Its a rebuilt Jaguars linebacking corps after losing Myles Jack to the Steelers. After Warner's monster 2020 campaign, we thought he could be the No. 6 in the NFL in sacks and No. 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. To create this list, we took into consideration basic statistics, Pro Football Reference/Stathead's Approximate Value, PFF grades and a guess on how the player will perform moving forward. 17 linebacker in the NFL going into 2022, placing him in the "young. 10 among linebackers last year. 8 in total pressures. Dean's range at the linebacker position is unparalleled in this draft class. The ACC consisted of 14 members in two divisions. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: nfl | pageType: stories | PFF themselves had the Cowboys 2021 secondary in the top 10. Projected contract: Four years, $40 million ($10M per year, $22.5 million total guaranteed), PFF Free Agency Rank: 63 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). Its a rebuilt Jaguars linebacking corps after losing. Jewell also provides value on the occasional pass-rush snap and very rarely misses tackles. 8:44 am ET. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. 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. While those grades arent poor, by any stretch, they are a notable step down from these players' excellent career baselines and some way short of their elite best. Rashaan Evans and Mykal Walker are solid players, though, and the team will hope that rookie Troy Andersen can make an early impact. According to Stathead's AV tool, Leonard was tied in having the second-best season of any linebacker last year. Los Angeles' overall defense is so good, at least on paper, that it might not matter who plays linebacker. Clemson junior Trenton Simpson Simpson had a solid role as a freshman in 2020, totaling 28 tackles with 6.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, in addition to a forced fumble. Kansas City Chiefs linebacker group ranked as 9th-best in NFL by PFF Teams AFC East Bills Dolphins Jets Patriots AFC North Bengals Browns Ravens Steelers AFC South Colts Jaguars Texans Titans. He was arguably the best player on the best college defense of all time but slipped into the third round of the draft with some potential medical red flags. His 62 run stops over the last two seasons ranks ninth among off-ball linebackers, and his 18 tackles for loss or no gain is tied for 14th. 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. He has yet to post a sub-70.0 grade, with three out of his four years coming in above 78.0. Despite what PFF says, I don't think there are that many more linebackers who are better in coverage than Kendricks. Some may think Wagner is too high on this list, and while he took a small step backwards in 2021, he's still one of the best linebackers in the NFL. 1 as Bobby Wagner finally dethroned Ranking the top 10 linebackers for the upcoming NFL season By Jordan Dajani Jun 28, 2022 at. The Ravens are still looking for that breakout year from Patrick Queen after two subpar seasons. 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?. Typically, David is the ideal linebacker for IDP. He also frequently lines up at safety, defensive line and nickel corner, and if he had his way . Leighton Vander Esch has not lived up to the hype he created for himself after a monstrous rookie season, and so we may see another linebacker eventually fill in for him. Jerome Baker, MIA: I love Baker this season as a Top 15-20 sleeper. I also gave a target round for your rookie drafts, these are just suggestions as all drafts are different. He may be coming off one of his worst statistical seasons in recent memory, but he also missed five games with injury. On Tuesday, PFF's Seth Galina released his linebacker rankings for all 32 teams in the NFL. 9 linebacker in coverage with a 73.9. Brown appeared to be on his way to a strong free agency in the 2021 offseason after three solid seasons as a starter, but he may have been an unfortunate victim of the salary cap drop, as he ultimately agreed to return to the Titans on a one-year, $4.5 million deal. Rounding out the top-tier of linebackers. After sitting out in 2020, C.J. He also registered a fourth-best 79.4 PFF coverage grade among linebackers despite playing a whopping 680 coverage snaps. The following tiers reflect which players are in the best situations to produce they're ranked based on the likelihood of doing so every single week. The six players in the 1A tier figure to be the favorites to post the highest tackle numbers in the league based on their expected role in their defenses. White was a reliable presence at linebacker following the loss of 2020 first-rounderKenneth Murrayduring Weeks 4-9 and when Murray was battling injuries over Weeks 11-15. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. Campbells ranking could justifiably be at the very top of this list or somewhere in the 30s, based on his career so far. Diggs had a high EPA and was an all pro who bad habits come from gambling. Elandon Roberts and Jerome Baker are average linebackers who have just one 70.0-plus season grade among their 10 combined years in the NFL. Okereke is a solid stand-in next to Leonard. 2022 NFL Linebacker Rankings and Tiers Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indianapolis Colts outside linebacker Darius Leonard (53) reacts to a play in the first half against the Las Vegas Raiders at Lucas Oil 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 Seattle Seahawks in 2015. After missing most of the regular season, Dre Greenlaw came back for the end of the regular season and playoffs to form the perfect linebacker tandem with Warner. He is a truly freakish athlete and will be 25 years old throughout his entire sixth NFL season in 2023 after being selected No. "He posted a 1.5 percent drop rate in 2022, which . Edmunds also missed just 6.5% of potential tackles, the lowest rate of his career and another huge sign of continued growth from a football intelligence and play recognition standpoint. Hes expected to return for Dallas playoff run after a shoulder injury knocked him out down the stretch, which will provide a big boost to the ferocious Cowboys defense. That's because he's both a speedy 240 pounds and one of the best tacklers in the class, having missed only seven times on 138 career attempts. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports. Parsons was the No. No linebacker recorded more coverage snaps than Warner in all of 2021. Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. He also made the absolute most of the occasional blitz, tallying 15 pressures, five sacks and three more quarterback hits on 70 pass-rush snaps. Perryman was looking for a new contract heading into 2022 but ultimately played out the year, earning a strong 80.5 run-defense grade. With that in mind, some of these units have fewer members than others. Yes, Davis was a late-bloomer, but not many players can make the impact he does in stopping the run, tackling, rushing the passer and working in coverage. January 18, 2023 8:22 pm ET. He can chase down the fastest of running backs. Wagner gets a new opportunity on a new team with a lot more talent around him this season, so there is good reason to suspect that his grade might bounce back. 2022 NFL linebacker unit rankings: Giants come in at 24 (PFF . 16 at his position by PFF Teams AFC East Bills Dolphins Jets Patriots AFC North Bengals Browns Ravens Steelers AFC South Colts Jaguars Texans Titans AFC West. No linebacker corps gets its collective noses dirtier than the Patriots' unit. One can make the case that both Wagner and David are still as good as it gets at the linebacker position despite getting up there in age, but each player is coming off a relative down year by their standards, which always brings up the looming specter of decline. on Pro Football Focus' Top-100 players of 2022 rankings. Projected contract: One year, $6 million, $4.5 million guaranteed, PFF Free Agency Rank: 75 Hes a high-upside player now playing with a future Hall of Famer. Los Angeles' overall defense is so good, at least on paper, that it might not matter who plays linebacker. 2021 PFF grade: 64.2 (24th of 89). The Saints had been looking for someone to play the linebacker position opposite him for years and seem to have found one in Pete Werner, who was outstanding as a rookie in 2021. Okereke is now coming off back-to-back seasons with at least 100 tackles and 50 defensive stops. Projected contract: Two years, $18 million ($9M per year, $11.5 million total guaranteed), PFF Free Agency Rank: 55 Players like T.J. Watt, Matt Judon, Harold Landry and Shaquil Barrett are not included. Alex Anzalone and Chris Board are two depth players who start for the Lions. Zach Cunningham, if nothing else, stops the run. The Titans ask a lot of their off-ball linebackers, and Long can do it all. Drue Tranquill. 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. James Bradberry (74.1) 2022 PFF Grade 20th ranked Darius Slay (73.1) 2022 PFF Grade 25th ranked Avonte Maddox (71.3) 2022 PFF Grade 33rd ranked Josiah Scott (58.4) 2022 PFF Grade. Linebacker Rankings 2022 NFL Draft Home Positions LB ALL QUARTERBACK RUNNING BACK WIDE RECEIVER TIGHT END OFFENSIVE LINE DEFENSIVE LINE EDGE LINEBACKER DEFENSIVE BACK #1 RANKED - SCOUTING REPORT 17 Nakobe Dean POSITION RANK #1 OUR RATING 90.4 ILB All Scouts Average Overall Rank 20.8 All Scouts Average Position Rank 2 Height Feet 6-0 Parsons is versatile, smart and instinctive. A pair of Seahawks came in at No. Milano has put up outstanding PFF grades in both coverage and against the run but has struggled to put it all together over one season. Long plays a downhill, attacking brand of football that helps him blow up a lot of plays but also makes him particularly susceptible to over-committing on play-action passes and missing tackles when he takes a poor pursuit angle. After looking like one of the worst linebackers in the NFL for a few years in Green Bay, Blake Martinez rebounded with a solid season in 2020 in New York before succumbing to injury early in the 2021 campaign. That could be a problem for folks expecting the same numbers. Expect both young studs to push for 140-plus combined tackles, if healthy. We have already seen that play from Smith in Chicago, but the decline of the defense around him and perhaps more importantly directly in front of him has led to a decline in his play. Wagner's resume speaks for itself. His All-Pro season in 2019 was special, but some might have thought it was just a one-year thing. 1. He had been one of the more consistent players at the position in the NFL, and so theres a chance he regains his form. NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler. March 2, 2023 3:21 pm ET. But neither player made the cut for the top 50, which hurts . This group could rank much higher by the end of next season. With Smith entering the final year of his rookie deal, Spotrac believes he's in line to sign a five-year, $88.18 million extension. PFFs Fantasy Strength of Schedule (SoS) metric provides a league-wide, season-long view of opponent matchups for each fantasy position. Another player without elite physical tools, Jewell reads the game very quickly and is consistently in the right place at the right time against the run. His processing skills took massive steps forward in 2021, causing his grade to jump from 57.1 to 76.3. Defensively, the attrition was less significant; however, one of the unit's leaders did leave in free agency Foye Oluokun. Lavonte David is still one of the best linebackers in the game . The 2022 season was Tranquills first as a full-time starter following Kyzir Whites departure, and his 105 tackles were more than his first three seasons combined. . Edmunds made huge strides in coverage in 2022, a major weakness in his game through his first four seasons. Leonard is another example of how hard it is to earn those elite PFF grades each season, but he is a turnover machine when he is at his best. He put forth a monster rookie season in 2019 but hasnt quite attained the same highs in subsequent seasons. His 33 run stops in 2020 were a top-10 mark at the position. Eichenberg was a PFF first-team All-American this past season and is the most valuable returning linebacker according to PFF's wins above average metric. Patrick Surtain II has been quite literally living up to his name as an elite cornerback and has helped the Denver Broncos maintain their position as a top-tier defense even after trading away their star edge rusher. This is a case of one elite linebacker pulling along another whose narrative hasnt really matched his production. His 75.9 grade two years marked a career high. Projected contract: Two years, $10 million ($5M per year), $5.5 million total guaranteed, PFF Free Agency Rank: 163 Hightower opted out of the 2020 season, and after a bit of a slow start getting reacclimated to the speed of the NFL game, he was back to his old self for stretches of the 2021 season. The 30-year-old linebacker will be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career after a delayed start to his NFL career, and now hell be working his way back from a torn pectoral muscle injury. may surprise some based on his age. 2021 Snaps: 783 2022 NFL Linebacker Rankings 1. Why drafting Dallas Cowboys LB Micah Parsons among the top-12 may not be the best decision. Here's what PFF wrote about Wagner's season. He pairs with the solid Matt Milano, who posted the second-best season grade of his career (67.0) in 2021. Click here for PFF's full list of top 100 free agents. Better luck with his health led to a respectable 63.8 overall grade and 72.6 pass-rush grade in 2021. Mosley endured the worst-graded season of his NFL career. Final Season Stats. , who draws all the attention at the offensive line, opening up room for the linebackers for clean tackle opportunities. With that being said, Warner is still an elite linebacker and has recorded at least 118 combined tackles in each of his four NFL seasons. 2021 Snaps: 717 He tallied a career-high six pass breakups in 2022. Perryman has been the embodiment of that in his NFL career, to the point where he was often kept off the field on passing downs. Click here to view PFF's full IDP rankings for the 2022 season and tiers for the defensive linemen and defensive backs. both project to be every-down linebackers on ideal defenses for expected production. Here are PFF's top 32 linebackers ahead of the 2021 NFL season. 70 & No.71 on PFF's Top-101 players for the 2022 NFL season. It's also noteworthy that David is good in coverage, something other linebackers can struggle with. Walker had a career year for the Browns in 2021, and his 78.2 PFF coverage grade was the highest of his career. Kendricks is another well-rounded linebacker that can cover, as his 73.8 PFF coverage grade ranked No. He, perhaps critically, chose to stay in the defense that helped produce that phenomenal season, but we are all too aware of the folly of using just one season of play to determine everything we know about a player. Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NFL player performance data. Drafting Quay Walker out of Georgia in the first round also helps the Packers' cause. Turn on this feature to cross off players during your draft. Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Chicago Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith (58) stares into the backfield during pre-game at Nissan Stadium. 2 in the NFL, only trailing Fred Warner and the San Francisco 49ers. Brown has seen his play taper off after a really nice sophomore campaign in 2018 in which he posted an 81.2 grade. Rookie Devin Lloydand sophomore Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah both project to be every-down linebackers on ideal defenses for expected production. In this article, I list my top 20 rookie linebacker rankings for your IDP dynasty leagues. Research past fantasy performance with sortable player stats including PFF-exclusives like aDOT and fantasy points per opportunity. He was All-Pro just one year ago, and has been a leader for this Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense since the days when the franchise was going 2-14. Now its just a matter of how nice itll be. While Parsons proved to be a stud pass-rusher, some had questions about his coverage ability coming into the league. Teams could do a lot worse than White if they are looking for a solid weakside linebacker who has the speed to stay with pass-catchers in coverage for the most part. Meanwhile, David will have to get it there himself, given that the Bucs defense wasnt exactly bereft of talent last season. 7 ranking in Pro Football Focus' list of the top 25 safeties of the 2022 . According to PFF, T.J. Edwards was the 10 th-ranked linebacker in 2021 but is still unproven and only has started 30 games in the NFL. He has not graded above 70.0 since. The 49ers applied the second-round restricted free agent tender at a price tag of $3.986 million to Al-Shaair for the 2022 season, perhaps illustrating that they feared he would get signed to an offer sheet elsewhere if they went with the right of first refusal tender. 6 defense in the league last year, and Smith was a big reason why. Josey Jewell and Jonas Griffith should be the starters, with free agent signing Alex Singleton looking for snaps, as well. Galina ranked the Colts at No. No linebacker corps gets its collective noses dirtier than the Patriots' unit. 1 on our list. Then, he was named All-Pro again in 2020 with an AV of 14 for the second straight season. 4) Patrick Surtain II, Denver Broncos. NFL 2022 Draft Positional Rankings: Linebackers By Jacob Wayne | Mar 30, 2022, 1:34pm #1: Devin Lloyd - Utah #2: Nakobe Dean - Georgia #3: Chad Muma - Wyoming #4: Leo Chenal - Wisconsin #5: Christian Harris - Alabama #6: Brian Asamoah - Oklahoma #7: Brandon Smith - Penn State #8: Channing Tindall - Georgia #9: Damone Clark - LSU That 42.0 mark was his first time dropping below 70.0 since 2015. Please try again later. Perhaps most importantly in todays NFL, Tranquill followed up his 74.6 coverage grade in 2021 with a career-high 75.4 mark, with his 18 stops in coverage a top-20 figure among off-ball linebackers. Thompson was back to his best in coverage this past season, posting a 74.5 PFF grade in that area, his best mark since his sophomore season. Bobby Wagner may surprise some based on his age. Projected contract: Two years, $14.5 million ($7.25M per year), $8.5 million total guaranteed, PFF Free Agency Rank: 99 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. There's no telling what he could be with more reps at the position. He had a career year, helping turn around the Eagles' defense with the second-best grade among off-ball linebackers (84.4). 1. A position of concern and potential weakness heading into last season has become a real strength for Kansas City. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. . Expect both young studs to push for 140-plus combined tackles, if healthy. However, he's still a work in progress in coverage and didn't tally a single interception or pass breakup in his college career. Still one of the more underrated players in the league, This is a precarious spot for the Packers to be in, even with 2021 All-Pro. The 12th. These power rankings are adjusted based on coach, quarterback and the market each season. Former Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons just wrapped up his second season in the NFL, and he continues to leave little doubt the Dallas Cowboys made the smart decision using a first-round draft pick on him.