A new type of power rankings: Ranking every NFL team by their best player

Power rankings area fan, and useful exercise to track how teams get on throughout an NFL season. With the season not yet started, we thought it would be an interesting idea to rank every NFL team on who their best player is, rather than the sum of their collective parts. Let's take a look at where every team ranks.

By the end of the 2024 season, this could be Jayden Daniels, and there’s an argument for Jonathan Allen on the interior of their defensive line, but McLaurin has been Washington’s most consistent player for some time, despite a lack of talent around him.

Brown is an, “Absolute stout run defender, who has the ability to become the complete package with increased productivity as a pass rusher,” per Sports Illustrated, but he probably isn’t an elite DT and there isn’t anyone on the roster better than him with Brian Burns gone.

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Judon is a good pass-rusher, but his 15.5 sack season in 2022 was the result of Bill Belichick’s incredible scheme as much as Judon’s skill. Second-year CB Christian Gonzalez was the only other contender here…

DeForest Buckner is a very good player, with Pro Football Network describing him as, “One of the most effective interior defenders of his generation,” but heading into his aged 30 seasons, we could expect a decline. The Colts could be a good team in 2024, but they don’t have many stars (yet).

There is no doubting Kyler Murray can be an excellent player in the NFL, we just haven’t seen it enough. We may be lower on him than most, and for entertainment’s sake, we hope he turns things around, but for now, we’re putting him at 28.

A curious trade by the Titans as they seem to be rebuilding but also brought in a vet cornerback, anyway, Sneed is a good, but not great player, and outside of him and Jeffery Simmons, there isn’t much top-end talent on the roster.

This is incredibly harsh on Evans, who’s one of the most consistent players in the NFL, having eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving every year of his career, per PFN. But there are better players elsewhere.

When your best player is an offensive guard, you are never going to be in a great place, and unfortunately for the Falcons, Lindstrom is their best player by a distance. For the record, he is an excellent guard and Drake London or Kirk Cousins could maybe take his place, but it wouldn’t change their position much.

Metcalf is probably one of the more underappreciated players in the NFL, consistently breaking games open with his speed and size. The Seahawks have zero players on the PFN Top 100 for 2024 so perhaps we have overrated Metcalf, but we think he’s an exceptional player.

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“While he’s entering his age-35 campaign, Davis is still among the most productive linebackers in the league.” Davis is really good, but he’s an off-ball linebacker, so we can’t have him much higher. The Saints roster is a tough read.

Allen had a breakout year in 2023, racking up 17.5 sacks per ESPN, making him one of the most productive pass rushers in football. Outside of Allen, there aren’t many players on the Jags to compete, that could all change if Trevor Lawrence puts it all together.

Per CBS Sports, when targeted, opposing QBs, “completed just 55.2% of their passes against him with a 50.9 passer rating,” putting him amongst the better CBs in the NFL. The Bears have a lot of good pieces, but only a couple we can argue are “elite” at the moment.

This list is now getting difficult as there are so many elite players in the NFL. Lawrence is certainly one of them, consistently performing as one of the best interior pass rushers in football despite being a true nose tackle, which is ridiculous.

We are going to stop prefacing each piece of analysis by saying we think this player is good, because at this stage, that much is obvious. Love could firmly cement himself as elite with a good 2024 season.

As PFN writes, Herbert is, “ One of the most physically talented QBs in the NFL, Herbert should finally get his flowers if and when the Chargers start winning games under Jim Harbaugh.” As much as “QB Wins” isn’t a good stat, at some point, Herbert needs to put the team on his back.

Matthew Stafford threw for just shy of 4,000 yards and 24 TDs in 2023, per ESPN, leading a Rams team full of rookies to the playoffs. It remains to be seen if he can repeat the feat in 2024 at the age of 36, but we can’t see a reason why not.

There may be no more technically sound corner in football, with PFN describing his play style here, “Surtain’s perfect technique lets him cover any receiver in the NFL,” what more do you want from a CB?

A.J. Brown, Jalen Hurts, and Jordan Mailata are all candidates for this spot, but Lane Johnson remains one of the elite tackles in the NFL. 2023 saw some signs of decline, which is to be expected, but even at 75% effectiveness, he’s nearly impossible to beat.

Sewell is part of a new generation of tackles who look set to dominate the NFL for years to come. His athleticism is scary and led to him beating out teammates Amon-Ra St. Brown and Aidan Hutchinson for this award.

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PFN ranked Crosby as their number nine overall player in 2024 which seems high to us. That doesn’t mean we don’t admire him given his one-man pass-rush attempts over the past few seasons, we just have him ranked a little lower.

If Burrow can return to his 2021 and 2022 form in 2024, this ranking is going to look dumb, but we can only rank what we see and Burrow spent a lot of last year injured. He will need to hit the ground running in 2024, and we hope he does, as the Bengals are exciting to watch.

We have officially drunk the C.J. Stroud Kool-Aid, we were high on him pre-draft and have only become more excited by him as a player as time goes on. As CBS Sports writes, “By all accounts, he is not only Houston's franchise quarterback but will rival to be among the top players in the league at his position in short order.”

Watt is a simply ridiculous pass rusher, racking up 13 or more sacks five times in his seven-year career, including a record-tying 22.5 sack season in 2021. To have him at 11 shows how talented some of these other players are.

“In 2023, he was the only cornerback to start at least 14 games and receive fewer than 60 targets,” per PFN, that’s a ridiculously low number of targets for a cornerback to deal with. Gardner is the key cog in one of the best defenses in football, and may well be the best corner in football.

The second Josh Allen on this list, but undeniably the better one. Allen is one of the three best QBs in football and one of the few who can outduel Patrick Mahomes at his best. It’s striking he’s to end up at this spot, given quite how good he is.

Hill is 1b to Justin Jefferson’s 1a (spoiler alert) at the wide receiver spot, whoever you prefer of those two, it all comes down to splitting hairs. Hill is a player the likes of which the NFL may never have seen before, given his skillset.

2024 saw McAffrey surpass 2,000 yards from scrimmage and score 21 TDs, per ESPN. He’s a unique back and completely changes the Niners' offense, offering a safety blanket to Brock Purdy underneath while still able to break long runs when needed.

Pro Football Focus wrote this, “Justin Jefferson remains the best receiver in the NFL. Injury cost him much of 2023, but in 10 games, he still cleared 1,000 yards and averaged 2.91 yards per route run,” having ranked him number one in their receiver rankings, it sort of says it all.

Since his rookie season, Garrett has never had fewer than 10 sacks in a season. Opposing offenses are forced to scheme around him, sliding protections his way or chipping him with a tight end. He’s a game-wrecker and a big reason why the Browns are playoff contenders now.

Jackson won his second MVP award in 2023 in what was his first year in Todd Monken’s scheme. He’s a player the likes of which the NFL hasn’t seen before, given his incredible pocket presence and ability to run when needed. He’s essentially unstoppable at times.

Parson has 40.5 sacks through three seasons in the NFL, despite spending significant time playing as an off-ball linebacker. When Bill Belichick compares you to Lawrence Taylor (who many consider the best defensive player in NFL history) you know there’s something special going on.

Mahomes could play another decade in the NFL, and we wouldn’t bet against him winning another four or five Super Bowls during that time. He’s probably going to be thought of as the best to ever do it when it’s all said and done, even if he has quite a lot of work to do to overtake Brady.

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