Top 100 NFL players of 2023 ft. Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson & more

#21 Christian McCaffrey

49ers Football

After combining for just 10 games the two years prior, McCaffrey was able to finally play a full season again in 2022. However, to express how good he is on a real offense – not the Panthers, we have to look at what he did as a member of the 49ers.

Across 14 games and 263 touches for Kyle Shanahan's team, McCaffrey racked up 1509 yards and 13 touchdowns from scrimmage, plus another passing TD. You could tell he ran with a different attitude once he got to San Francisco.

Despite seeing the second-highest target share among running backs to only Austin Ekeler, 49ers QBs had a passer rating of 115.5 when going McCaffrey’s way.

#22 Chris Lindstrom

With the surprising fall of Quenton Nelson and the rest of the Colts offensive line, a new challenger to the Cowboys’ Zack Martin for the title of best guard in football emerged.

Lindstrom received the highest PFF grade among offensive linemen (95.0), in particular without another interior guy quite cracking the 90-mark. His ability to create lateral displacement on the front side of zone concepts, get to the outside edge of defenders, and take linebackers for a ride was a huge factor in the Falcons finishing just two yards short of second in rushing yards (2718).

They also finished just outside the top three in terms of yards per rush (4.9), despite having very inconsistent quarterback play to keep defenses from stacking the box.

And while Lindstrom isn’t put in a ton of true dropbacks, with the league’s highest rate of RPOs (28.9% of pass attempts), only allowing nine total pressures across 517 pass-blocking snaps is highly impressive.

#23 Minkah Fitzpatrick

This marks the second time in three years that Minkah finds himself atop my safety rankings and you almost can’t deny he’s become one of the game’s greats, earning his third first-team All-Pro nod in four years with the Steelers.

Even with a couple of games missed due to injury, he was tied for a league-high six interceptions, along with 11 passes broken up. However, he’s far from a finesse free safety.

2022 marked the second straight year with a run defense grade of over 82 for him and he missed a career-low 5.0% of his tackling attempts. Other than maybe Derwin James, he’s the most useful safety, but at the same time, his knack for the ball also makes him the most dangerous one.

#24 Sauce Gardner

Not enough is made of how rare it is for rookie cornerbacks to even be above-average starters, much less play at an All-Pro level. However, not only did Sauce win Defensive Rookie of the Year, but the Associated Press also named him first-team for how consistent he was all season.

He was tied for the best PFF coverage grade among all defensive backs (90.0). Along with his two interceptions, he led the league with 20 passes broken up, despite only seeing 86 targets come his way. 46 of those got completed for 452 yards and one touchdown – which was actually on him based on their rules in zone coverage, but he was labeled the next-closest defender.

With as zone-heavy as the Jets defensive system is, they ask their corners to help a lot in run support and Sauce didn’t back down at all as a tackler, missing just five of 80 attempts on the year.

#25 Justin Herbert

Just looking at the total numbers, not only did Herbert set the all-time record for passing yards and touchdowns through Years 1 and 2, but he’s also sixth ever in TD-to-INT ratio (2.69).

This past season, despite losing his All-Pro left tackle mid-way through Week 3, Mike Williams and Keenan Allen missing 11 combined games, the team averaging just 3.8 yards per rush and Herbert fracturing his rib cartilage in Week 2, he was able to throw 26 touchdowns compared to 10 picks and lead the Chargers to 10 wins.

He finished tied for 31st in intended air yards per pass attempt due to the restrictions of the Joe Lombardi passing game. Putting statistical context to the tape, which shows how many bad plays he gets LA out of, he put up the fifth-lowest pressure-to-sack conversion rate (14.2%).

#26 Nick Chubb

Browns Football

Chubb “only” finished third in total rushing yards last season (1525), but he also received 37 and 47 fewer carries than numbers one and two. He led the NFL with 47 rushes of 10+ yards and had the best missed tackle forced-per-carry rate at 27.5%.

Yes, he operates behind one of the best offensive lines in football, but his ability to make those big guys look good with appropriate pacing, manipulation of first- or second-level defenders and to get skinny for a nearly 230-pound back is tremendous.

He squats about three times his weight, which shows in the way he clears arm tackles like turnstiles and is able to churn out yardage when he is actually wrapped up. The only reason he isn’t considered among the elite is his limited usage in the passing game, but he does average 6.3 yards per target, despite a yards-before-catch average mark of -0.6.

By the way, he just became the first running back ever to average at least five yards per carry for five straight years – which is as long as he’s been in the league.

#27 Dexter Lawrence

Nose tackle isn’t the sexiest position for casual NFL fans, but we need to appreciate how dominant Lawrence was in 2022. Only Myles Garrett received a higher PFF grade during the regular season (92.4) among all defensive players in the league and I would argue Lawrence was the most impactful player in New York’s first playoff win since 2011, as he abused the Vikings interior O-line throughout the day.

Despite spending about two-thirds of snaps between the guards, Lawrence finished second to only Chris Jones among interior defenders with 70 total pressures.

Taking the playoffs into account, he was tied for sixth among all defensive linemen with 32 run stops, yet only missed one of 69 tackle attempts. His ability to control guys on the inside one-on-one, swallow combos and take pass-blockers on the inside for a ride set up one of the most dominant seasons we’ve seen from a legit nose.

#28 Quinnen Williams

While personnel-wise, the Jets secondary experienced the biggest overhaul heading into this past year, their dramatic shift from dead-last to top-five across basically all defensive statistics can be associated with the ascent of Williams as a true difference-maker up front.

While he had been an impactful starter in his first three years with Gang Green, the former No. 3 pick finally lived up to expectations coming out of Alabama. For the 2022 regular season, Big Q’s pressure-per-pass-rush-snap rate of 12.9% put him behind only Javon Hargrave and Chris Jones in terms of interior defensive linemen. PFR had him tied for second with 28 QB hits.

Despite only spending 270 snaps in run defense (36th-most for his position) due to the heavy rotation New York uses, he was able to throw off plays before they could even get going with regularity, and finished tied for sixth among that group with 12 tackles for loss.

#29 Stefon Diggs

Even with Gabriel Davis being expected to break out in 2022 and quarterback Josh Allen banging up his elbow mid-way through the year, it didn’t really slow down Diggs’ production in his eighth season, as he set personal highs in first downs (74) and touchdowns responsible for (11).

Looking at his numbers among all wide receivers, he finished top-five in receiving yards (1429), first downs per reception (46.8%) and passer rating when targeted (120.3).

While he can still win down the field with tremendous focus and ball skills (finished behind only Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams with six catches of 40+ yards), it’s his ability to win early in the route that has made him one of the most efficient high-volume targets across the league.

With that being said, he was only tied for 18th in catches that converted third downs (16), had a career-worst contested catch rate of just 46.2% (which is still pretty good) and was tied for the 10th-most drops across the league (nine).

#30 Jaire Alexander

Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears

Following the 2020 season, it looked like Alexander had established himself as the best cornerback in the league not named Jalen Ramsey.

He hadn’t always been able to show his best in defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s split-safety-based coverage scheme. However, as Green Bay started putting their CB1 in more isolated situations, their defense started to turn things around as well.

Alexander finished just one interception behind the league-leading six, along with 14 PBUs. At the same time, he was responsible for only two touchdowns across 82 targets, for a passer rating of 63.7.

His ability to bring people down in space has continuously improved, as he's cut down his missed tackle rate in each of the last four years, down to 6.7% in 2022.