July is top 100 season in the NFL as everyone tries to kill the days until training camp and the start of the new season. Unfortunately, the official top 100 list from the league is not good. We’re not trying to hate; it’s just a well-accepted fact at this point in time. 

For five years, we’ve been trying to do better. The time has come for the 2026 version of our NFL Trade Rumors Top 100 Players. Instead of using player polls, we aim to better reflect reality with traditional and advanced statistical analysis, evaluations from league personnel, positional value, awards, career trajectory and, of course, the good old-fashioned gut check. Our hope is to give more credit to players who are overlooked, either because they don’t play a glamorous position or because they’re not household names (yet). 

We’ll have updates daily over the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back! 

Previous Entries:

• NFLTR Top 100: 100-91
• NFLTR Top 100: 90-81
• NFLTR Top 100: 80-71
• NFLTR Top 100: 70-61
• NFLTR Top 100: 60-51
• NFLTR Top 100: 50-41

Resources: 

• Pro Football Reference
• QB advanced stats
• Win rates from ESPN for OL and DL
• PFF advanced stats (grades, pass rush productivity, blocking efficiency, coverage stats)
• ESPN WR tracking metrics
• Past NFLTR Top 100s

40 – 49ers TE George Kittle

The ultimate do-everything tight end in today’s league, Kittle’s production speaks for itself. He’s hit a new peak in recent seasons, too, with his 2024 campaign in particular setting a new standard for the position. That year, Kittle had a PFF receiving grade of 92.7, caught 96.5 percent of his catchable targets, had a threat rating over 22 percent, his yards per route run sat at 2.63, and had over 500 yards after the catch. All those are monster numbers for a tight end, and it culminated in a 78-receptions, 1,108-yard season. Kittle’s other recent seasons haven’t been far off from that mark — his lowest PFF receiving grade in the last four years was an 84.6 in 2023.

What makes Kittle special, though, is that he’s one of the league’s premier blocking tight ends while still being such a prolific receiving threat. He dominates as a lead blocker and on the move in zone schemes, but he’s efficient across all run blocking schemes. With a pass blocking efficiency rating of at least 95 in each of the last four seasons and a run blocking grade of at least 72.2 in each of the last three, there really isn’t anything Kittle doesn’t do near the top of his position.

39 – Texans WR Nico Collins

A former third-round pick out of Michigan in 2021, Collins took a couple of seasons to get his feet under him in the NFL. But once he did, he blossomed into one of the league’s most complete receivers. At a true 6-4, 215 pounds, Collins dominates on the outside and deep down the field in the highly-coveted X-receiver role. Over the last three seasons, he’s posted 80 receptions for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns, 68 receptions for 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns, and 71 receptions for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns.

The advanced metrics paint an even prettier picture of Collins’ game. He had an elite 91.1 PFF receiving grade in 2023, followed by a 92.3 in 2024 and an 85.5 in 2025. With 113 explosive receptions over the last three years and an average depth of target over 11 yards in each (up to 13 in 2025), Collins is arguably the league’s most dangerous deep threat. He’s an efficiency demon, too, posting 2.96 and 2.99 yards per route run in 2023 and 2024, respectively (still a solid 2.18 in 2025). He caught 93 percent of his catchable targets in that span with a threat percentage of 26 percent. Collins is the Texans’ passing game.

38 – Ravens S Kyle Hamilton

Hamilton was drafted four years ago. He’s made three first-team All-Pros. That’s how consensus his status as the league’s best safety is: it’s not even a debate right now. One of the most versatile players in the entire sport, Hamilton has a roughly equal number of reps at free safety, slot corner and in the box in his career. The Ravens line him up all over the field, and while his focus sometimes shifts slightly year to year, he always ends up playing everywhere and doing everything.

Let’s break down the numbers a bit. His lowest PFF coverage grade came as a rookie at an 80.5, and he has two seasons above an 88. He has 29 career forced incompletions and a monster 70 coverage stops across all his alignments. In run defense, Hamilton has 27 career tackles for a loss, an average depth of tackle under five yards, and a positive grade on over eight percent of his snaps. Hamilton is an extremely effective blitzer, as well, with a pass rush win rate near 20 percent. There truly isn’t anything he can’t do.

37 – Cowboys WR George Pickens

Pickens was a volatile player across three seasons in Pittsburgh. While he flashed high-end talent and had over 1,000 receiving yards in 2024, the Steelers were concerned about his locker room presence and flipped him for a third-round pick with Dallas. With Dak Prescott throwing him the ball in the Cowboys’ high-volume passing attack, Pickens had one of the best individual seasons we’ve seen at the receiver position in some time.

With 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns, you don’t need me to tell you how good Pickens was in 2025. I’m going to anyway, because the advanced metrics love him even more than the box score stats already do. Pickens had an 87.2 PFF receiving grade, 39 explosive receptions, an average depth of target of nearly 13 yards, caught over 95 percent of his catchable targets, caught over half of his contested targets, and had a threat rating of 21.9 percent despite sharing a passing attack with CeeDee Lamb. Stack another season like that, and he’ll get a hefty extension, whether that comes in Dallas or somewhere else.

36 – Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez

If you want flashy plays and eye-popping box score stats, Gonzalez won’t be your guy. But if you want someone who will prevent the guy he’s covering from catching the ball, then look no further. Even though he has just three career interceptions, Gonzalez might be the most consistently lockdown corner in the league. You don’t throw on this guy successfully — he makes sure of that.

Gonzalez built off a strong sophomore campaign in 2024 to enter the echelon of the truly elite in 2025. He allowed a catch on less than half his targets and had 20 forced incompletions, recording one on over 15 percent of his targets. Teams tested him deep (with an average depth of target just under 13 yards) but he allowed just 0.79 yards per coverage snap. Gonzalez has been critiqued for being a “finesse” player in the past, but he had nearly as many coverage stops (19) as first downs allowed (22), and he racked up 69 tackles, too, offering help in run support.

35 – 49ers LB Fred Warner

There’s a reason Warner is considered the best linebacker in the league by a wide margin. He played just six games in 2025 yet no one would even consider ranking another ahead of him. Let’s start with his run defense: from 2022 to 2025, Warner has PFF run defense grades of 89.7, 90.1, 82.1, and 91.3, respectively. His average depth of tackle was below three yards across that span and he totaled 37 tackles for a loss and 117 run stops in those four seasons. Warner garnered a positive grade on over 16 percent of his reps, a practically unprecedented number.

But despite how good Warner is against the run, his skills in coverage are what set him apart. He has as many coverage stops as first downs allowed over the last four seasons (81). In that span, he never allowed more than a yard per coverage snap and recorded 26 forced incompletions. Warner doesn’t just hover in middle-field zones, either, with over 200 snaps as a slot cornerback and the tape to back up what the numbers say. Throw near Fred Warner at your own peril.

34 – Broncos ED Nik Bonitto

Entering the 2024 season, Bonitto had put together two perfectly adequate seasons after being selected in the second round out of Oklahoma in 2022. Then he flipped a switch and became one of the league’s most prolific pass rushers almost overnight. His 2024 season was good on its own: Bonitto ranked seventh in ESPN’s pass rush win rate with a 14.4 percent win rate as PFF tracked it. Add on to that his 15.7 pressure percentage (70 total pressures) and 12 sacks and you had the makings of an ascending, elite pass rusher.

Bonitto threw all that into overdrive last season, cementing himself as part of the elite tier of NFL pass rushers. He jumped up to second in ESPN’s pass rush win rate rankings, with PFF tagging him with a 16.7 percent win rate. He had 85 total pressures and 15 sacks, good for an 18.5 percent pressure rate. Bonitto might not be known for his run defense, but he’s proven himself an immensely impactful pass rusher. Few things are more important on the football field.

33 – Raiders ED Maxx Crosby

For a brief moment, we all thought we’d be discussing Crosby as a member of the Ravens this year. Then Crosby failed his physical, or the Ravens got cold feet, or both. Either way, he never left Las Vegas, and in fact the Raiders have rebuffed further trade interest in him. It’s easy to see why they might have gotten a bit of seller’s remorse and are reluctant to part with him again. Crosby impacts every facet of the game in a way few defensive players do.

Unlike many of the other top edge rushers in the sport, Crosby is as good a run defender as he is a pass rusher. He has 131 run stops over the last four seasons, with a positive grade on a whopping 23 percent of his run defense snaps. Crosby ranked second in ESPN’s run stop win rate among edge rushers in 2022, and first every year since. As a pass rusher, Crosby ranked 14th in ESPN’s pass rush win rate among edge rushers in 2024 and 2025, with 308 total pressures over the last four seasons and a pass rush win rate over 15 percent per PFF.

32 – 49ers ED Nick Bosa

If you remove Bosa’s injury-shortened 2025 campaign, he’s still basically at the top of the sport. A four-time first-team All-Pro, Bosa’s been just outside Defensive Player of the Year discussions multiple times, landing as one of the most consistently productive quarterback terrorizers in the league. From 2021-2024, Bosa had between an 89.3 and a 92.3 PFF pass rush grade, a truly elite mark to carry for a four-year stretch. In that span, he had 409 total pressures, a pass rush win rate above 20 percent, a pressure rate above 18 percent and 59 sacks.

ESPN’s metrics don’t love Bosa quite as much as PFF’s do, but they still ranked him 19th in pass rush win rate among edge rushers in 2023 and ninth in 2022. Bosa isn’t just limited to rushing the passer, though — as he ranked 10th in ESPN’s run stop win rate in 2023 and PFF credits him with 95 run stops and a positively graded play rate of nearly 19 percent in that same 2021-2024 window. Between his consistency and high-end play, Bosa’s spot in the top 100 is undeniable.

31 – Eagles OT Jordan Mailata

A former seventh-round pick back in 2018, Mailata is a true developmental success story. A former rugby player the Eagles took an interest in, he established himself as one of the league’s most consistently elite tackles over the last few seasons. In four of the last five years, Mailata had a PFF pass blocking grade of at least an 84, with an elite 90.8 grade in 2024. In that span, he had a pass blocking efficiency grade of at least 96 and never allowed more than 50 pressures in a season.

But run blocking is where Mailata truly shines, and he’s a big part of why Philly’s ground game has dominated so much in recent seasons. ESPN ranked him second among offensive tackles in run block win rate in both 2022 and 2023. PFF, meanwhile, graded him out above 80 in run blocking each of the last five seasons, topping out at a monstrous 94.6 grade in 2024. Mailata isn’t limited to specific schemes, either — he has elite 90-plus PFF grades in both zone and man schemes in his career.