Monday’s reveal in NFL Network’s annual ranking of the top 100 players kicked off with Carolina Panthers defensive end Derrick Brown.<\/p>\n
Brown is yet another star making his debut, coming in at No. 90.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams followed at No. 89.<\/p>\n
100. New Orleans Saints DE Cameron Jordan <\/p>\n
99. Indianapolis Colts OG Quenton Nelson <\/p>\n
98. Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young <\/p>\n
97. Seattle Seahawks LB Ernest Jones IV <\/p>\n
96. New Orleans Saints RB Travis Etienne Jr. <\/p>\n
95. New York Jets LB Demario Davis <\/p>\n
94. Kansas City Chiefs C Creed Humphrey <\/p>\n
93. Cleveland Browns LB Carson Schwesinger <\/p>\n
92. Houston Texans LB Azeez Al-Shaair <\/p>\n
91. Chicago Bears DE Montez Sweat<\/p>\n
90. Carolina Panthers DE Derrick Brown<\/p>\n
89. Los Angeles Rams RB Kyren Williams<\/p>\n
Brown rebounded nicely from a meniscus injury that limited him to one game in 2024. He finished 2025 with 73 combined tackles, five sacks, seven pass breakups and one forced fumble.<\/p>\n
That fumble helped to seal a 31-28 win over the Rams. Brown got to quarterback Matthew Stafford and dislodged the ball with two and a half minutes remaining. The Panthers recovered it and ran out the clock.<\/p>\n
Having the 2023 Pro Bowler for all 17 games coincided with a jump in the performance of Carolina’s defense as a whole.<\/p>\n
The Panthers ranked last in the league in both yards and points allowed two seasons ago. They were 16th and 15th in those two categories in 2025, giving up an average of 327.2 yards and 22.4 points.<\/p>\n
That improvement helped catapult Carolina into the playoffs for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n
This is the second straight year Williams has fallen in the Top 100 after making his first appearance in 2024. He debuted in 78th and then went down to 85th.<\/p>\n
Cracking the ranking for three successive offseasons is at least a sign of his consistency on the field.<\/p>\n
Williams ran for 1,252 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 4.8 yards per carry. He also caught 36 passes for 281 yards and three scores.<\/p>\n
In suboptimal conditions, the 25-year-old played a key role in Los Angeles’ 20-17 win over the Chicago Bears in the NFC divisional round. He was responsible for both of the Rams’ touchdowns and went for 87 yards on 21 carries.<\/p>\n
Williams will be expected to continue carrying a sizable load on the ground. He’s entering the first year of the $33 million extension he signed with L.A. last summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday’s reveal in NFL Network’s annual ranking of the top 100 players kicked off with Carolina Panthers defensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-768155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}