2024 NFLTR Top 100 Players: 70-61

By
Logan Ulrich
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Our 2024 NFLTR Top 100 Players series continues today with players 70-61.

DeVonta Smith

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.

We’ll be rolling these out over the next couple of weeks to pass the time until training camp, so keep an eye out for the rest of the 2024 NFLTR Top 100!

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70: Rams WR Puka Nacua

Nacua, whose first name is Samoan slang for “chubby,” arrived in the NFL with little fanfare last year as a fifth-round pick out of BYU. A year later, Nacua is the new NFL record holder for most receiving yards as a rookie following an outstanding season. Nacua caught 105 balls for 1,486 yards and six touchdowns in his debut season. 

Playing for Rams HC Sean McVay and catching passes from QB Matthew Stafford certainly helped but Nacua had an NFL-ready skillset and was exactly what the Rams needed in their receiving corps. He’s a rugged, husky player who’s comfortable with contact, whether that’s going over the middle of the field or barreling forward after the catch. Nacua was third in the NFL in yards after catch and was inside the top 10 of ESPN’s YAC score. And some of his biggest highlights were on dig routes over the middle. 

Nacua was also PFF’s highest-graded receiver in terms of run blocking, which is not irrelevant in a McVay offense. There’s still room for Nacua to improve his hands and route running, though he had his fair share of tough grabs. The Rams should be over the moon about the role Nacua can play in their offense going forward and it’s clear they have a long-term heir to Cooper Kupp. 

69: Colts G Quenton Nelson

The Colts’ offensive line took a huge leap forward from 2022 when the unit was a major factor in submarining the season. Unfortunately, that revival didn’t quite extend to Nelson, who has now gone three seasons playing at a lower level than the Hall of Fame bar he established in his first three seasons. That still leaves Nelson as one of the better guards in football, though. 

Nelson regained his form in pass protection in 2023, earning a grade of 80.3 from PFF which was third in the NFL and just a shade under his grades from his first three seasons. In fact, Nelson’s 97.7 true pass set efficiency was the best mark of his career and also rated third in the NFL. In those situations, Nelson didn’t give up a single sack. 

Run blocking remained an area that lagged behind for Nelson. At his peak, Nelson was a devastating run blocker who churned out highlights at a position that doesn’t lend itself to sizzle reels. In the past three years, however, his run-blocking grade from PFF has dropped from the mid-80s and low 90s to 70.4, 64.6 and 63.4. Nelson used to be a fixture in ESPN’s blocking win rate leaderboards, but he hasn’t placed in the top ten for either pass blocking or run blocking in the past three years. 

That said, we’ve seen Nelson claw his way back to his previous form in the pass protection department. If he can rediscover the run-blocking monster he was to start his career, Nelson could shoot back up this list. 

68: Eagles G Landon Dickerson

Dickerson has ascended the ranks of the guard position in the past couple of years. In ESPN’s win rate leaderboards, Dickerson has finished third (75 percent), first (80) and first (81) since entering the NFL in run block win rate among all interior offensive linemen. In pass block win rate, Dickerson has come in at 97 and 96 percent over the past two seasons, good for fifth and seventh among all interior linemen. 

PFF paints a slightly less flattering portrait of Dickerson. He hasn’t graded inside the top ten at his position in his first three years and PFF dinged him for 38 pressures allowed which ranked 73rd out of 82 qualifying guards. Some of that is due to volume and Dickerson’s efficiency stats were better. His 96.6 overall pass-blocking efficiency ranked 53rd and his 95.8 true pass set efficiency was 23rd. It’s worth noting there could be some schematic influences in ESPN’s run block win rates, as the Eagles and Colts both featured players prominently in those categories, including non-household names like Eagles G Sua Opeta. 

Still, the league thinks Dickerson belongs in the conversation at the top of the position. He’s made two straight Pro Bowls and cashed in on a deal worth $21 million per year this offseason. 

67: Ravens C Tyler Linderbaum

Eagles C Jason Kelce‘s retirement leaves a void at the top of the center hierarchy, and while Chiefs C Creed Humphrey should enter 2024 as the presumptive heir, Linderbaum has the goods to challenge him. The former first-round pick took a step forward in his second season, especially in pass protection. He ranked fifth among all interior offensive linemen in pass block win rate at 96 percent. PFF credited him with zero sacks allowed and a 97.6 true pass set efficiency — ninth among all interior offensive linemen. 

Linderbaum didn’t move the needle as much in the run game as he did as a rookie when he had a 77 percent run block win rate to lead all centers on ESPN’s leaderboard. His PFF run blocking grade ranked 16th out of 123 qualifying interior linemen. If Linderbaum can marry his success in those two phases of the game in 2024, he’ll be well-positioned to challenge Humphrey for the title of top center in the NFL. 

66: Commanders DT Jonathan Allen

This past season was Allen’s worst year statistically since 2019 as well as his lowest PFF grade since then. The context probably is worth mentioning, as the Commanders sold off half their starting defensive line at the trade deadline midseason and it was clear former HC Ron Rivera was just coaching out the string to close the year. While Allen’s run defense grade was poor, his pass rushing metrics show he still hasn’t lost the skill that made him one of the league’s top defensive tackles. 

Allen had 5.5 sacks and 19 QB hits in 2023, which remain quality numbers for an interior pass rusher. He actually finished with more pressures in 2023 than he did in 2022 (49 vs 47) in PFF’s charting, and ranked inside the top 20 of the position. PFF and ESPN chart pass rush wins a little differently, but Allen did well for both, ranking 10th by PFF and 17th by ESPN. The big drag on his profile was his run defense, and it’s tough to blame him too much for not sacrificing his body for a four-win team that made it abundantly clear it was looking toward the future. 

It’s telling that Washington has likely had opportunities to trade Allen and has instead elected to keep him as he enters his age-29 season. He’s a major candidate to have a revitalized season under new HC Dan Quinn and reassert himself as one of the top defensive tackles in the league. 

65: Texans DE Will Anderson

Anderson’s NFL debut season was a rousing success, earning defensive rookie of the year honors and helping the Texans sweep those awards along with fellow first-round QB C.J. Stroud. He was Houston’s best defensive player right away — though CB Derek Stingley made a compelling case too — and was a huge piece of the team’s defensive resurgence and surprise playoff bid. 

The raw stats are good but not overwhelming. Anderson notched seven sacks, 10 tackles for loss, 22 QB hits and one pass deflection while playing 15 games and 63 percent of the snaps. He was more disruptive on a play-to-play basis, though. ESPN had Anderson with a pass rush win rate of 26 percent which ranked third among all edge rushers and behind only Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons. His 68 total pressures tied for 17th best in the NFL, per PFF, and the service credited him with a 9.0 pass rush productivity score and 16.4 percent win rate that both ranked inside the top 20 for edge rushers. 

Those metrics all suggest that better days are ahead when it comes to sack production for Anderson, and the addition of DE Danielle Hunter to rush across from him should help. Anderson was an impact player against the run as well and is one of the cornerstone players who has the future looking bright for the Texans. 

64: Bills DT Ed Oliver

All of the other drama going on in Buffalo last year overshadowed what looks like a true breakout season from Oliver right after signing a big-money extension last June. He broke out with a career-high 9.5 sacks, nearly doubling his previous single-season mark of five. His 72 total pressures ranked fourth among all defensive tackles in 2023 and he wasn’t just getting by on a lot of opportunities. His pass rush productivity rating from PFF was fifth in the league and his pass rush win rate was 14th on ESPN’s leaderboard. 

Oliver stuffed the stat sheet in other areas, too. He had 14 tackles for loss and 32 total stops, which PFF defines as plays where a defender stops the offense from gaining a successful amount of yards. He added a forced fumble, three batted passes and an interception.

It was the kind of year the Bills thought he was capable of when they used the No. 9 pick on him back in 2019. At just 26 years old, it seems like Oliver is entering his prime and could be ready to establish himself as one of the top defensive tackles in football, which would be a big boost to a Bills defense entering a transition period and searching for new cornerstone players. 

63: Eagles WR DeVonta Smith

Smith recorded his second straight 1,000-yard season in 2023 and pushed his career total to 3,178 yards in three seasons. He also matched his previous career high with seven touchdowns. While his targets, receptions, yards and some of his efficiency stats dipped from the season before, Smith remained a key part of Philadelphia’s passing attack. Paradoxically considering his slim build, his skill in contested catch situations continues to be a strength. Smith’s catch score of 67 in ESPN’s receiver tracking metrics was the second best of his three seasons and ranked 22nd among 153 qualifying players. 

The Eagles showed just how much they value Smith by signing him to a major contract extension this offseason. The deal runs through the 2028 season and pays Smith an average of $25 million per season, keeping him a major part of the offense for years to come. 

62: Saints WR Chris Olave

Olave didn’t have a bad season by any stretch of the imagination but after a stellar rookie year, he didn’t quite take the leap forward that was expected going into 2023. His raw stats over the past two years are remarkably similar. As a rookie, Olave had 72 catches for 1,042 yards and four touchdowns. In 2023, he upped those totals slightly to 87 catches for 1,123 yards and five scores. His receiving grade from PFF was even exactly the same, coming in at 82.9 in both his first and second years. 

The strength of Olave’s game remains his speed and route-running ability down the field but the Saints did try to make an effort to get him more easy opportunities. He saw a slight uptick in snaps in the slot and improved his yards after catch per reception from 3.0 to 4.1, per PFF. He also had a slightly better contested catch rate but PFF gave him six drops in 2023 which was up from three as a rookie. Olave’s overall score in ESPN’s receiver tracking metrics dropped from 77 as a rookie to 55 in 2023, largely due to a steep falloff in his catch score which was half what it was in 2022. His open score of 75 still stood out, ranking 15th in the NFL. 

The Saints shook things up on offense this offseason in an effort to try and get things to come a little more easily in 2024, and it’s possible Olave could be a big beneficiary. He might not excel at the catch point and after the catch but Olave still looks like one of the league’s best budding route runners and remains a candidate for a huge leap in production. 

61: Chargers OLB Khalil Mack

Entering the 2023 season, the book on Mack was that while he was still a quality starter, he probably wasn’t the same game-wrecking force at 32 years old that he was at his peak in his 20s. He was coming off four straight years of failing to hit double-digit sacks and his overall production seemed to be waning, even after playing a full 17-game season in 2022 when injuries had been a concern in the years prior. 

But Mack turned back the clock in a major way with a massive season. He set a new career high with 17 sacks, including six in one game against the Raiders and QB Aidan O’Connell in his first start. He added 21 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles and 10 pass deflections — just huge numbers across the board for an edge rusher. 

His season stands up to deeper scrutiny, too. Mack didn’t place inside the top 20 in ESPN’s pass rush win rate leaderboard but PFF charted him with a win rate of 18.2 percent which ranked ninth among all edge rushers. Mack’s 88 total pressures ranked seventh in the league and his pass rush productivity score of 10.4 ranked 11th-best at his position. Picking on O’Connell and the Raiders might have juiced his stat total a little but Mack was still one of the most impactful defenders in football in 2023. 

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