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

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

50 – Colts CB Sauce Gardner

This past season may have been the most turbulent of Gardner’s career, and that’s saying something considering he started his career with the Jets in 2022. Despite signing him to a huge extension in August, New York flipped after the Colts dangled two first-round picks, an offer that seemed too good to turn down. Gardner was traded after a seven-game losing streak to start the season. After he ramped up into the starting lineup in Indianapolis, a calf injury ultimately derailed the rest of his year. He played in 11 games and had no interceptions, the second time in Gardner’s four seasons he didn’t come up with a takeaway.

While Gardner has as much raw talent as any cornerback in football, that lack of ball production remains one of the factors keeping him from the top of the pyramid. He has three picks in four seasons, and after a remarkable 20 pass breakups as a rookie, he’s failed to crack double digits in that category the past two seasons. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a fantastic coverage player. Gardner ranked ninth out of 120 cornerbacks with a sub-50 percent completion percentage allowed, and he had one of the higher snaps per target ratios in the NFL, meaning teams weren’t as keen to test him.

Still, the theme of Gardner’s career to this point has been that there’s meat left on the bone. Hopefully with a full offseason and a clean bill of health, he can start to realize that potential with the Colts. After the revelation that nearly the whole league had his age wrong and he’s really 24, it’s almost as if this past year was a mulligan.

49 – Chiefs C Creed Humphrey

Humphrey has become a rock in the middle of Kansas City’s offensive line. In the midst of his prime at 27 years old, Humphrey has started 85 of 85 possible games for the Chiefs plus another 13 playoff contests. PFF dinged him for a single sack allowed last year and it was his only one across two seasons and well over 2,000 snaps. He was once again the top interior offensive lineman in ESPN’s pass block win rate at 98 percent, and PFF bestowed an 88.5 run-blocking grade on Humphrey that ranked fifth out of 126 interior offensive linemen. Humphrey was named first-team AP All-Pro for the second straight season, and he’s poised to keep an ironclad grip on that award for years to come.

48 – Falcons RB Bijan Robinson

Football is a sport played by men, but from time to time someone comes along who makes it look like the game so many of us played as kids in the backyard, at recess or even on the street. Robinson is one of those special players. He has that rare ability to break tackles that isn’t just about speed, strength and agility (though he has those traits in spades). Robinson plays the game of football like everyone else is moving in slow motion, and sometimes he extends that spell beyond the field, out of the TV and into your living room.

I could rattle off all the stats. Robinson hit over 1,400 yards rushing for the second straight year and added 820 more through the air, giving him an NFL-leading 2,298 yards from scrimmage. He scored 11 touchdowns, including on plays of 93 and 81 yards. He was a first-team All-Pro selection. He broke 86 tackles just on running plays, adding another 26 on his 79 catches.

But frankly, Robinson just needs to be seen to be believed.

BIJAN ROBINSON 93 YARDS!

LARvsATL on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/OTqGarUX9F

— NFL (@NFL) December 30, 2025

47 – Raiders TE Brock Bowers

The second season for Bowers wasn’t quite the follow-up to his rookie year that he and the Raiders expected. After a record-setting debut where Bowers nearly hit 1,200 receiving yards and was a first-team All-Pro selection, he picked up a PCL injury early in the 2025 campaign. He only missed four games but it was clear the injury hampered him the rest of the way, along with the tire fire that was the Raiders’ offense.

Still, Bowers had 64 catches for 680 yards and seven touchdowns, a pretty strong season by normal tight end standards. His athleticism and skill as a receiver have translated pretty smoothly to the pro game. In ESPN’s receiver analytics, Bowers ranked 21st in overall score among all pass catchers, not just tight ends.

46 – Jaguars OLB Josh Hines-Allen

Over the past few years, Hines-Allen has been one of the most disruptive edge rushers in football. Last year, he was one of four to hit 100 total pressures — a huge number. Over the past four years, Hines-Allen’s 330 total pressures are more than any other edge rusher outside of Packers OLB Micah Parsons. That’s more than Myles Garrett, more than T.J. Watt, Nick Bosa, Aidan Hutchinson, you name it.

Yet Hines-Allen has made just one Pro Bowl in that span and it comes down to sacks. Last year he was officially credited with eight sacks, the third time in the past four years he hasn’t cracked double digits. The exception was a 17.5 sack explosion in 2022 which earned him a Pro Bowl nod, but the numbers suggest Hines-Allen has been pretty much the same player this entire time.

45 – Packers QB Jordan Love

Quietly, Love was one of the most efficient quarterbacks in football last year, contrary to the perception of him as a gunslinging gambler. There were lapses in upset losses to the Browns and Panthers, but overall Love protected the ball well on the season, finishing with a career-best 1.4 interception rate. His turnover-worthy play rate of 2.6 percent was tied for ninth-best among qualifying passers. The Packers wanted to lean on the running game and take the air out of the ball last year, and that held down Love’s raw passing totals. He had 3,381 passing yards and 23 touchdowns, both around ordinary numbers.

However, the efficiency stats are a lot more glowing. Love ranked second in the league in EPA per play. He had the third-best passing grade in PFF’s estimation thanks in large part to a 5.9 percent big-time throw rate, coming up big with 30 big-time throws despite the lower attempts. Love has excellent arm talent with both touch and power, and as an added difficulty for defenses, he’s really hard to sack. He ranked fourth in pressure-to-sack rate at 10.5 percent. If the Packers decide to open up the offense, Love could rack up the raw stats needed to win some hardware.

44 – Browns DE Jared Verse

In his first two seasons, Verse has already made two Pro Bowls and earned 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. The sack totals aren’t quite there yet, with 4.5 his rookie year and 7.5 last season. But PFF paints a better picture with its total pressure numbers. Verse had 100 pressures in 2025, making him one of only four players to reach that milestone.

That suggests that more sack production is ahead, even if some of his efficiency metrics are lagging. Verse didn’t place on ESPN’s pass rush win rate leaderboard and his PFF win rate of 16.1 percent was 21st — outstanding but a cut below the elite tier. His pass rush productivity score, which weights sacks, hits and pressures against total opportunities, was also 21st. However, Verse is a bear to deal with and has a well-rounded game as well. ESPN gave him the second-highest run stop win rate of all edge rushers at 35 percent and his 39 total stops were sixth at the position.

It is going to be absolutely fascinating to look back in three years at the Rams-Browns blockbuster trade that sent Verse to Cleveland in exchange for Garrett. By that time, Garrett will be 34 years old compared to Verse who will be 28 with theoretically years of his prime ahead. The new contract the Browns will presumably sign Verse to won’t even have kicked in by that point since they acquired him with three years of team control. Garrett is a future Hall of Famer, but Verse is another potentially elite player in his own right.

43 – Cardinals TE Trey McBride

The best tight end in the NFL plays in the NFC West. There’s a legitimate debate to be had, though, about whether 49ers TE George Kittle still holds the title or if McBride has overtaken him. The former Colorado State veteran has been superb the past two seasons, amassing 2,385 receiving yards in that span.

Touchdowns were the sole question mark, as McBride had just two on 147 targets in 2024. That number skyrocketed to 11 in 2025, as the pass-happy Cardinals made McBride the centerpiece of their offense with 169 targets. McBride played out of his mind in more ways than one. He forced 24 missed tackles, leading all tight ends and setting a new career high by a mile. He was dinged for just one drop by PFF and led all tight ends with 36 contested targets. Kittle probably still has him as a blocker, but McBride has become just as potent as a passing game weapon.

42 – Eagles CB Quinyon Mitchell

To this day, I’m baffled how Mitchell fell to the Eagles in the back half of the first round in 2024. He was an instant-impact starter and he raised his game to another level this past season, earning first-team AP All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl berth. He broke up 17 passes and allowed a measly 38 catches on 87 targets. That completion percentage allowed of 43.7 percent was the second-best mark in the league, per PFF.

In an interesting quirk, Mitchell has yet to intercept a pass in the regular season. However, he has four picks in five playoff games, plus a forced fumble for good measure, so it feels like just a matter of time until that sort of production comes in the regular season, especially because he puts himself around the ball so much.

41 – Cowboys QB Dak Prescott

The numbers Prescott has piled up have been just ridiculous. He’s led the NFL in completions two times in the past three years, with the exception a 2024 season halved by a major hamstring injury. Last season he shredded the NFL for over 4,500 passing yards and 30 touchdowns. He ranked fifth in ESPN’s QBR and eighth in adjusted net yards per attempt, two of my favorite big-picture QB stats.

Prescott’s greatest weapon right now is his mind and command of the offense. The way he maneuvers into the perfect play and throw time after time is reminiscent of how Tom Brady and the other great pocket passers of the previous generation sliced up defenses. In PFF’s charting, Prescott ranked sixth with 31 big-time throws and 12th with a turnover-worthy play rate of 2.7 percent — an excellent balance of aggressiveness and good decision-making. While he doesn’t run as much as he did early in his career, Prescott is still tough to bring down in the pocket. His sack rate of 4.91 percent was ninth in the league and his pressure-to-sack rate of 13.3 percent was 10th.

For my money, Prescott is one of the most underappreciated players in the league even though he plays for one of its most talked about teams. Being the quarterback of the Cowboys might actually work against Prescott in the end given how much silliness they prompt from commentators. The lack of postseason success is an anchor Prescott has to wear along with the rest of the organization, but he’s probably the biggest reason they’ve had as much regular-season success as they’ve had in the last 10 years.