July is top 100 season in the NFL as everyone tries to kill the days until training camp and the start of the new season. Unfortunately, the official top 100 list from the league is not good. We’re not trying to hate; it’s just a well-accepted fact at this point in time.

For five years, we’ve been trying to do better. The time has come for the 2026 version of our NFL Trade Rumors Top 100 Players. Instead of using player polls, we aim to better reflect reality with traditional and advanced statistical analysis, evaluations from league personnel, positional value, awards, career trajectory and, of course, the good old-fashioned gut check. Our hope is to give more credit to players who are overlooked, either because they don’t play a glamorous position or because they’re not household names (yet).

We’ll have updates daily over the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back!

Previous Entries:

• NFLTR Top 100: 100-91
• NFLTR Top 100: 90-81
• NFLTR Top 100: 80-71
• NFLTR Top 100: 70-61
• NFLTR Top 100: 60-51
• NFLTR Top 100: 50-41
• NFLTR Top 100: 40-31
• NFLTR Top 100: 30-21

Resources:

• Pro Football Reference
• QB advanced stats
• Win rates from ESPN for OL and DL
• PFF advanced stats (grades, pass rush productivity, blocking efficiency, coverage stats)
• ESPN WR tracking metrics
• Past NFLTR Top 100s

20 – 49ers LT Trent Williams

The gap between Williams and the field narrowed in 2025, but for my money he’s still the top tackle in football even at 38 years old. Wear and tear seemed to catch up with him in 2025, as he surrendered 40 total pressures per PFF’s charting. You have to go all the way back to Williams’ rookie year in 2010 to find a season in which he got beaten more. Still, PFF graded him as just as imposing a run blocker as ever, and he was one of the few tackles to place on both ESPN’s pass block and run block win rate boards. I think a rebound is in store as long as his body cooperates.

19 – Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb

Thanks to an injury and the stellar performance of his teammate, fellow WR George Pickens, Lamb has been overshadowed a little bit in Dallas. Scoring just three touchdowns didn’t help, as fantasy football has become an inescapable part of the discourse around skill players. But Lamb still topped 1,000 yards in 14 games on 75 catches. His open score of 80 (via ESPN’s receiver tracking analytics) ranked seventh among all receivers and was the third-best mark of his career. That metric tends to be more stable year over year, too. Lamb also absolutely shredded man coverage, piling up 3.66 yards per route run to rank No. 2 in the league (Pickens was No. 3).

Drops were an issue again, and there’s still some attention to detail lacking in Lamb’s game that keeps him from being...