We are officially over two thirds of the was through the NFL offseason! The Super Bowl was 21 weeks ago, and there are just 10 Sundays left before the start of the season, so the season will be here before we know it.

With the start of the season right around the corner, we at EssentiallySports are releasing our top-100 players in the league. The NFL releases their own top-100 players list, which is voted on by the players, each year, but let’s be honest, i can be a bit of a joke (Jeffery Simmons, the best DT in football, being ranked below Jalen Ramsey, who moved from cornerback to safety because he can’t cover anymore, is a complete joke).

So, instead of the player’s perspective, we’re giving you the fan’s perspective. Daniel, Tim and I watch every single game every single week, so we feel qualified to give you our own rankings.

In case you missed it, here are our lists for No. 100 through No. 91 and No. 90 through No. 81.

Kicking off this week’s NFL Top-100 list is Mr. Brock Purdy. Does he have a massive arm like Josh Allen? No. Can he run by everyone on the defense like Lamar Jackson? No. Is he 6-foot-6 like Justin Herbert? No. But all this guy does is produce and win.

Purdy has played four seasons in the NFL and has a record of 30-15 (.667). He currently has the sixth-best QB win percentage in the entire NFL, trailing only Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Bo Nix, Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen, and if you remove the flukey 2024 season where San Fran went 6-11, Purdy is 24-6 as a starter (.800).

Purdy has dealt with some injuries, including in 2025 where he started just nine games, but his 17-game averages are 4,054 passing yards, 29 passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions with 218 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.

All Purdy does is put up a lot of points and win a lot of games.

A year ago, it felt like Travis Etienne’s career was basically over. After a 1,000-yard, 11-touchdown season in 2023, he was essentially benched in 2024, rushing for just 558 yards and two scores with 254 receiving yards and zero receiving touchdowns. Tank Bigsby out-produced him, but once Liam Coen came around this past offseason, Etienne’s revitalized his career.

In 2025, Etienne rushed for 1,107 yards (his highest total since his rookie season) with seven rushing touchdowns, but he also added 292 yards and six scores as a receiver. His 1,399 scrimmage yards ranked 17th and his 13 touchdowns ranked ninth among all receivers and running backs in 2025.

Now, Etienne has signed with the New Orleans Saints, where he’ll pair up with Alvin Kamara in Kellen Moore’s backfield. Moore is great at getting the most out of his running backs (i.e. Saquon Barkley in 2024), so we’ll see what he can do with Etienne this year.

Kenneth Walker has been underutilized his entire career. It was always obvious that he was the better back in Seattle, but the Seahawks refused to give him true RB1 status. Well, when Zach Charbonnet got hurt in the first round of the playoffs and Walker took over as RB1, he showed why they never should’ve made him split carries.

Walker went off in the playoffs, rushing for 313 yards and four touchdowns behind a 4.8 average in three games. He ran for 116 yards and three touchdowns in the Divisional Round before putting up 135 and two scores in the Super Bowl en route to winning the game’s MVP award.

After his breakout season, Walker signed a massive deal with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he will be the unquestioned RB1. I’m excited to see what he can do over a full season as RB1.

When you watch Nico Collins play, it’s obvious that he’s one of the best receivers in the NFL. He’s hit the 1,000-yard mark in each of the last three seasons despite missing some time in all of them. His best season came in 2023, when C.J. Stroud had his electric rookie year, catching 80 passes for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 games.

Collins is obviously capable of putting up massive numbers, but there are two things holding him back: his health and quarterback play. Collins has suffered multiple lower-body injuries throughout his career, and just suffered two concussions in the same season last year. He hasn’t played more than 15 games a single time in his career. And on top of that, C.J. Stroud has regressed every year since his rookie season, causing Collins’s numbers to drop a bit.

Despite all of that, Collins is one of seven receivers to have 1,000 yards over the past three seasons. That should tell you how talented he is.

After his first year as a starter where Jordan Love threw for 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, the whole world was ready to dub Love as the next coming of Aaron Rodgers. But over the past two seasons, his numbers have fallen off quite a bit, throwing for less than 3,400 yards and 25 touchdowns in both of those seasons.

While Love may not be the Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers-level talent Packers fans were hoping for, he’s still an excellent quarterback. He’s consistent, doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes, and hasn’t had the elite wide receiver talent many of the top quarterbacks have. He’s led Green Bay to the playoffs in all three years as a starter, and you can tell the kid oozes talent.

I want to see Green Bay go out and get him a true WR1 so we can tell what he really has in the tank. But for now, 76 is a fair rating.

DJ Turner II is one of the most underrated cornerbacks in the entire NFL. Over his first two seasons, he was pretty good, giving up roughly a 55 percent completion rate and four touchdowns with 14 pass breakups, but in 2025, he really broke out.

While playing on a horrendous Cincinnati defense, Turner was lockdown, giving up a 46.8 percent completion rate and four touchdowns with two picks and 13 PBUs, which ranked second in the league. Only three other corners – Quinyon Mitchell, Christian Gonzalez and Jamel Dean – gave up a lower completion rate than Turner, and all of them had much more help defensively.

Turner is a true CB1 that can lockdown an opponent’s top receiver, so if he can replicate his 2025 performance in 2026, he’ll be much higher on this list next year.

Safeties usually don’t have the great coverage stats on PFF, because they get tagged with giving up a lot deep balls and easy throws, but Xavier McKinney is the exception to that. In 2025, McKinney allowed a 57.7 percent completion rate, 182 yards and one touchdown while picking off two passes and breaking up seven more, all of which ranked in the top-10 among safeties (besides interceptions).

On top of his coverage skills, McKinney had a career-year as a run defender, earning an 82.4 run defense grade from PFF, which is over 12 points higher than he graded any other year. He also only had five missed tackles on 112 attempts.

McKinney is another guy that flies under the radar when we talk about the best defensive backs in the league, but he absolutely deserves a spot on the top-100 list.

Brian Burns is a very divisive player. I see a lot of fans claiming he’s not actually as good as his stats say, but it’s hard to put up 16.5 sacks in a season without being a great player.

I’ll admit, you don’t typically see someone with 53 pressures (26th in the league) and 24 hurries (83rd) finish with 16.5 sacks (2nd), but if you told me I could get an edge rusher that was guaranteed to average a sack per game, but would only have four pressures, I would take him over a lot of guys in the league. Especially because he has the exact opposite of him – Abdul Carter with 73 pressures and four sacks – across from him.

Say what you want about Burns, but you don’t accidentally finish with 16.5 sacks. You have to be pretty dang good to do that.

Drake London is another fairly controversial player. Atlanta Falcons fans will tell you he’s a top-five receiver in the NFL, but the numbers don’t quite add up to that.

As a Saints fan, even I’ll admit that London is much better than the numbers say. He hasn’t had consistent quarterback play for pretty much his entire career, and when he did have somewhat consistent play, he put up 1,271 yards and nine touchdowns in 2024. Much like Nico Collins, I want to see him stay healthy and have above average QB play, because he’s capable of putting up some big numbers.

For now, No. 72 feels right for London. If he can get better QB play and put up some bigger numbers, he will certainly rise up this list.

Rounding out this week’s list of the EssentiallySports NFL Top-100 is Brian Branch. The Detroit Lions safety has been phenomenal through the first three years of his career, and 2025 was one of his best.

Branch has been one of the best run defending safeties in the NFL since he entered the league in 2023. He’s had 26+ run stops in each of his first three seasons, and in 2025, he missed just four tackles. And on top of that, he was great in coverage once again this season.

Branch had seven picks in his first two seasons, and while he didn’t have one this past year, he allowed a 56.8 percent completion rate and 301 yards, both of which were career-bests, while breaking up six passes.

Branch is one of the best young safeties in the NFL, so his spot on this list was absolutely deserved.