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

#71 Cam Heyward

The picture that was burnt into my brain about Cam last season was how he absolutely manhandled Bengals rookie guard Cordell Volson in the season-opener.

Heyward has been wearing that hard hat for the Steelers for more than a decade now and been one of the most consistent forces on the interior D-line. Among his position group, he’s tied for fourth behind only Chris Jones, Aaron Donald and Javon Hargrave with 119 total pressures across regular and postseason, despite only appearing in one playoff contest.

He’s also fourth in terms of defensive stops in the run game (63). He can create traffic by standing up single blockers, two-gap near the point of attack, free up his teammates on twists, or win one-on-one in passing situations, as a relentless pocket-pusher.

#72 D.K. Metcalf

Seahawks Football

In a league that constantly is getting smaller – in particular at the wide receiver position – Metcalf is as close to your traditional receiver as you’re going to find at 6’4” and 235 pounds.

If he’s in any type of isolated coverage on the outside, Metcalf will throw off his corner and win on slant routes, before becoming a rolling train with the ball in his hands.

He may never win on the most diverse route tree, but he has the speed to win down the sideline. He’s also become a lot more efficient with bending off either foot on rounded cuts or stopping his momentum and working back towards the quarterback.

D.K. can box out defenders down the field and I’m not sure there’s a receiver more unbothered by a safety barreling down on him while making a grab. That’s how he led the NFL with 24 contested catches last season, casting a 51.5% win rate in those situations.

#73 Talanoa Hufanga

In a defense filled with studs, it’s kind of insane that Hufanga was able to stand out as much as anybody not named Nick Bosa. The energy he played with and the intimidation factor he had on opponents was palpable.

He was able to fill the stat sheet in a major way – four passes intercepted and nine more broken up, tied for fourth among safeties with 30 total defensive stops, and forced a couple of fumbles.

He also cut down his missed-tackle rate to a solid 7.6%, which is particularly impressive if you put it into context, with Hufanga constantly playing with his hair on fire and pursuing the ball at 100 MPH.

Aesthetically and mindset wise, he reminds you of Steelers Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu, yet he didn’t play near the line of scrimmage as much as you’d think in that system. According to PFF, Hufanga spent 56.7% of snaps as a deep safety last season.

#74 Darius Slay

Slay’s game has aged like fine wine and he’s become an integral piece in Philly’s defensive scheme. He’s now logged three interceptions in back-to-back years, to put his total all the way up to 20 since 2017, along with 14 PBUs last season.

He missed just three of 58 attempted tackles, regularly bringing down guys in the flats one-on-one. Thanks to his football IQ and play-making skills, he was a major factor in Philadelphia finishing number one in dropback EPA (-0.087) this past season, along with flirting with historic numbers in terms of sacks.

#75 Von Miller

Bills Football

I thought Miller was a great addition to a young room of defensive linemen in Buffalo, but did not expect him to be the clear alpha and felt his injury would be detrimental to the team’s success.

He finished sixth league-wide in pass-rush win rate (23%), according to ESPN, with 45 pressures across slightly over 300 pass-rush snaps last season. Despite being limited to 11 games with the Bills, Miller has now been able to reach double-digit tackles for loss every year he’s been active, other than when he was lost nine games into the 2013 season.

His ability to bend around the corner is still elite and he was super-active near the point of attack vs. the run.

#76 Frank Ragnow

A somewhat surprising first-round pick back in 2018, Ragnow was one of my personal favorites in that draft. His understanding of aiming points, grip strength and effort have made him one of the NFL’s premiere blockers on the ground in what has become a diverse scheme.

Other than his rookie season, Ragnow has earned a run-blocking grade above 78 in each of the following four. One of my favorite things to watch on the All-22 is him releasing and hunting some poor DB in the screen game.

His ability to counter the hands and quickly gain control of interior rushers have kept the A-gaps clean for the Lions. While he only appeared in four games in 2021, across the 1385 pass-blocking snaps these past three years combined, Ragnow has allowed just one sack and two additional hits on his quarterback.

#77 Joey Bosa

Taking out his debut season, when he held out for a better contract and still won Defensive Rookie of the Year, only once over the following five seasons did he miss more than four games prior to 2022.

We think of Bosa as this guy who’s made a living off expert hand usage, with the patented two-handed swipe, but we forget how good he is at playing with extension and disengaging from blocks, which is how he’s racked up 76 tackles for loss across 84 games.

He may have never gone over 12.5 sacks in a season, but looking at his pressure-per-rush opportunity rate of 15.0%, he’s right up there with the very best in the game over that extended sample size.

His little brother Nick has certainly overshadowed him, but we’ve seen Joey take over games and if he can play a full 17 weeks this year, he’ll be key for the Chargers to take the next step.

#78 Aaron Rodgers

Jets Buccaneers Football

There’s no mystery around this – 2022 was a definite drop-off for Rodgers from winning consecutive MVP trophies. After leading the NFL in EPA per play in both those years, he fell all the way to 21st last season (0.039).

However, there seems to be a misnomer about Rodgers declining physically or refusing to push the ball down the field. He finished behind only Josh Allen in big-time throw rate (5.7%), among quarterbacks with 200+ dropbacks.

The problem is that a lot of the shots he took down the field came on early downs, when he saw opportunities to hit isolated targets streaking vertically, rather than testing tight windows in coverage.

However, that was in large part due to missing chemistry with his young pass-catchers. With that being said, he still finished second in on-target rate of his passes (80.6%) and while the mobility is declining a little bit, his arm is still special. A change of scenery now in New York could reinvigorate him.

#79 A.J. Terrell

Going through the statistics, I was surprised to see Terrell actually played 14 games last season, because he pulled a hamstring early on in one of those, missed three weeks and just never quite felt like himself.

Going back to 2021, on 86 targets his way, not only did he defend 19 of those (three INTs), but he allowed exactly half of those to be completed, with just 4.8 yards per target and three touchdowns, despite constantly being asked to shadow the opposing team’s top receiver.

The numbers certainly got worse, in particular being responsible for twice as many touchdowns, but the difference wasn’t drastic. We’ll have to see how his deployment under new DC Ryan Nielsen will change, but for what he’s been asked to do, Terrell has been absolutely tremendous as a natural cover talent.

#80 Nick Bolton

Other than Fred Warner and Roquan Smith, you can argue Bolton played as well as any off-ball linebacker in the NFL last season.

He did finish second in both solo (108) and total tackles (180), along with snatching a couple of interceptions and forcing a fumble. However, I thought his ability to ID keys and beat blockers to the spot along with the lack of any fear turned him into one of the premiere run-stoppers at the position.

According to PFR, he’s only missed 3.6 percent of his tackling attempts through two seasons. Bolton was the best defensive player in the Super Bowl, not only because he delivered that momentum-changing scoop-and-score, but also because he was the key to slowing down Jalen Hurts as a runner, thanks to his ability to track the ball and find opportunities to shoot into the backfield.