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#21. Patrick Peterson
#22. David Johnson
#23. Travis Kelce
#24. Cameron Heyward
#25. Xavier Rhodes
#26. Jadeveon Clowney
#27. Geno Atkins
#28. Joey Bosa
#29. A.J. Green
#30. Odell Beckham Jr.
While we love the brash, young Jalen Ramsey making big plays and talking the talk, Patrick Peterson has been pretty quiet recently. That’s because he has been locking down one side of the field on a game-by-game basis and rarely has quarterbacks looking his way.
Johnson missed all but one game in 2017 to a wrist injury, but looking back at him the year before, I could not leave him off the list. He recorded 2118 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns that year. He could put up similar numbers once again this upcoming season.
Here it is – Travis Kelce is the best tight-end in the league for me. I know Gronk can take over games and just bully defenders, but Kelce is a much better route-runner and makes people miss after the catch constantly. Just look at what happened to the Chiefs once he went down in the Wildcard Round.
Heyward is another guy, who just doesn’t get the love he deserves. The Steelers had eight Pro Bowlers, but he wasn’t voted in. As a five-technique, Heyward recorded 12 sacks and 17 tackles for loss. Those are crazy numbers at that position.
"Rhodes” was closed in 2017. The Vikings’ number one corner erased some of the league’s premiere receivers every week. Rhodes held Michael Thomas, Mike Evans, and Julio Jones to an average of 43 yards against him.
I’m not sure if there is a more frightening player in the league to line up across from than Jadeveon Clowney.
Looking at what he does to opposing tight-ends is absolutely disrespectful. He came in as a raw athletic monster, who was labeled as a bust early on, but he has developed into a menace in all facets of the game.
Before Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox emerged, Geno Atkins was the gold-standard for three-technique defensive tackles. While those two guys have taken away some shine from the Bengals’ eight-year vet, he has still produced 70 total pressures last season.
Bosa has been one of the elite players in the NFL ever since he entered the league in 2016. No defensive end coming out of college was as technically refined as the Ohio State product. In his two-year career, he has notched 134 total pressures, despite missing his first four games his rookie campaign.
2016 was the only of his seven years in the league, A.J. Green came up just short of 1000 yards on the season. His body control and catch radius are crazy. He can get off the line against the press as well as any receiver and he rarely drops any catchable balls.
When Odell is right, mentally and health-wise, he is one of the biggest talents we have seen in the league in some time. I don’t like the antics or the off-field stuff, but I certainly believe that he wants to be great and can change the complexity of a game in a heartbeat.
