• Lane Johnson kicks off the Nos. 21-30 field: He has for years been the gold standard at right tackle, and while not quite at his best in 2023, he still posted PFF grades of at least 78.5 as both a run blocker and a pass protector.
• Derrick Henry and Amon-Ra St. Brown headline the Nos. 31-40 group: Henry still produced behind a poor offensive line in 2023, and only CeeDee Lamb had more catches in the regular season last year than Brown’s 119.
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Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
The 2024 PFF50 showcases the league’s elite talent, highlighting the top 50 players in the NFL. These rankings will be based on a combination of past performance, future potential and overall impact on the game.
At its heart, PFF is a player evaluation company that quantifies hundreds of data points on any given play in an effort to identify the best players and use that information to create insights that cannot be found anywhere else.
This is a list of the best 50 players in the NFL entering the 2024 season. No single number or grade dictates this list, but the grading — along with PFF’s wins above replacement (WAR) metric — has been used as a foundation while leaning toward the most recent season.
Editor’s note: The PFF50 will be released throughout the week, starting with Nos. 41-50 on Monday, July 15. The top 10 players will drop on Friday, July 19.
21. T Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles
No tackle has a harder role on a down-to-down basis than Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson, who for years has been the gold standard at right tackle. He wasn’t quite at his best in 2023 and still posted PFF grades of at least 78.5 as both a run blocker and a pass protector. The 34-year-old Johnson may have begun his decline, but if he can block Father Time for another year or two, he remains one of the best players in the game.
22. T Tristan Wirfs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
One of the best right tackles in the game the second he entered the league, Tristan Wirfs was moved to the left side by Tampa Bay last season and looked every bit as good. He allowed 24 quarterback pressures on the left side, earning an 84.3 PFF pass-blocking grade, and was solid as a run blocker. Wirfs has now played four straight seasons with at least an 81.1 PFF overall grade to begin his professional career.
23. S Antoine Winfield Jr., Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Antoine Winfield Jr. had a spectacular 2023 season, earning grades of at least 86.1 in every facet of play that PFF measures. He was phenomenal in coverage, tallied 18 quarterback pressures, including six sacks, on the blitz, and made 26 defensive stops. His turnovers were also directly responsible for at least two game-changing results over the course of the season. Winfield has been one of the best safeties in the league since stepping foot on an NFL field, and last season represented a new high water mark.
24. WR Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
Even without a healthy Joe Burrow for most of the season (very much hampered and then shut down for the year), Ja’Marr Chase had a big season, catching 100 passes for 1,216 yards and earning an 85.3 PFF overall grade in the process. Every receiver needs service, but Chase showed that he can cook regardless of who is throwing him the football. With Burrow back in 2024, expect to see one of the best in the game continue to excel.
Read more: Top 32 wide receivers ahead of the 2024 NFL season
25. WR A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles
Few receivers are as physically imposing as the 6-foot-1, 226-pound A.J. Brown. He racked up almost 1,500 yards over the 2023 season and had a run of six straight games with at least six catches and 125 yards. Brown has averaged at least 2.5 yards per route run every season of his NFL career and is one of the best contested-catch receivers in the game.
26. S Kyle Hamilton, Baltimore Ravens
Kyle Hamilton‘s impact now exceeds conventional statistics. He influences how the game is actually played when he is on the field. Deployed by Baltimore as a slot defender primarily, Hamilton consistently shut down the short game to his side of the field for the Ravens all season, earning an 84.7 PFF overall grade in 2023. A versatile playmaker on defense, Hamilton is the matchup answer most teams don’t have on their roster.
27. DI Quinnen Williams, New York Jets
Quinnen Williams cemented himself as one of the best defensive linemen in the game, backing up his breakout 2022 season with one arguably even better last year. Williams set a new career high in PFF overall grade (90.6) as well as run-defense grade (90.4), racking up 70 total pressures and 42 defensive stops over the season. He is now consistently one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in the game and is playing on an elite defense.
28. T Penei Sewell, Detroit Lions
Penei Sewell was good right out of the gate in his NFL career and has also improved each season of his career. He was a dominant force in 2023, earning a 93.1 PFF run-blocking grade — one of the best single-season marks of the past 18 seasons. He allowed just one sack in the regular season as a pass protector. Still just 23 years old, Sewell is one of the best tackles in football.
29. T Andrew Thomas, New York Giants
The loss of Andrew Thomas to injury last season was a devastating blow to an already weak offensive line. Thomas ended up playing just 576 snaps, a little more than half of his 2022 total. He has elite pass-blocking chops and had brought his run blocking to a similar level in 2022 before injuries derailed him in 2023. If Thomas bounces back and enjoys a healthy season, while having some better players alongside him on the Giants’ line, he is well worthy of this ranking.
30. C Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs
Following Jason Kelce‘s retirement, Creed Humphrey now has the strongest case to be seen as the best center in the game despite playing just three seasons in the NFL so far. 2023 was his weakest year of the three, and the first season he didn’t earn an overall PFF grade of at least 90.0. His run blocking is outstanding, and he has allowed just 44 total pressures in three seasons of action.
31. RB Derrick Henry, Baltimore Ravens
Derrick Henry’s production has declined over the past two seasons, but he has not declined. Instead, what we witnessed was the effect the worst offensive line in football can have on even an elite running back. Last season, Henry still averaged 3.3 yards per carry after contact and broke 57 tackles, earning a 90.1 PFF grade, but Tennessee’s blocking averaged only 0.9 yards before contact, ranking 30th in the league. Prepare for Henry’s production to bounce back significantly in Baltimore.
32. WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
Amon-Ra St. Brown has become one of the most productive receivers in the game. Only CeeDee Lamb had more catches in the regular season last year than Brown’s 119, and he moved the chains 75 times with receptions. He also caught 50% of his contested targets — a great clip for a smaller receiver — and earned an elite 90.6 PFF overall grade for the season.
33. LB Roquan Smith, Baltimore Ravens
Since arriving in Baltimore, Roquan Smith has been as good as any linebacker in football, and he built on that performance in 2023. He tallied seven pass breakups in the regular season, showing the coverage skills that made him such an enticing prospect at draft time back in 2018. Smith has also been one of the more efficient tacklers in the game, but he will have to do it in 2024 with a new defensive coach and partner beside him after Mike Macdonald left for Seattle and Patrick Queen departed in free agency.
34. EDGE Aidan Hutchinson, Detroit Lions
There is such a glut of talent at edge rusher in today’s NFL that Aidan Hutchinson can become just the fifth player in the past 18 seasons to record 100 pressures in a single season (Micah Parsons got there first last season) and still not make first- or second-team All-Pro. Hutchinson is an All-Pro level player at a time where there just happens to be more than four of those at his position. Last year was also just his second in the NFL, so we may not have seen how good he can truly be yet.
35. CB Patrick Surtain II, Denver Broncos
Denver’s defense was in trouble for a good portion of last season, and even their best players struggled because of it. Patrick Surtain II gave up three touchdowns on the season and a 93.9 passer rating when targeted, the worst mark of his career. But when assessing the 24-year-old, it seems foolish to put that down to anything other than variance at the position and the issues around him. The tape still shows Surtain is an elite cover cornerback and one of the best in the game.
36. CB Trent McDuffie, Kansas City Chiefs
Consistently underrated, Trent McDuffie has been one of the best in the game in his brief NFL career. Given difficult assignments by the Chiefs from the outset, McDuffie has played in the slot as well as out wide, allowing 10.7 yards per catch last season and posting an 82.9 PFF overall grade. The loss of L’Jarius Sneed will force him into an even greater role within the Chiefs defense in 2024, where he might get the recognition he deserves.
37. S Jessie Bates III, Atlanta Falcons
A true ballhawk at safety, Jessie Bates III showed last season that he can take his talents to a new defense and still ball out. He notched six interceptions for the Falcons, earning a 90.2 PFF coverage grade to narrowly exceed the best mark of his Bengals career at the first time of asking. Bates is an elite coverage safety with the range to punish ill-advised passes.
38. G Chris Lindstrom, Atlanta Falcons
It’s getting harder and harder to argue against Chris Lindstrom as the best guard in football after the past few seasons. He backed up a spectacular 2022 with a 2023 season almost as good, allowing just 15 total pressures and earning an 87.5 PFF run-blocking grade. He was one of only two guards to post 74.0-plus grades as both a run blocker and a pass protector.
39. G Joe Thuney, Kansas City Chiefs
One of the best pass-blocking guards in the game, Joe Thuney posted his third consecutive season with a PFF pass-blocking grade of at least 83.0, even if it was a step down from the previous two years. He allowed two sacks from 740 pass-blocking snaps, and his run blocking was above average for the season.
40. CB Jalen Ramsey, Miami Dolphins
Injury delayed Jalen Ramsey from featuring last season within Vic Fangio’s defense, as he didn’t make it to the field until Week 8. But in two of his first three games, he posted an 89.0 PFF coverage grade or better. Overall, he allowed just a 53.0 passer rating into his coverage, showing that he can still cut it with the best cornerbacks in the game. 2024 will be an exciting season to see Ramsey, even if it’s no longer within Fangio’s defense.
41. DI Jalen Carter, Philadelphia Eagles
For the first several weeks of the 2023 season — his rookie season — Jalen Carter was grading and producing like future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Donald. That level was perhaps inevitably unsustainable, but even so, he finished his debut season with an 89.0 PFF overall grade, ranking fifth in the NFL. Carter has the talent to be at the very top of this list. Only players like Donald have showcased that kind of instant impact at the position over the past decade or so.
Read more: 2024 NFL defensive line rankings
42. CB Jaylon Johnson, Chicago Bears
Jaylon Johnson had a career year in 2023 and was arguably the best cornerback in the game. His 91.0 PFF coverage grade was the top mark in football, and he allowed just a 33.3 passer rating into his coverage — a lower figure than if opposing quarterbacks had thrown the ball into the dirt 50 times instead. The Bears brought him back on a contract extension for 2024 and beyond, so Johnson is now tasked with repeating that level of play.
43. DI Derrick Brown, Carolina Panthers
Derrick Brown is as good as it gets when it comes to defending the run from the inside, but he also brings a real pass-rushing presence. In each of the past two seasons, he has notched at least 40 quarterback pressures and a 77.9 PFF pass-rushing grade, even if he pushes the pocket more than he generates sacks. Brown is a problem for opposing offenses to deal with.
44. T Laremy Tunsil, Houston Texans
One of the best pass-protecting left tackles in the game, Laremy Tunsil posted the second-best PFF pass-blocking grade among offensive tackles in 2023, trailing only future Hall-of-Famer Tyron Smith. Tunsil can protect his quarterback with the best, but his run blocking isn’t at the same level as the other top tackles in the game, which explains the gap between him and some others at the position in these rankings.
45. LB Demario Davis, New Orleans Saints
At 35 years old, Demario Davis just continues to play elite-level football at linebacker for the Saints. Last season, he posted an 89.6 PFF overall grade, his best mark since 2019, racking up 48 defensive stops and missing only 11 tackles. He allowed an 89.3 passer rating when targeted in coverage, some 15 points lower than the average at the position.
46. TE Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
While injuries derailed part of his 2023 campaign, Mark Andrews featured in 10 regular-season games for the Ravens and showed the type of weapon he is in that offense. Passes thrown his way generated a 135.7 passer rating, the highest mark of any player, at any position, with more than 50 targets to his name. Andrews is an elite-level player, and a fully healthy season in 2024 will remind people of it.
47. C Frank Ragnow, Detroit Lions
Detroit’s Frank Ragnow is about as good as it gets at the center position, despite battling injuries at times for the Lions. He has allowed just one sack in each of the past two seasons, earning a 90.1 PFF run-blocking grade in 2023 on his way to recording the highest overall grade at the position (88.1).
48. S Jevon Holland, Miami Dolphins
Jevon Holland is a dynamic, do-it-all safety in the heart of Miami’s defense. He missed some time in 2023, but he earned a 90.4 PFF overall grade across more than 700 snaps and was one of the best coverage defenders in the game at any position. Holland can line up all over the defense and is an exceptionally good tackler. He should anchor a secondary that still looks like it can be one of the league’s best, at least on paper, heading into 2024.
Read more: Top 32 safeties ahead of the 2024 NFL season
49. WR Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers
Brandon Aiyuk doesn’t get the volume of targets that other elite receivers do, but it’s because there are so many mouths to feed in Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense. Aiyuk is one of the most efficient receivers in football on the targets he does receive. Only Tyreek Hill earned a higher PFF grade among wideouts than Aiyuk last season, and he averaged 3.01 yards per route run, dropping only two of the 101 targets sent his way.
50. WR Deebo Samuel, San Francisco 49ers
Deebo Samuel is a unique offensive weapon for the 49ers. He is a very good wide receiver, but his ability to move into the backfield and carry the ball like a running back — and a very good one — is what makes him special. On 80 fewer targets than Tyreek Hill, Samuel forced only one fewer missed tackle as a receiver, and he added 19 more as a rusher. Samuel’s impact on San Francisco’s offense is clear to see when he doesn’t suit up. He is an elite force, even if his true position is difficult to define.
