the game that he’s been able to adapt to reality for so long, that reality is what it is.

Now, Andy Reid did say this offseason that Kelce has taken off some weight, is nailing all the conditioning programs, and is looking rather “svelte” these days. If that’s a harbinger of Prime Kelce II, nobody would be happier to see it than I would. None of this is written to denigrate a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest tight ends ever.

In the meantime, as I head to my bunker to avoid the Swifties, I’d just like to reaffirm that I’m just responding to what the tape tells me.

97. Terry McLaurin, WR, Washington Commanders

The then-Washington Redskins selected Terry McLaurin in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Ohio State, and through his first five seasons, McLaurin did his best to transcend quarterback situations that Andre Johnson and Allen Robinson would understand all too well. Some receivers are doomed to care-package situations with their quarterbacks. Of course that reversed itself as drastically as possible in 2024, when Jayden Danels had what may have been the best rookie quarterback season ever, and McLaurin feasted as never before as a result.

Last season, McLaurin set career highs all across the board, with 96 catches on 136 targets for 1,323 yards, and 16 touchdowns. It could be said that we finally saw the best possible version of “Scary Terry” now that the quarterback situation was more than credible for the first time. That played out particularly well when McLaurin was asked to make contested catches downfield. Overall on targets of 20 or more air yards, McLaurin caught 12 passes on 32 chances for 474 yards and five touchdowns. In addition, several of McLaurin’s explosive catches, and 11 of his 16 touchdowns, were contested catches.

McLaurin is one of several NFL players right now who are unhappy with their contractual situations. Given what he had at quarterback through his first half-decade in the NFL, and what he did when he finally had a top-tier passer, the Commanders might want to bend a bit to his wishes. Because without him, that offense is not nearly the same.

96. Amani Hooker, Safety, Tennessee Titans

I had already regarded Hooker as one of the NFL’s better safeties based on his outstanding 2024 season. But when Quandre Diggs — a Twitter buddy of mine from his days in Seattle — expressed outrage over Hooker’s exclusion from ESPN’s recent list of the NFL’s top safeties based on thoughts from coaches and executives, that was the tie-breaker.

Diggs knows quite a bit more about safety play than I do, and as he spent the 2024 season in the Titans’ defensive backfield with Hooker before a Week 9 Lisfranc injury ended Diggs’ season, I’m defaulting to the real expert opinion here.

Hooker is indeed still young — he turned 27 on June 14 — and the prime appears to be where he’s living now.

“[Things I can] improve on is having ball disruption, getting my hands on the ball, whether that is interceptions, pass break-ups, forced fumbles,” Hooker said before the 2024 season began. “Overall, just being the best safety I can be. I know I have a long road to get there, but I know my capabilities are there and I just have to improve this offseason and help my guys around me.”

Hooker had been more of a box/slot/free defender in previous years, but under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson in 2024, he was more of a deep-third player, and for damn good reason: When he was back there, quarterbacks learned pretty quickly that throwing to Hooker as the last line of defense was an incredibly bad idea. When either in single-high or split-safety coverage, Hooker allowed three catches on 10 targets for 55 yards, and all five of his picks (not to mention three of his four pass breakups) came from there.

If this is the Amani Hooker the Titans are getting from now on, even the three-year, $30 million contract extension with $17.15 million guaranteed he signed in 2022 could prove to be one of the NFL’s more epic bargains.

When it comes to the redefinition of the Titans’ defense, having a newly-minted deep-third eraser in a contract year can’t be a bad thing at all.

95. Paulson Adebo, CB, New York Giants

Over his last two seasons, the only thing that has kept Pauson Adebo from his rightful ranking as one of the NFL’s best outside cornerbacks is health. In those two seasons for the New Orleans Saints, Adebo allowed 84 catches on 145 targets for 1,181 yards, 418 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, seven interceptions, 18 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 68.8.

That’s the good side. The unfortunate side is that Adebo lost time in 2023 due to a hamstring injury, and he suffered a broken femur in Week 7 last year, which cost him the rest of his season. The New York Giants still realized his value, giving him a three-year, $54 million contract with $38.5 million guaranteed, so Adebo’s contract year worked out in a positive sense.

What’s interesting about the fit with the Giants and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen is that Bowen isn’t a big fan of press coverage – Big Blue played it on just 33% of their snaps in 2024, the third-lowest rate in the NFL – and Adebo is at his best when pressing opposing receivers. The Saints played press on 79% of their snaps last season, tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the NFL’s second-highest rate (behind only the Kansas City Chiefs). Last season when pressing his opponents, Adebo allowed seven catches on 17 targets for 92 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 34.2.

Adebo isn’t limited to press coverage, which bodes well for his new home, but the overriding point is that when healthy, he’s become one of the game’s best aggressive pass defenders.

94. Cameron Heyward, DI, Pittsburgh Steelers

It’s the rare interior defensive lineman who has one of his best NFL seasons at age 35. But Heyward, who was selected with the 31st overall pick in the 2011 draft out of Ohio State, has that in his resume. Last season, the veteran had 10 sacks, 60 total pressures, 53 solo tackles, 47 stops, 14 tackles for loss, and 10 pass breakups. From all over the defensive line – 3% of his snaps at nose tackle, 86% at defensive tackle, and 11% on the edge – Heyward was a serious problem for every blocker who had to face him. As a result, Heyward made his seventh Pro Bowl, his fourth First-Team All-Pro nod, and he got votes for Defensive Player of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year.

That’s the part that’s even more remarkable about Heyward’s 2024 season; he missed six games at the start of the 2023 season due to a groin injury. Nothing was going to hold him back in 2024.

Heyward signed a two-year, $29 million contract extension with $19 million guaranteed in September, 2024. That puts him on the field through the end of next season, and if the dude wants to play until he’s 40, who’s going to say no? It would be just one more part of a career that will eventually see him with a bust in Canton.

93. Julian Love, Safety, Seattle Seahawks

As is generally the case with a Mike Macdonald defense, it took a minute for the Seattle Seahawks’ players to wrap their heads around all the complexities. But when it happened, it really happened. Seattle ranked 15th in Defensive DVOA in the first half of the 2024 season, and bumped that up to seventh in the second half.

Through it all, safety Julian Love – who signed a three-year, $33 million contract with $18.68 million guaranteed in 2023 with the Seahawks after four seasons with the New York Giants – was Macdonald’s stalwart in the deep third. Love played 863 of his 1,041 defensive snaps last season as a single-high or two-deep safety, and overall, he allowed 35 catches on 56 targets for 351 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 81.7.

While Love’s primary responsibility was the deep third, three of his pass breakups and one of his interceptions came from the box or the slot, and he came down from high to stop a lot of passes at the intermediate level – so he wasn’t just hanging up there waiting for receivers to come through. This is the key to a Macdonald defense – every player understanding multiple responsibilities – and Love had it on lock from Day 1.

92. Nico Collins, WR, Houston Texans

It says something for your overall game as a receiver when a “down season” is one in which you catch 80 passes on 115 targets for 1,209 yards and eight touchdowns. That was the case for Nico Collins in 2024, after a 2023 season in which he nabbed 91 passes on 126 targets for 1,461 yards and nine scores. Really, the only difference in Collins’ 2024 season after the breakout campaign the year before was that he missed five games in the middle of the season due to a hamstring injury, and he still blew up just about every defense he faced when healthy.

At 6’4” and 215 pounds, Collins is as physical as you’d expect from a player his size, but what really drives his production is a surprising second- and third-level acceleration to get to the ball past cornerbacks and safeties trying to keep up with him. That’s how he caught eight of 19 targets of 20 or more air yards in 2024 for 343 yards and a touchdown, and that was in an offense in which C.J. Stroud was running for his life more often than not behind an abysmal offensive line.

It’s unclear as to whether general manager Nick Caserio and his staff have solved those protection issues, but one thing’s for sure – a healthy Nico Collins will make the most of every opportunity he’s given in any part of the field.

91. Calen Bullock, Safety, Houston Texans

Most third-round rookie safeties aren’t expected to be the last line of defense more than any other defender in the NFL, but the Houston Texans clearly had a plan for USC’s Calen Bullock once they selected him with the 78th overall pick in the third round of the 2024 draft. Bullock lined up 1,063 times as a single-high or two-high safety; a full 96% of his snaps. And overall, he allowed 13 catches on 29 targets for 159 yards, 50 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, five interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 45.7 – the lowest passer rating allowed among all safeties who played at least 50% of their teams’ defensive snaps.

When Bullock is aligned and in phase, the tape shows a safety who could be the equal of any in the NFL. What he needs to work on, and what would be expected of any young defender asked to hang it all out in the deep third as often as Bullock did, is the tendency to overreach at times and get lost in space. But these things are coachable, and it’s absolutely true that if the NFL expected the plus side of Calen Bullock that the Texans got, Bullock would have been a top-15 pick. He is often that good already, and he has the chops to get even better in 2025 and beyond.