NFL Trade Rumors Top 100 Players: 100-91

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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 sucks. We’re not hating or going out of our way to tear down another outlet; 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! 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 100 – Saints OLB Chase Young It’s been a rollercoaster career for Young, the former No. 2 overall pick and 2020 Defensive Rookie of the Year. He had just 1.5 sacks in the next two years after that peak, held back by injuries and (by his own admission) taking his early success for granted. He was traded in Year 4 and in Year 5 he was on his third different team. But he earned a long-term deal with the Saints and Young’s trajectory is climbing yet again. He finished last year with 10 sacks, the first double-digit sack season of his career. Even more impressively, Young hit that mark in just 12 games. A calf injury sidelined him for the first five weeks of the season, and when he returned he went on a tear. ESPN ranked him seventh among all edge rushers with a 19 percent pass rush win rate. His 49 total pressures were 32nd out of 123 qualifiers in PFF’s database, but he racked those up in fewer than 300 pass-rushing reps. The average of everyone ranked above him was 471 pass rush attempts. Staying healthy and playing more is the next step for Young to take, but if he can do that, he’s poised to rocket up this list. 99 – Seahawks S Nick Emmanwori There’s a high bar for safeties to make this list, and there’s probably an even higher bar for rookies. But Emmanwori had such a cool rookie season that I felt like he had to be an inclusion. He had a huge impact for the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. There are the on-paper stats which were great — 2.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss, 11 pass breakups and an interception. You could go a little deeper even and cite his league-leading 20 total pressures among safeties, or his 37 stops which ranked third at the position. Emmanwori’s real impact is harder to capture on paper, though. The Seahawks kept him on the field as much as possible, whether it was as a third safety, a slot defender or even dime linebacker. He was in the box or on the line of scrimmage for 921 of his 944 snaps. Emmanwori’s athleticism and physicality helped the Seahawks match up against whatever look opponents threw at them, whether they tried to spread the field or loaded up to run the football. It worked especially well against the Rams who caught a lot of teams off-guard with their three tight end packages. Just not Seattle. Nick Emmanwori 1 INT, 1 Kick Blocked, 1 SCK, 6 TKL, 2 TFLs vs ATL Today. NICK EMMANWO…