Through 8 weeks, Creed Humphrey has earned PFF’s highest grade for a center in years

In his rookie season, former Oklahoma Sooners center Creed Humphrey has become is a rising star in the NFL.

If you followed Oklahoma during the Kyler Murray/Jalen Hurts years there was a constant on the offensive line that made all of those offenses go. It wasn’t the quarterback but instead a homegrown Oklahoma kid from Shawnee with size, strength, and intelligence to match.

Creed Humphrey anchored the offensive line for some of Lincoln Riley’s most prolific offenses and in 2021 he made the leap from prolific college offenses to one of the NFL’s best offenses as well.

Despite Kansas City’s struggles as a team, Humphrey has been a rock in the middle even as a rookie in a rebuilding project of sorts for the Chiefs’ offensive line. After being dismantled in Tampa against the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, the Chiefs went all-in on renovating their offensive line. Humphrey was their first offensive linemen pick of the draft and has only validated their pick.

He currently is the highest graded rookie (regardless of position) in the entire league. He sits at a PFF grade of 90.7 through week eight.

Also, according to PFF, Humphrey has the highest grade for a rookie center through the first eight weeks of a season since Nick Mangold in 2006. Mangold went on to be a Pro Bowler seven times while being All-Pro three times.

While the Chiefs offensively have struggled, Humphrey is showing the same physicality and aggressiveness that helped him become the Big 12’s Offensive Linemen of the Year in back-to-back years from 2019-2020.

Humphrey has even gotten support for Offensive Rookie of the Year from one of Pro Football Network’s lead analysts, Dalton Miller.

Dalton brings up a very valid point that it’s highly unlikely Humphrey will get real consideration for that award as it usually goes to virtually every other offensive position except offensive line.

Nonetheless, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the Sooners’ fanbase who couldn’t have seen this coming.

For years, Humphrey showed up week in and week out dominating the Big 12 competition. He did it quietly, confidently, and with a tenacity that just can’t be coached. As long as he continues to keep Patrick Mahomes upright, he’ll continue to prove the Sooners community right and prove the teams that passed on him wrong.