2024 NFLTR Top 100: 10-1

By
Logan Ulrich
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Our 2024 NFLTR Top 100 Players series wraps up today with the final 10 players on the list.

Lamar Jackson

This is the third year of the series giving our take on the league’s top 100 players, compiled rigorously using both traditional and advanced statistics, awards, positional value, career trajectory and a dash of intuition.

You can find the rest of the 2024 NFLTR Top 100 here!

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10: 49ers LT Trent Williams

Nicknamed “Silverback” because of his gorilla-like strength and athleticism, Williams remains the standard by which all other tackles are judged. He’s dominant as both a run blocker and in pass protection. ESPN ranked him as the No. 1 tackle in the NFL with a 96 percent pass block win rate and he didn’t allow a single sack. He had a run block grade of over 90 for the fourth year in a row from PFF and missed out on being their top-graded tackle for the fourth year in a row by just 0.2 points. 

All of this is made even more impressive by the fact that Williams turned 36 years old today. He’s had the most dominant years of his career at an age when the majority of his fellow players are having to hang up their cleats permanently. 

9: Ravens QB Lamar Jackson

Jackson went from a drawn-out contract spat with the Ravens and a trade request to a massive new deal and a massive 2023 season which earned him his second career MVP award — all in the span of months. While the top-seeded Ravens couldn’t get past the Chiefs in the AFC title game, last year should go a long way toward quieting the persistent doubts and criticisms that plagued Jackson in his first five seasons. 

The (tired) narrative about Jackson was that he lagged as a passer. It didn’t help that former Ravens OC Greg Roman, while a gifted run game designer, was far too simplistic in the passing game. New Ravens OC Todd Monken asked more from Jackson in the passing game and he delivered. Jackson had his best season as a passer since his first MVP season in 2019, and in some categories, he was even better. He completed a career-high 67.2 percent of his pass attempts for a career-high 3,678 yards, 24 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He had his second-best success rate, second-best completion percentage over expected, most big-time throws and highest adjusted completion percentage, per PFF. 

Of course, it’s Jackson’s ability as a thrower and a runner that makes him so lethal. He added 821 yards on the ground and seven scores, leading the NFL in yards per carry. His success rate was ninth among all ball-carriers and he actually forced more missed tackles in 2023 than he did in 2019, per PFF. 

The only thing that’s truly eluded Jackson so far is team success, but with him at the helm, the Ravens are far better equipped to go toe-to-toe with the Chiefs than most other teams. 

8: Raiders DE Maxx Crosby

There are five pass rushers in the top 10 of this list. Three of them have already won Defensive Player of the Year awards, the other two, including Crosby, have been knocking at the door. It feels like it should only be a matter of time before Crosby receives that kind of recognition, but life in the NFL isn’t fair like that. A lot of things will have to line up for him to win that kind of award, including good health in a sport with a 100 percent injury rate. 

Still, Crosby deserves plaudits for how he’s raised his game over the past couple of seasons and become one of the best players in the league. He’s relentless, both with his work ethic off the field and his mentality when he’s playing. In 2023, Crosby pushed through a knee injury that probably would have sidelined a lot of other players. He suited up all 17 games and has played over 1,000 snaps in each of the past two seasons. 

On top of that, Crosby has dominated. He set a career-high with 14.5 sacks last season and led the NFL with 23 tackles for loss, highlighting his refusal to take plays off either in the pass or run game. He was No. 1 in the NFL among edge rushers in run stop win rate at 36 percent, and finished with 94 total pressures, per PFF, which was fourth at the position.

Crosby isn’t as much of a threat to win straight off the snap with power, speed and agility like some other pass rushers in the league. But his 283 total pressures over the last three years are better than all but one. If you’re a tackle facing Crosby, you can’t let your guard up at any point during the play. Because Crosby won’t. 

7: Steelers OLB T.J. Watt

Watt rebounded from an injury-plagued 2022 season to have a vintage season in 2023. There aren’t many defenders who pile up the stats like Watt. He led the entire NFL with 19 sacks and added another 19 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles, eight pass deflections, an interception and three fumble recoveries, one of which he returned for touchdown. Watt finished second in the voting for DPOY, the third time he’s finished at least that high in the poll. 

Watt has been dinged at times because he’s not as freaky of an athlete as some of his fellow edge rushers and gets a lot of his production because he plays with a tireless effort most opponents can’t match. Don’t get that twisted with a lack of athleticism, though. Watt’s 25 percent pass rush win rate was fourth among all edge rushers on ESPN’s leaderboard, and his 86 total pressures were eighth in the league per PFF. 

The veteran also just has a knack for making plays. He’s led the NFL in sacks three of the past four seasons, averaged over 20 tackles for loss in his healthy years and has more forced fumbles than any other player since he entered the league with 27. Add in seven interceptions and 45 pass deflections, and Watt is a little unique from other players on this list in the problems he causes for opposing offenses. 

6: Cowboys LB Micah Parsons

The 2023 season was Parsons’ second as a full-time edge rusher and he kept chugging on with another brilliant year. He recorded 14 sacks, which was a new career high and gave him 40.5 sacks in his first three seasons. Parsons added 18 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a recovery and two pass knockdowns en route to finishing third in the voting for DPOY. 

The advanced stats paint an even more dominant picture. Parsons was third in the NFL in total pressures from PFF, notching 106 for the second straight year. His 282 pressures since entering the NFL are third among all players, behind only Crosby and another player to be mentioned further down. He finished with PFF’s highest pass-rush productivity score, which measures total production against total opportunities to weigh which players are more efficient pass rushers. 

On that note, Parsons was ESPN’s No. 1 player in pass rush win rate at 35 percent. Not only was that figure five percentage points ahead of second place, Parsons managed it despite being doubled on 35 percent of his snaps — also significantly more than any other edge defender on ESPN’s leaderboard. 

That high of a double-team rate emphasizes something I’ve been saying for a few years now. As great as Parsons is as an edge rusher, the Cowboys need to be aware of the toll that will take on him at just 6-3 and likely under 250 pounds. He played the majority of his snaps as a rookie as an off-ball linebacker and still had 13 sacks. While the Cowboys don’t necessarily have to go back to that, figuring out how to optimize Parsons’ snaps and role to reduce wear and tear should be a high priority.

At just 25 years old, Parsons is one of the game’s biggest stars, not just on defense. While he hasn’t won DPOY yet, he’s another player who it just feels like a matter of time after finishing second, second and third in his first three years in the voting for the award. 

5: 49ers DE Nick Bosa

Bosa and some others in San Francisco have acknowledged that his lengthy holdout in pursuit of the deal the 49ers ultimately gave him impacted his production on the field in 2023. If that’s what it took to get the 49ers to pony up $34 million a year, Bosa almost certainly has no regrets. The 49ers still made it to the Super Bowl and clearly believe in their negotiating strategy, as evidenced by how things are playing out with WR Brandon Aiyuk. 

But it needs to be put in perspective what a dropoff actually looks like for a player of Bosa’s caliber. His sacks dropped from 18.5 in 2022 to 10.5 in 2023 and he didn’t repeat as DPOY. His pass rush win rate fell from 22 percent in 2022 to 19 percent in 2023 and he fell 10 spots down ESPN’s leaderboard after placing ninth last year. He also missed more tackles, per PFF, than he had the previous three years combined. 

Bosa still notched 16 tackles for loss, forced two fumbles and led the entire NFL in total pressures with 122 in PFF’s account. He finished No. 10 in ESPN’s run stop win rate, and PFF credited him with 31 QB hits which was more than any other player. Over the past three years, Bosa’s 308 total pressures are comfortably ahead of every other player. 

There’s a good reason the 49ers made him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. 

4: Browns DE Myles Garrett

It was tough to split hairs between the five pass rushers at the top of the NFL and you could credibly rank any single one of them as the best at the position. I gave the edge to Garrett, however, as the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

Garrett has always been a DPOY-caliber talent, but it took him seven seasons after being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick to break through and win the award. It’s not that Garrett wasn’t putting up great production, but there was always this sense that he wasn’t reaching his ceiling. Voters for defensive player of the year want to see more than just big stats, they want defenders capable of taking over the game and willing their team to victory. It’s a vague requirement and not common, especially in defensive players, but once you see it, you recognize it. 

At 6-4 and 270-plus pounds with rare athleticism, Garrett has always had that type of potential. In 2023, he finally put it together. He had 14 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles, a recovery and three pass deflections. PFF credited him with 89 total pressures, which ranked sixth in the league, and a 27.3 percent win rate which led all edge rushers. ESPN had his win rate at 30 percent and second in the league. 

All of those are great numbers, but Garrett’s best case for DPOY came in a win against the Colts when he was a literal unstoppable force. Garrett finished the day with two sacks, eight stops, two forced fumbles, a pass deflection and a blocked field goal that proved to be the difference in a one-point win. That’s taking over a game, and Garrett hit that level multiple times over the course of the season. 

3: Vikings WR Justin Jefferson

Jefferson was limited to just 10 games in 2023 due to a significant hamstring injury. He still topped 1,000 yards receiving and averaged more yards per game than anyone outside of Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill. More impressively, he reached 5,899 yards receiving in his first four seasons, which is comfortably the most of any player ever — well ahead of former Saints WR Michael Thomas at 5,512. 

At his current trajectory, Jefferson would be a lock for the Hall of Fame, but Thomas himself is a good example of how things tend not to work out that smoothly. Hopefully Jefferson has better injury luck going forward because he’s clearly the top receiver in football and one of the best players in the NFL. The sport is better when those guys are on the field. 

2: Bills QB Josh Allen

Allen plays like a created player in Madden, with superb size, strength, athleticism, arm strength and accuracy. The things he can do on the football field are jaw-dropping, whether it’s firing a pass 80 yards on a dime, overpowering a defensive lineman or shaking a defender out of his cleats. Allen has been one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the sport over the past few years and added to his totals in 2023. 

The star quarterback scored 44 total touchdowns, 15 of them on the ground. He threw for 4,306 yards and chipped in another 524 on the ground. Allen led the NFL in big-time throws, one of PFF’s in-house stats, and had the third-highest percentage of those throws. He also had the best sack percentage in football at just four percent and his pressure-to-sack rate of 10 percent also led the league. 

Critics of Allen point to his lack of playoff success and his penchant for turnovers. He’s thrown double-digit interceptions in each of the past four seasons and had 18 in 2023. Buffalo just has to live with that to some degree, as Allen’s play-style that allows him to make so many incredible plays also opens him up to more risk. For what it’s worth, his turnover-worth play percentage of three percent was firmly middle of the pack among qualifying quarterbacks last year. 

The lack of playoff success mostly comes down to not being able to get past the Chiefs — and there are 30 other teams with that same problem. As long as the Bills have Allen, they’re going to keep knocking at the door, and you have to think they have a better shot than just about any other team. 

1: Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes

No surprises here. You can’t help but marvel at the start to Mahomes’ career as he piloted the Chiefs to their second straight Super Bowl win in 2023. Kansas City has been in the Super Bowl four of the past five years and hasn’t done worse than an AFC title game appearance since 2017, and in that time we’ve seen Mahomes continue to reinvent himself to stay ahead of the rest of the league. 

Winning last year’s Super Bowl might have been even harder and more unexpected than when the Chiefs took the Lombardi the year before despite trading away one of the best receivers in football and making do with a hodgepodge of weapons outside of star TE Travis Kelce. Kansas City had even more issues on offense in 2023 with Kelce hobbled for chunks of the season. The Chiefs finished 15th in scoring and ninth in yards — by far the worst offensive outputs of the Mahomes era.

His stats suffered too. Mahomes set career lows nearly across the board, whether it was touchdowns, yards per game, interception percentage, sack rate, big-time throw percentage, you name it. His average depth of target was only 6.9 yards and reflected an offense that was frustratingly capped. Mahomes was still Mahomes — his pressure-to-sack rate of 10.6 percent was second-best in the league and his 31 total big-time throws were ninth — but the Chiefs definitely pushed the limits of what could be accomplished with the supporting cast around him. 

Yet once the playoffs arrived, Mahomes and company flipped a switch. He elevated his game and elevated the players around him, and the Chiefs had to go through the Bills, Ravens and 49ers to get that second straight Super Bowl win. That’s why once again, Mahomes is the clear and obvious choice for best player in football. 

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