Category: The All-22

Detroit Lions’ most underrated player: DL Alim McNeill

Detroit Lions defensive lineman Alim McNeill has blown past “too small” biases to become a top-tier NFL disruptor.

From John Randle to Geno Atkins to Aaron Donald, I tend to have a weakness for the potential of smaller defensive tackles. So, when McNeill hit my radar in 2020, I wasn’t surprised that I enjoyed his disruptive tape.

The 6′ 1⅞”, 317-pound McNeill was selected by the Lions in the third round of the 2021 draft, and while it took him a second to get the reps he needed to become a real force on Detroit’s defensive line, he had no issue doing so in 2023.

Last season, McNeill totaled six sacks and 43 total pressures, embarrassing a lot of Pro Bowl-level guards and centers along the way.

 

Denver Broncos’ most underrated player: EDGE Jonathon Cooper

Denver Broncos edge-rusher Jonathon Cooper really hit his stride as a disruptor in his third NFL season.

Jonathon Cooper lasted until the seventh round of the 2021 draft despite a somewhat productive career at Ohio State in which he broke through the Buckeyes’ insane pass-rush depth to show what he could do. He had three sacks and 33 total pressures on just 228 pass-rushing reps in 2020, and he was right there for the picking when the Broncos took him with the 240th overall pick.

Cooper had the same challenge early on in the NFL, as he once again had to break through limited reps to prove that he belonged. It all kicked in last season, as Cooper set career highs in sacks (nine) and total pressures (55) on 421 pass-rushing snaps. Eventually, Cooper tends to prove that he should be playing more often than he is, and he does it against the best possible competition. 

Dallas Cowboys’ most underrated player: DL Osa Odighizuwa

Micah Parsons may be the star of the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive line, but don’t sleep on Osa Odighizuwa’s impact.

Micah Parsons is the superstar of the Cowboys’ defensive fronts, but it’s unwise to underestimate Odighizuwa, who Dallas selected in the third round of the 2021 draft out of UCLA. Odighizuwa has never had a season in which he’s created less than 38 total pressures, which he did in each of his first two NFL seasons, and he upped that to 44 pressures (along with three sacks) last season.

Whether he’s playing in the B-gaps or over the tackles, Odighizuwa has become a consistent, dynamic pressure creator who’s especially conversant with taking interior offensive linemen, walking them back into the pocket, and dumping them on the ground on the way to the quarterback.

Cleveland Browns’ most underrated player: CB Martin Emerson Jr.

Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. has become a top-10 defender, and he’s especially dominant in press coverage.

Emerson ranked third in my recent list of the NFL’s best press cornerbacks, which he did by dint of his eight catches allowed in press on 26 targets for 4.2 yards per catch, three explosive plays, no touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Overall last season, regardless of scheme, Emerson gave up 36 catches on 73 targets for 498 yards, 161 yards after the catch, one touchdown, four interceptions, nine pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 53.3 — the fourth-lowest in the NFL among cornerbacks playing at least 50% of their snaps.

Not bad for a guy the Browns absolutely stole in the third round of the 2022 draft out of Mississippi State.

 

Cincinnati Bengals’ most underrated player: Safety Geno Stone

The Bengals got former Ravens safety Geno Stone for a massive bargain, given Stone’s abilities in the deep third of any defense.

Given the importance of the deep safety in today’s NFL, it’s a bit bizarre that former Ravens safety Geno Stone could do no better on the 2024 open market than the two-year, $14 million contract he got from the Bengals.

It’s a great move for Lou Anarumo’s defense, which had been struggling at safety for a while, but when a guy plays in the deep third on 80% of his snaps and allows 28 catches on 42 targets for 197 yards, 145 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, seven interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 53.5…

Perhaps it was the fact that Stone had a rough season in 2022, or that he had limited snaps in his first two NFL seasons as a seventh-round pick out of Iowa in 2020, but there was no element of one-hit wonder in Stone’s game last season, and the Bengals reaped the rewards.

Chicago Bears’ most underrated player: CB Jaylon Johnson

Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson has become one of the NFL’s best lockdown defenders.

The Bears selected Jaylon Johnson out of Utah in the second round of the 2020 draft, and watched as his coverage profile expanded in a positive sense over the next four seasons. Johnson went from allowing an opponent passer rating of 106.7 in 2020, to 101.3 in 2021, to 96.8 in 2022… to 33.3 in 2023. That was the lowest passer rating allowed by any NFL cornerback playing at least 50% of his snaps, and that was the case to an amazing degree. DaRon Bland ranked second with an opponent passer rating of 52.6.

How do you get an opponent passer rating of 33.3? If you’re Johnson, you allow 25 catches on 50 targets for 195 yards, 115 yards after the catch, one touchdown, four interceptions, and six pass breakups. That got Johnson a new four-year, $76 million contract with $43.8 million guaranteed, so he’s not internally underrated. But if he has another season like he just did, it will be time to talk about Johnson as one of the NFL’s best at his position. https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1793663827000918070

Atlanta Falcons’ most underrated player: EDGE Arnold Ebiketie

Falcons underrated edge-rusher Arnold Ebiketie might be the key to his team’s future pass-rushing prospects.

Last season, the Falcons had just 29 sacks from their edge defenders, which wasn’t exactly impressive. And Bud Dupree, the team leader with eight sacks, is now with the Chargers. So, someone is going to need to step up from the edge.

It could be that Arnold Ebiketie, selected in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Penn State, is ready to do just that. Last season, on just 175 pass-rushing snaps, Ebiketie amassed seven sacks and 28 total pressures. As the Falcons didn’t do a ton in the draft or free agency to accentuate their outside pass-rush, it’s possible that the team sees Ebiketie as the proverbial Next Man Up. 

Arizona Cardinals’ most underrated player: EDGE Dennis Gardeck

Cardinals edge-rusher Dennis Gardeck has come out of nowhere to be an NFL force, and he’s his team’s most underrated player.

No offense to the University of Sioux Falls, which has has just four NFL alumni in its history, but it’s fair to say that Dennis Gardeck came from an unusual place as an undrafted free agent in 2018 to his current status as the Cardinals’ most productive edge-rusher. It was a career for Gardeck in 2023, as he put up six sacks and 42 total pressures. Not world-beating numbers, but when you consider what Gardeck had around him, and the fact that he got home to the quarterback without a lot of help more often than not, the arrow is pointing up here.

Gardeck is currently in the last year of a three-year, $10 million deal, so another season like his last one could give him some decent bank in the next free agency cycle. 

Seattle Seahawks’ best draft sleeper pick: Nehemiah Pritchett, CB, Auburn

The Seahawks made a fifth-round bet on Auburn cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett, and it could pay off in a big way.

The Seahawks and new defensive-minded head coach Mike Macdonald must have liked their time watching Auburn’s 2023 defense, because they took two cornerbacks from that program — Nehemiah Pritchett with the 136th overall pick in the fifth round, and DJ James with the 192nd pick in the sixth round. While James projects as an inside/outside cornerback, the 6′ 0⅛”, 190-pound Pritchett, who ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, played just 13% of his snaps in the slot last season. He’s an outside speed cornerback in an old-school Seattle sense. Certainly in the overall mentality.

“I think I’m really intense when it comes to hitting. I’m not going to shy away from contact. You can turn on the film and you can see I’m super-aggressive. Most of the time, I just try to come up with a body part at corner.”

As far as we know, Pritchett’s opponents kept all their body parts last season, but they didn’t have a lot of production. Pritchett allowed 12 catches on 26 targets for 134 yards, 25 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 58.8. Over five seasons with the Tigers, Pritchett allowed an opponent passer rating of 69.2. 

San Francisco 49ers’ best draft sleeper pick: Jacob Cowing, WR, Arizona

The 49ers got themselves a spectacular receiver in Arizona’s Jacob Cowing.

Assuming that the 49ers keep both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk this season, the addition of first-round receiver Ricky Pearsall gives Kyle Shanahan a different kind of target for which to scheme in that Pearsall is one of those guys who knows how to get open. But what about the deep ball? Aiyuk led the team last season with 15 catches on passes of 20 or more air yards, and George Kittle was second with seven. That’s worked just fine to date, but it also sets the table for Arizona’s Jacob Cowing, who the team took with the 135th overall pick in the fourth round.

In 2023, the 5′ 8⅜”, 163-pound Cowing had six receptions on passes of 20 or more air yards on a team where the deep ball wasn’t a feature. His tape shows a lot of speed potential, and in today’s NFL, teams are less concerned with smaller receivers, given the use of motion and multiple deployments to keep them open, and away from bigger, more aggressive defenders.

“Very similar to what we got with [WR] Ricky [Pearsall] in that there’s not a route that he can’t run,” Shanahan said of Cowing. “He starts outside the numbers and he’s got the speed to get on top of people and threaten with a go. He’s got the quickness. Inside he’d be a big problem with just how shifty he is. He can run screens and things like that. Very good punt returner. For his lack of size, he makes up with mentality. His mindset, when he does cut, he’s always accelerating out of a cut. He’s trying to violently go through people and when you’re smaller, you hope they’re faster and quicker, which he is, and anything that you wanna knock on a smaller guy he makes up for in his mindset.”

Greg Cosell and I are both fans, and we discussed Cowing’s potential in Shanahan’s offense in “The Xs and Os.”