LB Rankings: 2022 Regular Season - FF Today However, Dean played his role at an elite level, ranking 10th among all corners graded by PFF. Losing Kyle Van Noy, the highest-graded coverage linebacker in 2021, will hurt. Lloyd, who earned a 90.0-plus grade at Utah in 2021, does look set to start. That flexibility is tremendously valuable to the Dallas defense, but Parsons could take his game to another level if he shows development off the ball in Year 2. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports. In two weeks, NFL GMs will begin negotiating with free . Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. His first season in Green Bay produced an overall PFF grade of 85.0 and earned him a $50 million extension, but before that, Campbells PFF grades fell between 49.0 and 69.1 for two different teams. "Latest Update" refers to when we last checked for . Chiefs' young linebacker unit breaks into top 10 in PFF rankings Plenty of well-known 'backers had coverage grades in the 30s this past season. Pundit Says Ravens Are 'Perfect Spot' for Yesterday's Combine Standout Wagner's resume speaks for itself. Bolton, then a rookie, produced one of the highest individual grades for a linebacker. The Georgia Bulldogs have a 12 players participating at the 2023 NFL combine. Andersen is a converted running back and quarterback who, in his lone full season at linebacker, racked up an absurd 67 stops. His 913 snaps for the Raiders last season was a career-high mark and more than doubled his previous best. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports. This means zone-heavy coverages and, more specifically, a Cover-2 heavy scheme, which proves to be the most effective coverage at propping up linebacker tackle numbers (as illustrated below). Power Rankings are PFFs NCAA power ratings based on weekly player grades in each facet of play. While Chicago lost Akiem Hicks and Khalil Mackin the offseason, this unit could be rather strong again with some of the additions made in the secondary, and with the defensive-minded Matt Eberflus taking over as head coach. He started in 16 games after starting in only 11 total in his previous three NFL seasons. No. Wilson showed in the playoffs that he could finally have answered a real problem area for the Cincinnati Bengals, showing up with multiple excellent PFF game grades and making plays in coverage. Nick Bolton and Willie Gay are two young linebackers who came on strong last season. Al-Shaair is in line to get paid as a free agent after teammatesFred Warner and Dre Greenlawfind themselves among the 16 highest-paid off-ball linebackers in the NFL. This past offseason,San Francisco 49erslinebackerFred Warnerand subsequentlyIndianapolis ColtslinebackerDarius Leonardreset the market at the position just under $20 million per year after years of stagnation. Kansas City Chiefs News Chiefs' young linebacker unit breaks into top 10 in PFF rankings The Chiefs' top two linebackers are 22 (Bolton) and 24 (Gay), yet Pro Football Focus finds the. Now, it remains to be seen if Campbell can replicate his 2021 campaign, but based off of how he played last year, Campbell deserves a place on this list. Luckily for the Philadelphia Eagles, he was still available in the third round. February 24, 2023 7:45 am CT. A couple of New Orleans Saints standouts were recognized on the list of the top 101 NFL players of the 2022 season from Pro Football Focus analyst Sam Monson. Meanwhile, David will have to get it there himself, given that the Bucs defense wasnt exactly bereft of talent last season. Edmunds 86.9 coverage grade in 2022 was the third-best mark among off-ball linebackers, and he forced an incompletion on 10.3% of targets into his coverage while allowing just four explosive receptions the entire season (0.9% of targets into his coverage, ninth among linebackers). Rounding out the top-tier of linebackers. 2022 Draft Linebacker Prospects: PFF Grades And Big Board Ranks Projected contract: Two years, $15 million ($7.5M per year, $10M total guaranteed), PFF Free Agency Rank: 86 Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. NFL Defensive Line Rankings 2022 - ftnfantasy.com Okereke is a solid stand-in next to Leonard. Final Season Stats. After ranking the best individual linebackers heading into 2022, here's how each team's linebacking corps stacks up. Al-Shaair missed a lot of time in 2022 but earned a career-best 67.8 overall grade and 79.7 run-defense grade. Overall, Georgia has 11 players in PFF's big board including six players ranked in the top 80 NFL draft prospects. 2021 PFF grade: 80.1 (3rd of 89). The Tennessee Titans are set to sport a talented and exciting inside linebacker duo in 2022 with David Long and Zach Cunningham, but where do they rank as compared to others in the NFL?. There may be no better all-around linebacker in the class. Even Micah Parsons a Defensive Player of the Year candidate as a rookie put up middling run-defense and tackling grades in his first year in Dallas. His PFF grade of 77.9 ranked eighth last year among linebackers, and he once again showed he's a well-rounded linebacker that doesn't get the kind of credit he deserves. He can chase down the fastest of running backs. Let's have a look at them. Micah Parsons this season: 0 TDs allowed in coverage (284 snaps) 88.7 PFF Grade (1st among all LBs) 93.0 pass-rushing grade (Best in NFL) pic.twitter.com/Lq7G9IVzuU. A pair of Seahawks came in at No. Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Chicago Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith (58) stares into the backfield during pre-game at Nissan Stadium. Singleton has had quite the career path to this point, finally reaching unrestricted free agency ahead of the 2023 season after entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent of the, in 2015. It's also noteworthy that David is good in coverage, something other linebackers can struggle with. Projected contract: Two years, $14.5 million ($7.25M per year), $8.5 million total guaranteed, PFF Free Agency Rank: 99 Click here to view PFF's full IDP rankings for the 2022 season and tiers for the defensive linemen and defensive backs. All of this culminates with the 2022 NFL Draft from Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday, April 28th. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports Fred Warner, San Francisco 49ers The 49ers struck gold when they drafted Warner in the third round in 2018. 2022 NFL Draft Position Rankings: Linebackers By Michael Renner Apr 22, 2022 Devin Lloyd and Nakobe Dean will be the talk of the class and likely the only two first-round linebacker prospects in 2022, but there's still a lot of talent at the position on Days 2 and 3 of the draft. 2022 NFL Free Agency Rankings: Linebackers - PFF AVG. Consequently, the list of consistently elite players is far shorter than for other positions, and there is much more volatility in this position group. One of the best off-ball linebackers of his generation, David is still playing at an extremely high level and may benefit from, Okereke stepped up in a major way in the absence of fellow off-ball linebacker, The 2022 season was Tranquills first as a full-time starter following. 14 overall linebacker with a 72.3 PFF grade, and the No. Teams are afraid to throw at Surtain, and he has one of the lowest target totals among . For IDP fantasy football leagues, there is a ton of variance in preseason player rankings, but utilizing tiers can help us properly value each group of players in 2023 fantasy football drafts. He also registered an absurd pass-rushing grade of 93. NFL NFL Home Tools NFL Scores NFL Premium Stats NFL Player Grades Free Agent Rankings QB Annual 2022 Anzalone has always shown promise but is probably better coming off the bench, especially after finishing with a bottom-10 overall grade among 94 qualifying linebackers in 2021. Getting outside the . His 33 run stops in 2020 were a top-10 mark at the position. After looking like one of the worst linebackers in the NFL for a few years in Green Bay. In Eric Kendricks, the Vikings have had a superb all-around linebacker for years. 2021 Snaps: 987 Though he's 32 years old, David hasn't taken a major step backwards just yet. Leonard was a beast in stopping the run, as his 91.1 PFF run defense grade was second among all defenders in 2021 -- not just linebackers. Still, the Rams ranked fourth in the NFL last season in zone coverages (82.60%). He missed just two tackles in coverage and allowed only four explosive receptions. He rarely leaves the field, having never played less than 90% of defensive snaps when healthy in a season, and is a lock for triple-digit tackles as a result. NFL free agents 2023: Ranking top 10 linebackers 2021 PFF grade: 65.1 (22nd of 89). Linebacker Rankings: The 32 best LBs entering the 2021 NFL season - PFF Barr is a bit of a unique player, generally deployed as a Sam linebacker in a 4-3 scheme who occasionally gets his hand in the dirt. Smith is a complete athletic projection. This was the last season that the conference used divisions in its football scheduling. 2021 Snaps: 82 The strongest players are experts at open-field takedowns and make it hard for quarterbacks to feel comfortable throwing toward the middle of the field. Unfortunately, he took a bit of a step back from his All-Pro and Pro Bowls ways. 2021 Snaps:444 No linebacker recorded more coverage snaps than Warner in all of 2021. 2021 PFF grade: 84.3 (2nd of 89). Typically, David is the ideal linebacker for IDP. He allowed 81.0% of passes thrown his way to be caught and missed 17 tackles in all. The Titans ask a lot of their off-ball linebackers, and Long can do it all. Jewell is the other Denver off-ball linebacker who missed the majority of the 2021 season with a torn pectoral muscle, but hes three years younger than Johnson. 2021 PFF grade: 50.6 (51st of 89). despite dropping into coverage at times. David missed five games in 2021 due to injury, but he still had a solid season, recording 97 combined tackles. He at least improved upon his 29.7 grade as a rookie with a 43.5 mark in Year 2. One of the five highest-graded linebackers last season in his first year with Carolina, Luvu is another Demario Davis trajectory candidate. This is a case of one elite linebacker pulling along another whose narrative hasnt really matched his production. He is a truly freakish athlete and will be 25 years old throughout his entire sixth NFL season in 2023 after being selected No. They happily scooped up the extremely talented Georgia linebacker. He may be coming off one of his worst statistical seasons in recent memory, but he also missed five games with injury. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports. Tremaine Edmunds has not quite lived up to expectations, but hes still young and can grow into a good player. Drafting Quay Walker out of Georgia in the first round also helps the Packers' cause. Like the Chiefs, the Bengals also went into last season with a lot of unknowns surrounding the linebacker position but found a really good pair in Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt. You dont want to line him up against an opposing receiving weapon in a one-on-one, but he demonstrated better recognition of route patterns and improved as a zone coverage backer. Pratt didnt miss many tackles as a run defender, either, whiffing on just 5.9% of opportunities after three straight seasons above 10% to start his career. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports. Bentley improved considerably in his second season as a full-time player, as his 68.1 overall grade was almost 15 points better than his 2020 overall grade. Oluokun leads the way for a very underwhelming free-agent class at off-ball linebacker, though his timing of reaching unrestricted free agency could work out nicely in his favor. Subscribe to PFF+ to unlock An error occured while loading Position Grades. Players like T.J. Watt, Matt Judon, Harold Landry and Shaquil Barrett are not included. Those tools caused Edwards to go undrafted despite an excellent college career, and he had to fight his way into a starting job by excelling in the preseason and on special teams. Asamoah is undersized at 6-foot-1, 228 pounds, but he possesses sideline-to-sideline range. Their tackle efficiency and every-down roles make them the most coveted players at the position. At age 30, Kendricks should again be one of the best middle linebackers in the NFL in 2022. 2021 PFF grade: 64.2 (24th of 89). 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. That hypothetical AAV of $17.6 million would make Smith the third highest-paid linebacker in the NFL. Jordyn Brooks is an ascending star who will get more snaps this year. JaWhaun Bentley is a hard-nosed player like his counterpart Mack Wilson. 88 selection in the 2019 NFL Draft. Ranking Best NFL Defensive Linemen and Linebackers 2022 The soon-to-be 30-year-old is a solid all-around off-ball linebacker who has three straight seasons logging at least 750 snaps, and he took a major leap in 2022 with the. Linebackers with the most INT's in both man and zone coverage last season Man: Bobby Okereke (2) Zone: Darius Leonard (4) pic.twitter.com/RJ4JbjcbYx Seahawks only have one player in PFF's top-40 graded edge defenders Teams AFC East Bills Dolphins Jets Patriots AFC North Bengals Browns Ravens Steelers AFC South Colts Jaguars Texans Titans AFC. Okereke stepped up in a major way in the absence of fellow off-ball linebacker Shaquille Leonard, with his 72.9 grade ranking 23rd at the position. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Parsons is already one of the best defensive playmakers in the NFL as he enters just his second season in the league, but its difficult to rank him purely as an off-the-ball linebacker. 10 among linebackers last year. Nevertheless, he is clearly an ascending young player contributing immensely to Tennessees defense that finished first in expected points added per rush allowed on the season. He also registered a fourth-best 79.4 PFF coverage grade among linebackers despite playing a whopping 680 coverage snaps. However, Georgia wide receiver Kearis Jackson is not ranked in Pro Football Focus' NFL draft big board rankings. There's no telling what he could be with more reps at the position. He set career highs across the board, notching 146 combined tackles, six QB hits and two interceptions.