Every team has those players whose performances outstrip their name recognition for whatever reason. Maybe the team itself is so unspectacular, that getting attention from the nation is a fool’s errand. Maybe it’s someone who was buried on the depth chart until the coaches could really see the potential. It could be that the player in question has been below average before, and it takes a second for people to catch up with the fact that the ligt really did come on. Or, perhaps someone was disregarded in the draft, and had to bull his way up the ladder against all odds.
Regardless, at SB Nation, we like to recognize these players in our weekly “Secret Superstars” series. Every week, we’ll feature four underrated players, using tape, metrics, and quotes from the players themselves, as well as their coaches and teammates, to shine a light on people who really deserve that illumination, and haven’t received enough of it in line with what they’re doing on the field.
For Week 2, our four Secret Superstars are as follows; previous week’s honorees can be found below. click the links to read the full profiles.
Then, the Cowboys grabbed him on July 22, 2025, and this would seem to be Houston’s ideal opportunity, given the Micah Parsons departure and the fact that Dallas currently ranks 31st in Defensive DVOA, and 29th in Adjusted Sack Rate, without their former superstar. Houston has done his level best to prove the point, with four sacks and eight total pressures — including two sacks and five total pressures in Dallas’ 37-22 Sunday win over the New York Jets — on just 23 pass-rushing snaps, which was his highest single-game total of the season.
Houston has just 54 pass-rushing snaps this season, and he’s gone over 10 in just two games.
Maybe the short week helped. Maybe Mac Jones, who played with Bourne in New England from 2021-2023, would provide a spark.
Whatever the reason, Bourne eliminated most concerns after that Jaguars game with a bravura performance against the Rams in an unexpected 26-23 win. Bourne caught 10 of 11 targets for a career-high 142 yards. Per Next Gen Stats, seven of those catches for 104 yards came on in-breaking routes, which is obviously a major part of Shanahan’s passing game.
The 30-year-old defensive lineman, selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round of the 2016 draft, has quite a few stops in his career – Dallas through 2019, the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, the Houston Texans from 2021-2023, the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, and finally, the Cleveland Browns in 2025 after Collins signed a two-year, $20 million contract with $13 million guaranteed.
Safe to say at this point, there will be no issues keeping Collins around for a second season given the way the first one is going. Through the first five games of the season, Collins has four sacks, 17 total pressures, six tackles, three tackles for loss, and nine stops. The 6’2, 310-pound Collins may be built like an undersized nose tackle, but he can get it done all over the place – in 2025, he’s lined up 71% of the time as a three-tech tackle, and the rest of the time as an edge defender or over the tackles.
The 2025 Jaguars, under defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, currently rank 16th in Defensive DVOA, first in opponent passer rating allowed, and tied for third in EPA per play allowed with the Detroit Lions and the Denver Broncos. They are 10th in points allowed, 15th in yards allowed, third in EPA allowed per passing attempt, 19th in EPA allowed per rushing attempt, and 23rd in quarterback pressure rate. No matter the metric, the 2025 Jaguars defense has proven that it’s an entirely different beast.
And Campanile, the man in charge of this turnaround, has never been a solo defensive coordinator at any level of football before. The closest Campanile came to that was when he served as Boston College’s co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2018. Since then, he’s been Michigan’s linebackers coach (2019), the Miami Dolphins’ linebackers coach (2020-2023), and the Green Bay Packers’ linebackers coach (2024) before elevating to his current position.
Who is this 43-year-old native of Fair Lawn, New Jersey (you can tell from this EXTREMELY NSFW video from his time with the Dolphins, which is pure Silvio Dante) who has had such an effect on an NFL defense out of nowhere? Motivational speeches with multiple F-bombs are nice and all, but that stuff tends to vaporize pretty quickly if there’s not some weight behind it.
As C.J. Stroud said after the Texans’ 26-0 shutout win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, he had already studied what Marks could do.
“I was a really big fan of Woody when he was at USC. Really elusive, really crafty. I thought he did a good job in that Lincoln Riley offense. I thought today we used him in that light: spread him out, gave him some familiarity running the ball, and some plays he’s run before. He’s a very dynamic pass-catcher.”
Stroud said all that after a game in which Marks gained 69 yards and scored a rushing touchdown on 17 carries, with three forced missed tackles, and two runs of 15 or more yards. Marks also caught four passes on five targets for 50 yards and another score. Marks has seen his snaps increase in each of his four NFL games — from seven to 15 to 30 to 43 on Sunday — and that’s obviously based on merit.
Though the Chargers lost their first game of the season in a 21-18 nailbiter, Tuipulotu’s splash plays did come, and repeatedly so. Against Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart in Dart’s first NFL start, Tuipulotu gave the rook several “Welcome to the NFL” moments with four sacks (three of Dart and one of Russell Wilson) and seven total pressures. This was more of what was expected from the 2023 second-round pick out of USC, who had a career-high nine sacks last season, and notched eight sacks and 51 total pressures as a rookie.
Tuipulotu has always been an overlooked player, but he came across my radar last season when he want on an all-time tear in Weeks 8-11. In that stretch, he led the league by far with eight sacks (Jared Verse of the Los Angeles Rams and Trey Hendrickson of the Cincinnati Bengals tied for second with five), and his 22 total pressures tied with Verse for the league lead.
In 2024, the Commanders under Kingsbury lined up with six offensive linemen 21 times. They did so zero times in Weeks 1-2 with Daniels, but since then, they’ve done so 27 times, by far the highest total in the NFL, and always with veteran Trent Scott as the extra guy.
Before all of this, Scott was most famous for catching Jayden Daniels’ first regular season touchdown pass, a one-yarder in Week 3 of the 2024 season against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now, Scott’s primary value — and it’s of more import than you may think — is to be that extra man in the blocking schemes. The Commanders have an Offensive EPA of +0.12 with Scott on the field, and +0.01 when he isn’t. Not that Scott, a 2018 undrafted free agent out of Grambling (HBCU alert!) is the second coming of Trent Williams or Tristan Wirfs; this isn’t a case where the NFL’s next great tackle finally gets his shot in a specific concept. But the ways in which Kingsbury is using Scott have allowed Scott to make the most of his attributes, and that’s what good coaching is.
In any event, a Dolphins offense that was already dealing with multiple schematic, personnel, and execution issues was dealt a severe blow. And the reason it may not be a complete death knell could come down to a guy who played his first NFL game since Jan. 7, 2024.
That would be tight end Darren Waller, who caught 52 passes on 74 targets for 552 yards and a touchdown for the New York Giants in the 2023 season, announced his retirement from the NFL on June 9, 2024, missed that entire season, and unretired once the Giants traded his rights to the Dolphins on July 1, 2025. Waller had informed the Giants that he would only return to the league if it was with the Dolphins, and that was that.
… It was a wise decision, especially in context of Hill’s injury. Waller’s statistics weren’t interstellar in his return to the NFL — three receptions on four targets for 27 yards — but there was the matter of his two touchdowns, which decided the game.
In 2024, Armstrong had a career-high 10 sacks and 51 total pressures in a career-high 450 pass-rushing snaps (747 overall) and he really ramped things up in the postseason. Four of his 10 sacks came in three playoff games, and overall, Armstrong was a major pain for opposing blockers from every gap — he lined up 13% of the time in the B-gaps, and the rest of the time outside. In Washington’s 45-31 Divisional playoff win over the Detroit Lions, Armstrong really went off with two sacks and a host of pressure.
Now, in his eighth NFL season, Armstrong appears to be better than ever. He has three sacks and 18 total pressures in just 72 pass-rushing snaps, and he’s doing it all over the place once again. Per Next Gen Stats, Armstrong’s 25.0% pressure rate ties him for the league lead with Al-Quadin Muhammad of the Detroit Lions (another Secret Superstar this week), and nobody has more total disruptions in the league through three full weeks of the 2025 season.
Through three games in the 2025 season, and especially after what he did to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night, Muhammad doesn’t just have an NFL home now — he’s chipping in for serious upgrades. As much as some decried the Lions’ quiet approach to acquiring premium pass-rushers in free agency and the draft this offseason, you can now understand why Campbell and his coaches were like the parents who told their kids that they didn’t need to spend money at McDonalds — because “we have that at home.”
Against the Ravens in that 38-30 Monday night win, Muhammad didn’t just rack up three sacks and five total pressures in just 24 pass-rushing snaps — he did so from multiple gaps, foiling four of the five Baltimore offensive linemen he went up against.
In the 2025 offseason, when Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores were discussing how to fortify their defense with new players, Flores brought up a little-known cornerback who had never had more than 366 coverage snaps in his four previous NFL seasons as someone who might really pop in his playbook. So, the Vikings signed former Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Isaiah Rodgers to a two-year, $11.045 million contract with $7.995 million guaranteed, and hoped it would pay off as “Flo” said it might.
Turns out, that Brian Flores guy knows a thing or two about player acquisition and development. Because in Sunday’s 48-10 demolition of the Cincinnati Bengals, Rodgers had not only the game of his life, but one of the most remarkable games for any cornerback… well, ever.
There are still times when you need someone to win outside, and the guy for the Seahawks this season has been fifth-round rookie Tory Horton. The Colorado State alum went as low as he did in the draft for two reasons: concerns about strength of competition, and the knee injury that cost him half the season in 2024 for the Rams. Horton had been productive both with Nevada and Colorado State after a 2022 transfer, but few really knew how he’d hold up to the rigors of the NFL.
Horton wasn’t even an original pick — the Seahawks got the 166th overall selection they used for Horton in a trade with the Cleveland Browns that gave Cleveland the 144th pick overall, and the right to select Shedeur Sanders. So, there’s that.
Right now, it’s obvious that the Seahawks got the more pivotal player in that deal. Horton has lined up outside on 82% of his snaps this season so far, and the 6’3, 185-pound rookie doesn’t seem to have any issues with NFL competition. In Sunday’s 44-13 bombing of the New Orleans Saints, Horton caught three passes on four targets for 32 yards and a touchdown; he also had a 95-yard punt return which is the longest in franchise history, and the first punt return for a touchdown the Seahawks have had since Tyler Lockett had one in Week 1 of the 2015 season.
Indianapolis Colts QB Daniel Jones: Where the heck has this version of Daniel Jones been?
The Colts’ 33-8 season-opening win wasn’t something that Jones could really hang his hat on, because the current Dolphins might be the NFL’s most dysfunctional team if the Cincinnati Bengals could relax for a second. But in that game, Jones showed enough command of the offense to be a bright spot as the team headed into Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, owners of one of the NFL’s best defenses.
This was Jones’ star turn, and he took it with an authority he’d never shown before. No matter what Vance Joseph’s Denver defense did, Jones had a ready answer. Per Next Gen Stats, the Broncos pressured Jones on 16 of his 38 dropbacks and blitzed him at a 71.1% rate that was the highest he had ever faced. The quarterback who had previously been awful when disrupted completed 16 of his 25 attempts while facing five or more pass rushers for 265 yards and a touchdown, the fourth-most passing yards against the blitz in any game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
Against the New York Giants on Sunday in a 40-37 win in which there were seven scoring plays in the fourth quarter alone for both teams, Williams gained 97 yards and scored a touchdown on his 18 carries. He forced six missed tackles, and had three runs of 10 or more yards. The passing game was obviously the main thing in this game — Dak Prescott threw the ball 52 times, completing 38 passes for 361 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 96.7 — but when Dallas needed explosive plays in the run game, they were there for once.
New Orleans Saints QB Spencer Rattler: Spencer Rattler keeps getting better, but when will the wins come?
Maybe I was early on the Rattler bandwagon, but it was my belief that he could end the Saints’ post-Drew Brees quarterback purgatory sooner than later with his explosive potential, as long as his coaches could rein in Rattler’s YOLO tendencies. Rattler has met Kellen Moore at least halfway as a more efficient and managed thrower of the football this season, and the results are starting to show up in a credible sense. The idea of this franchise selecting Tyler Shough in the second round of the 2025 draft might be one of those “Oh well, whatever, never mind” things if Rattler continues at this pace.
So far this season, Rattler’s success has been less about the unexpected play, and more about his ability to play within the structure of Moore’s offense. Per Next Gen Stats, Rattler completed 11 of 14 quick passes for 77 yards against the 49ers, throwing all three of his touchdowns in fewer than 2.5 seconds. He also completed 14 of 20 passes for 130 yards on passes over 2.5 seconds. so it’s not as if Moore and his staff have turned Rattler into Captain Checkdown — this is really about Rattler unlocking the entire playbook.
Green Bay Packers CB Keisean Nixon: Keisean Nixon gave Jayden Daniels no hope on Thursday night
Week 2 against the Washington Commanders on Thursday night would be a different test. This time, Nixon left it all up to nobody but himself. He was targeted five times, and not only did he not allow a completion, each of his five targets became pass breakups in Green Bay’s 27-18 win that was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate.
“The ball was just coming my way,” said Nixon, whose five pass breakups were the most by a Packers defender since Jaire Alexander’s five vs. the Los Angeles Rams in 2018.
“I usually don’t get that many targets in a game, but I was in my zone. I knew what I can do, and what I’m capable of, but y’all just understanding it now.”
Washington Commanders RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt: Jacory Croskey-Merritt is the best Bill Washington D.C. has seen in a while
The Commanders certainly had faith. They traded Robinson to the San Francisco 49ers on August 22, and put Croskey-Merritt behind Ekeler on the depth chart. As Ekeler is more of a do-it-all back with heavy receiving chops as opposed to a true sustaining piece of the offense — that was Robinson’s gig — things lined up perfectly for the 5’11, 208-pound Croskey-Merritt (who got his “Bill” nickname as a kid due to an unfortunate haircut) to announce his presence with all kinds of authority.
Against the New York Giants in Washington’s 21-6 Week 1 win, Croskey-Merritt did just that, and he made it look easy against a defensive line that is among the league’s most talented. Overall, Croskey-Merritt ran the ball 10 times for 82 yards and a touchdown, and as an agent of the Pistol run game, he was lethal on snap after snap. All 10 of his runs came out of some sort of Pistol look, usually with blocking tight end John Bates (the best at what he does in the NFL) and new addition Deebo Samuel adding spice to the rice, Croskey-Merritt showed patience, decisiveness, horizontal quickness, vertical second-level speed, and the ability to run after contact you would expect out of a back with a lot more skins on the wall, and a much higher draft position.
Los Angeles Chargers WR Quentin Johnston: Quentin Johnston redeemed himself at the perfect time
Among receivers selected in the 2023 draft, Johnson came into the 2025 season ranked 13th in targets (163), 18th in receptions (93), 17th in receiving yards (1,142), and tied for third with 10 receiving touchdowns. One statistic that Johnson has had no issue with regarding the league leaders is drops — especially in the 2024 season, when he had six on 98 targets. Drop tendencies at this level generally don’t resolve themselves, and coming into Johnston’s third season, the deserved narrative was that this was a guy with all the physical gifts in the world, and little sense of how to unleash them.
Then came the Chargers’ 27-21 Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, and Johnston’s first step in taking a sad song and making it better. Johnston’s stats weren’t of the OMG variety — he caught five passes on seven targets for 79 yards — but he did bring in two touchdowns, and he was responsible for more than one explosive play.
Perhaps most importantly, there wasn’t a single drop on the day. Johnston looked far more like the consistent weapon the Chargers hoped they’d get when they drafted him. The Chargers had Johnston rolling to the intermediate and deep levels a lot of the time — a nice show of faith which Johnston reciprocated with his efforts.
New York Jets QB Justin Fields: Justin Fields may be the franchise quarterback nobody expected
Fields was in for another career dip in the Steel City. He got starting reps early in the season while Russell Wilson recovered from injury, and then was summarily dismissed to the role of backup and occasional gadget player when Wilson returned to the stage.
Then, it was on to the new-look New York Jets under head coach Aaron Glenn and offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, formerly the Detroit Lions’ pas game coordinator under Ben Johnson. As everybody reading this knows, the Jets haven’t exactly been on an all-time streak when it comes to great offensive minds in the building (Nathaniel Hackett? Really?), but the hope was that Engstrand could make the most out of Fields. The Jets were cautious with the equation; that’s why Fields only got a two-year, $40 million contract with $30 million guaranteed that made him one of the lowest-paid starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
Perhaps even the Jets didn’t completely expect what they got from Fields in his debut. Against a Steelers defense that ranked eighth in DVOA last season, Fields completed 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards, one touchdown, and four explosive passes…
…and as a runner (which most people would tell you is where his game starts and ends), Fields gained 48 yards and scored two touchdowns on 12 carries.
New England Patriots EDGE Harold Landry: Harold Landry turned up the heat in his first Patriots performance
The 2025 New England Patriots have been a cauldron of change. A new head coach in Mike Vrabel, a new (well, old and new) offensive coordinator in Josh McDaniels, a new defensive coordinator in Terrell Williams, and all kinds of new defensive talent with free agents Milton Williams, Robert Spillane, and Carlton Davis. All great potential additions, but in the Patriots’ 20-13 Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, it was another defensive addition, and a bit of an afterthought with all the other churn, who defined his role more than anybody else on the field.
That relative afterthought was edge-rusher Harold Landry, the former Tennessee Titan who signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract with $26 million guaranteed to add his talents to the equation. At his peak in the 2021 and 2023 seasons, Landry showed all the characteristics you want in an edge disruptor, but his career has also been interrupted by injuries.
Then came the season opener against the Raiders, and what Landry did to poor Las Vegas right tackle D.J. Glaze, and the rest of the right side of the Raiders’ offensive line. Landry had three sacks and eight total pressures in the game, all from the defensive left side, and whether he was looping inside to find the open gap, or simply abusing Glaze outside, the Raiders had no answers for him.
