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 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. 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. Projected contract: Two years, $10 million ($5M per year), $5.5 million total guaranteed, PFF Free Agency Rank: 163 No linebacker corps gets its collective noses dirtier than the Patriots' unit. 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. The linebacker position in the game of football is one of the most important. 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, A position of weakness for the Eagles in 2021 might turn into a position of strength in 2022 with the additions of rookie, The Ravens are still looking for that breakout year from. Drafting Quay Walker out of Georgia in the first round also helps the Packers' cause. Now, Brown hits free agency coming off a career-low 421 snaps, though he still maintained a 60.0-plus coverage grade, which is where he derives a lot of his value as an off-ball linebacker. PFF analyzes every player and every play of every game in the 2022 NFL season. 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. Van Noy has now had stints in Detroit and Miami, but his good PFF grades are almost exclusively reserved for his time in the Patriots defense. Okereke was particularly stout against the run, with his 13 defensive stops against the run tied for the 13th most. Seven 49ers listed on PFF Top 101 Players of 2022 ranking By Site Staff follow Feb 23, 2023 at 12:56 PM -- shares Seven San Francisco 49ers landed on Pro Football Focus' Top 101 Players. He was not as good a coverage or run-stopping linebacker as he was as a pass rusher, but his talent makes you think he will figure it out shortly. Brown has seen his play taper off after a really nice sophomore campaign in 2018 in which he posted an 81.2 grade. Still one of the more underrated players in the league, Demario Davis has been the heartbeat of one of the league's best defenses over the past five seasons. Better luck with his health led to a respectable 63.8 overall grade and 72.6 pass-rush grade in 2021. His 94.1 run defense grade wasn't too far behindMicah Parsons (94.8) PFF college record. Click here to view PFFs full IDP rankings for the 2022 season and tiers for the defensive linemen and defensive backs. "He posted a 1.5 percent drop rate in 2022, which . With all that said, let's jump in. The redshirt junior is a dominant run-stuffer, as his 49 run-defense stops in 2022 ranked second among all linebackers in the country while his 20 tackles for loss/no-gain were tied for third. Fantasy Football: 2022 IDP Linebacker Tiers - PFF According to Stathead's AV tool, Leonard was tied in having the second-best season of any linebacker last year. One of the five highest-graded linebackers last season in his first year with Carolina, Luvu is another Demario Davis trajectory candidate. Milano was a fifth-round draft pick back in 2017 but has dramatically outperformed his first-round teammate, Tremaine Edmunds, within the Buffalo defense. Some of the players in this group have been All-Pro caliber linebackers in the past, but Jones is coming off a PFF grade in the 30s after once looking like the next great young linebacker in the league. 2021 PFF grade: 43.7 (71st of 89). The former third-round pick still has room to grow as a coverage player, but at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, he moves well enough in space to not be a liability in coverage. Harris is one of the most physical linebackers in the class who relishes the ability to hit anyone on the other side of the ball. Put some respect on Demario Davis pic.twitter.com/4jzOf4GYS1. 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. PFF's top linebackers in the 2023 NFL Draft 1. Shaq Thompson is a bona fide star, and he may be playing alongside a diamond-in-the-rough partner in Frankie Luvu. The Steelers brought in former Jaguar Myles Jack to play alongside him. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Hes earned himself a nice raise. His past two years against the run have been horrid, with him posting 39.8 and 30.0 run-defense grades. And Davis has been outstanding in all areas since moving to the New Orleans defense. Ranking NFL's top 10 linebackers entering 2022: New No. White has had four straight seasons with coverage grades above 60.0, which is not an easy feat for an off-ball linebacker in todays NFL against so many hi-lo concepts and the increase in run-pass options putting a ton of stress on the position. Parsons is versatile, smart and instinctive. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. Fred Warner (San Francisco 49ers) earned the top spot and Darius Leonard (Indianapolis Colts). PFFs Fantasy Strength of Schedule (SoS) metric provides a league-wide, season-long view of opponent matchups for each fantasy position. Contract projection: Available in PFF's free agency rankings. 2022 NFL linebacker unit rankings: San Francisco 49ers claim the top spot, Seattle Seahawks crack the top 10 Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner (54) lines up over Green Bay Packers center Josh Myers (71) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Walker is one of the best run-and-hit linebackers in the class. 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. Devin Bush has not lived up to his draft status as a first-round pick, and 2022 might be his last chance to prove himself at the NFL level. 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. His 18 quarterback pressures ranked fourth among off-ball linebackers, as Patriots head coach Bill Belichick continued to deploy the 6-foot-3, 260-pounder all over the place in his constantly evolving defense. 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. In his recent post on linebackers, PFF's Sam Monson ranked Nick Bolton No. Oluokun is coming off a PFF run-defense grade of 44.0 and a coverage grade of 54.4. Edmunds is just 24 years old and entering his fifth NFL season. Their tackle efficiency and every-down roles make them the most coveted players at the position. Drue Tranquill. It was his first season missing fewer than 10% of his tackle opportunities, and he put up an 86.8 overall grade with seven tackles and two defensive stops during a strong playoff run. Consequently, the list of consistently elite players is far shorter than for other positions, and there is much more volatility in this position group. The grades for the Detroit Lions in their 9-8 campaign offer up an analytically-based glimpse of how the Lions performed. 2021 PFF grade: 60.4 (30th of 89). So, who's the best off-ball linebacker in the NFL today? Jaguars linebacker corps doesn't fare well in PFF ranking - Black and Teal 2022 NFL Draft Position Rankings: Linebackers - PFF Rounding out the top-tier of linebackers. The best linebackers in todays league are elite coverage players, but they can also affect the game in other ways. He even hit 107 combined tackles in 2020 despite playing in just 11 games! If he can play more consistently week to week, teams may view him as a low-risk, high-reward option in a weak linebacker class. Nakobe Dean was widely considered to be a potential first-round pick before the 2022 NFL Draft. Hes the complete package for a modern off-ball linebacker. Christian Kirksey has not had a season of note since 2016 with the Browns, yet he projects as a starter in this defense once again. His 75.9 grade two years marked a career high. 2022 NFL Linebacker Rankings 1. A position of concern and potential weakness heading into last season has become a real strength for Kansas City. 2020 PFF draft position rankings: Linebackers 3 Rams make PFF's top 101 players of 2022 9 linebacker in coverage with a 73.9. The second linebacker tier features 17 linebackers on teams that are expected to be less zone-heavy than those in the tier above. It's also noteworthy that David is good in coverage, something other linebackers can struggle with. It had been three full seasons since his best play, and that best play was nowhere near elite. Though he's 32 years old, David hasn't taken a major step backwards just yet. Okereke is now coming off back-to-back seasons with at least 100 tackles and 50 defensive stops. Perhaps no player better sums up the volatility of linebacker play than the newly minted All-Pro, De'Vondre Campbell. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports By Sam Monson May 24, 2022 One of the best off-ball linebackers of his generation, David is still playing at an extremely high level and may benefit from New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis and Los Angeles Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner playing very good football well into their 30s on recently signed contracts of their own. According to training camp reports, that is paying off big time for the Eagles. Pro Football Focus's top linebacker in the 2020 NFL Draft only kind of, sort of plays linebacker. But in a vacuum, Drue Tranquill and Kenneth Murray are just not good enough players. 6 in the NFL in sacks and No. His PFF run-defense grade over the last two seasons has been in the 30s, and last seasons 47.1 overall grade was the worst of his NFL career. Ranking NFL's top 10 linebackers entering 2022: New No. 1 as Bobby 6 defense in the league last year, and Smith was a big reason why. 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. The 1B tier has just as much going for them, with zone-heavy defenses, expected positive tackle efficiency and an every-down roles. Monson ranked Long, who has been an absolute steal since being drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL draft, as the No. Expect both young studs to push for 140-plus combined tackles, if healthy. Typically, David is the ideal linebacker for IDP. 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. Linebacker Rankings 2022 NFL Draft Click here for PFF's full list of top 100 free agents. Pratts 90.1 coverage grade was the best mark in the NFL. the star of the Colts' defense has been rock solid since exploding onto the scene as a rookie. Since 2020, the Colts linebacker has twice the number of forced fumbles of any other off-ball linebacker, and he has four interceptions and eight pass breakups over that time. A defender who can blow up screen plays and make takedowns in the open field. The 2022 season was Longs first as a full-time starter at middle linebacker, but hes made the most of opportunities in the past. 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. Diggs had a high EPA and was an all pro who bad habits come from gambling. When healthy, Johnson is among the best sideline-to-sideline run-defenders at off-ball linebacker in the league. 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. Foyesade Oluokun was brought in from Atlanta, but there is certainly hope that the team's two rookie picks at the position, Devin Lloyd and Chad Muma, can play early. Parsons lined up as an edge rusher on 40.6% of his snaps as a rookie, and thats where he did the bulk of his damage. at Lloyd can take on blocks, blitz and cover tight ends at a high level, which is why he earned a 90.2 grade this year with above-average grades in every facet. Josey Jewell and Jonas Griffith should be the starters, with free agent signing Alex Singleton looking for snaps, as well. Barr agreed to a pay cut before the 2021 season that also voided the 2022 and 2023 seasons on his five-year extension signed in 2019. Ranking 10 best NFL landing spots for Richardson, 2023 NFL combine: WR/TE winners and losers, Takeaways from NFL combine measurements for WR, TE, Pete Prisco's top 100 NFL free agents of 2023, NFL combine: Grading top QBs, plus winners and losers, NFL combine 2023 tracker: Top performances, highlights, Ranking the NFL's top 10 linebackers entering 2022, NFL Combine: Grading top QBs; winners and losers, NFL Draft: Top landing spots for Richardson, Mock Draft: Panthers, Colts trade up for QBs, Colossal Richardson sets multiple QB combine records, Pascal robbed at gunpoint, assaulted; WR 'doing fine', Bryce Young measures similar to former No. Some of it is because he's been a little bit dependent on good play from the defensive line in front of him, but a good deal of it has been his ability to more . 2021 Snaps: 717 A pair of Saints defenders were selected for PFF's top 101 players of 2022 NFL 2022 Draft Positional Rankings: Linebackers - Sports Articles This group could rank much higher by the end of next season. Teams are afraid to throw at Surtain, and he has one of the lowest target totals among . 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. One of the most underrated linebackers of the past several years, Demario Davis' late-career emergence as an elite LB has been fun to watch. NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler. 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 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. Denver let Alexander Johnson walk in free agency, which depleted this unit. Going back to our introductory paragraph, versatility is needed at the linebacker position, and his versatility is the reason why Parsons comes in at No. Rankings&Projections |WR/CB Matchup Chart |NFL & NCAA Betting Dashboards | NFL Player Props Tool | NFL & NCAA Power Rankings Walker had a career year for the Browns in 2021, and his 78.2 PFF coverage grade was the highest of his career. He is a fantastic story of earning a job the hard way. David Long, meanwhile, was playing at a solid level before an injury forced him to miss most of the second half of the 2021 season. The league may be trending ever more toward the passing game, but there is still a place in the NFL for linebackers who are excellent run defenders first and foremost. He is a truly freakish athlete and will be 25 years old throughout his entire sixth NFL season in 2023 after being selected No. Here are the top free agents at linebacker, taken from PFF's free agency rankings. 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. Therefore, they are included in our defensive line rankings despite dropping into coverage at times. They happily scooped up the extremely talented Georgia linebacker. 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 Denver Broncos. In 10 seasons, he has been named an All-Pro eight times, made the Pro Bowl eight times and led the NFL in tackles twice. Rounding out the top-tier of linebackers, Lavonte David is likely another surprise player based on where he tends to go in drafts, but dont let the age fool you. 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. 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). In Eric Kendricks, the Vikings have had a superb all-around linebacker for years. Bolton, then a rookie, produced one of the highest individual grades for a linebacker. In two weeks, NFL GMs will begin negotiating with free . Pro Football Focus has finalized the regular season grades for the 2022 NFL season. 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. Research past fantasy performance with sortable player stats including PFF-exclusives like aDOT and fantasy points per opportunity. Friday Round-Up: Seahawks' Ryan Neal, Geno Smith Named To PFF Top-101 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. Leonard burst onto the scene with 163 combined tackles, seven sacks, four forced fumbles and two interceptions in his rookie season back in 2018. NFL LB Position Grades | PFF In 2021, Davis was given a career-high AV of 15 while again being named an All-Pro after he recorded 105 combined tackles, 13 tackles for loss and three sacks. 3) Demario Davis, New Orleans Saints. Parsons actually finished No. His processing skills took massive steps forward in 2021, causing his grade to jump from 57.1 to 76.3. Roquan Smith has had an up-and-down NFL career so far, and the team will be hoping he can bounce back from a 47.1 grade last season. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports. Best Bets Tool, PFF Free Agency Rank: 27 He ended up making the Pro Bowl by logging a career-high 863 snaps and racking up 121 tackles and 61 defensive stops. 2021 Snaps: 979 Linebacker Rankings: 2022 Regular Season - FF Today Its a rebuilt Jaguars linebacking corps after losing Myles Jack to the Steelers. Dynasty Rookie Draft Primer: Tight Ends (2023 Fantasy Football) 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. Here are the top 10 linebackers scheduled to become free agents in March. Now that we're at the end of the 2021-22 NFL season, the free agency picture is coming into focus and teams are beginning to identify potential targets to improve their roster weaknesses. 23 in 2021. The PFF grades aren't always right on point, but they do serve as a generally effective tool for comparisons . The 2022 season was Long's first as a full-time starter at middle linebacker, but he's made the most of opportunities in the past. 2021 PFF grade: 53.0 (50th of 89). 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. 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.
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