Our fifth installment of the top 100 players for the upcoming season is in the books. You can find the full 100 below in 10-player installments. 

An eagle-eyed commenter did catch one significant mistake: Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson was overlooked as an inclusion. There’s a lot of shuffling around that goes into this list being built and at some point he was not copy-pasted into the pool of players. He should have been slotted at No. 10 given he had 14.5 sacks and was one of four players to crack 100 total pressures. That bumps everyone else down a slot, effectively making it a top 101 list. 

• 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
• NFLTR Top 100: 40-31
• NFLTR Top 100: 30-21
• NFLTR Top 100: 20-11 
• NFLTR Top 100: 10-1

We also thought it would be fun to do a next best 10 to show who just missed the cut for inclusion. This is one of the most painful parts about the process, as we start with a list that has to be whittled down nearly in half. This is a chance to highlight some deserving players, although in no particular order.

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

Lions LB Jack Campbell

Eyebrows were raised when the Lions took Campbell in the first round back in 2023 but time has proven GM Brad Holmes right in this case. He had a huge season in 2025, recording 176 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, five sacks, three forced fumbles and four pass breakups. Campbell capped it all off by earning first-team honors on the Associated Press’ All-Pro team. 

The former Iowa star has throwback size at 6-5 and nearly 250 pounds, but modern-age athleticism and a well-rounded game. He led all linebackers with 68 stops, per PFF, which the service defines as tackles that constitute a failure for the offense. Campbell also had a reliable 7.1 percent missed tackle rate, 14th out of 94 qualifying linebackers in PFF’s stats. He chipped in 17 total pressures and had respectable numbers in coverage, too. Despite some drama with his fifth-year option, the Lions made sure to lock him up long-term on a big deal this offseason to keep him in the center of their defense for years to come. 

Bills DT Ed Oliver

Oliver played in just three games plus the divisional round loss to the Broncos last year. But he was a force in those handful of games. He had three sacks, seven tackles for loss, 13 total pressures and 10 stops in those four games. PFF has a metric called pass rush productivity score that weights sacks, hits and hurries against how many times a player rushes the quarterback. Oliver’s 11.6 PRP score would have led all defensive tackles by a fair amount. If he can pick up where he left off in 2026, it should mean good things for the Bills’ defense. 

Panthers DT Derrick Brown

Brown’s prowess as a run stopper has him known around the league even if the soft-spoken defender doesn’t have a high profile nationally thanks to playing for a small-market Carolina team that hasn’t had many spotlight games in the last eight years. A couple of years ago, he had over 100 total tackles as a defensive tackle, which is just an absurd number and a big reason he made his first career Pro Bowl. After missing most of 2024 with a torn ACL, Brown returned and led all defensive tackles with 44 total stops last season. 

He’s not just a run-plugger, though. Brown has had healthy pass rush production throughout his career and set a new best with five sacks in 2025. PFF credited him with 39 total pressures, which ranked 22nd out of 142 qualifying defensive tackles, and in his last three full seasons he’s averaged right about 40 pressures a year. 

Buccaneers DT Vita Vea

Vea’s been so steady for so long that it feels like he can be a little underappreciated when it comes to discussing the top defensive tackles. It’s also a product of his role at nose tackle that requires him to eat up space and blockers to free other players around him to make plays. Vea makes his fair share of plays, though. He had 4.5 sacks last year, his fifth straight year of at least four quarterback takedowns. Nose tackles aren’t supposed to have big sack numbers, but Vea isn’t your typical nose with incredibly light feet despite his 6-4 and 350-pound frame. PFF credited him with 51 total pressures, the 12th-best mark at his position, along with 21 stops. Vea’s average depth of tackle in the run game was 1.5 yards, 18th out of 146 qualifying defensive tackles. 

Rams WR Davante Adams

One of the hardest parts about this year’s version of the top 100 was cutting down at the receiver position. I had 25 wideouts on my initial list and ended up with 14 in the final top 100. There were a lot of players it felt a little wrong to leave out. Adams was in that bucket given the breadth of his career accomplishments and the fact he led the NFL with 14 receiving touchdowns last season. He was a big piece of the puzzle for a great Los Angeles team even at 33 years old. 

However, he’s not a dynamic, high-volume playmaker anymore. Adams was terrific in red zone and third-down situations because he’s still so crafty and has the wiggle to separate in tight areas. His open score of 72 was inside the top 15 at the position and his PFF receiving grade of 83.9 was 11th. But his 789 yards in 14 games were the lowest total since his first two seasons when he was still finding himself. Adams forced only two missed tackles, averaged 2.3 yards after catch per reception (both the lowest marks of his career) and caught just 10 of 34 contested targets, per PFF. 

Some of this is because Adams’ deployment was so different than the rest of his career. He saw his lowest rate of slot snaps since his first two seasons and was out wide on almost 84 percent of his snaps. His 14-yard average depth of target was also a career high, significantly so. But if you’re the Rams, it makes complete sense to not take away slot reps that allow you to funnel the ball to Puka Nacua because he’s so much more dynamic than Adams at this stage. 

Bengals WR Tee Higgins

Higgins gets overshadowed a little bit because of how elite fellow Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase is. However, I do think he has the talent to have a big year like Cowboys WR George Pickens if he ever had to be the primary guy. Higgins’ superpower is his catching ability. He’s big and long at 6-4 and 220 pounds, with the eye-tracking and body control to vacuum up difficult targets. Last year he had a catch score of 86, via ESPN’s receiver tracking analytics, that ranked fifth at the position. He’s also scored 21 touchdowns over the past two seasons. 

There are flashes of more dimension to his game, though. Higgins has generally been above average after the catch throughout his career, with power and long strides to eat up ground if he gets some runway. PFF has credited him with 22 forced missed tackles over the past two years. He’s also a slightly better route runner than he gets credit for, just because of his style. Regardless of how he gets it done, he’s an absolute terror against man coverage. He had PFF’s top receiving grade versus man last year and his 2.57 yards per route run ranked 14th out of 107 candidates. 

Lions WR Jameson Williams

I don’t see Williams mentioned a lot in the conversations about the best receivers in the league, but I think that could be changing soon as the public catches up with how good he’s been. The former first-round pick had a rocky start to his career, as he was rehabbing a torn ACL when the Lions picked him, then he ran afoul of the league’s anti-gambling policy. In Year 3, he broke out with over 1,000 yards receiving, then built on that performance last year. Williams finished with 65 catches, 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns. 

Williams has game-breaking speed, as evidenced by averaging over 17 yards per catch each of the past two years in a time where defenses have been obsessed with taking away explosive plays. He’s been quietly building a more well-rounded game, though. His open score of 65 ranked 26th out of 110 wideouts last year (ESPN), and he had 2.22 yards per route run against man coverage to rank 21st out of 107 (PFF). His drop rate went up but Williams actually did far better on his few contested targets and raised his missed tackles forced from three to 12 between 2024-2025. As long as he keeps his nose clean and avoids the knucklehead allegations, he could develop into much more than just a sidekick in Detroit’s offense. 

Bears DE Montez Sweat

There are flashier defensive ends than Sweat but he remains a really good, well-rounded player who plays a pivotal role for the Chicago defense. He notched the second double-digit sack season of his career in 2025, hitting 10 in the regular season and adding another in the playoffs. PFF charted him with 65 total pressures, 15th among edge rushers, plus 41 total stops which ranked fifth. Sweat is huge and rangy for the position at 6-6 and 270 pounds, and he does a good job of using that length to his advantage beyond the run game. He forced four fumbles and batted down six passes across the 19 total games he appeared in last year. 

Cardinals DE Josh Sweat

The second “Sweaty” pass rusher who inexplicably is not related to Montez, Josh made an immediate impact as Arizona’s most notable free agent signing in 2025. He had 12 sacks, making him the first Cardinals player to hit double-digit QB takedowns since J.J. Watt did it in 2022. Arizona was poor on defense overall and didn’t take the hoped-for step, but Sweat did his part, forcing four fumbles on top of his pass rush production. Even though his overall pressures were down from prior years, Sweat’s 18 percent pass rush win rate ranked eighth in the league — the fifth straight year he placed among ESPN’s top pass rushers. 

At 29 years old, he might not fit the Cardinals’ window (and he doesn’t seem too happy to be in Arizona), so Sweat is a fascinating potential trade candidate to watch heading into this coming season. Teams looking to tilt the scales in their favor just a little bit more will have plenty of interest in a borderline top 100 player. 

Bills OT Spencer Brown

Brown debuted on our top 100 list last year after capping off years of growth with a career-best 98 percent efficiency rating in pass protection, per PFF. The service’s numbers weren’t quite as kind to him in 2025, dinging him for 41 pressures conceded as opposed to 22 the year before. However, Brown recorded the best pass block win rate of his career on ESPN’s leaderboard at 94 percent — 10th-best at this position. So how do you square that? 

My guess is the difference in methodology. ESPN uses player-tracking data and has a cutoff of 2.5 seconds to determine if a blocking rep is a win or a loss. PFF employs charters who will watch every play and assign credit. So if Brown blocks his man for 2.5 seconds but QB Josh Allen holds the ball, he could still be hit with a pressure from PFF. ESPN’s win rates also don’t account for how some teams might be using schemes to protect their tackles. Both Bills tackles placed on ESPN’s leaderboard and they weren’t the only team to put both tackles on. 

At any rate, PFF does see Brown as a heck of a run blocker, giving him an 85.7 run blocking grade, No. 7 at the position. Brown also cut down dramatically on his penalties, going from 17 in 2024 to just four in 2025, which was a major weak spot in his game. Add in how important he is to set the tone for the Bills’ physical offense and at least a case for Brown having a well-rounded game, and I see him as deserving of being in the conversation with the league’s high-end tackles.