It’s NFL All-Pro time. While there’s still one week of football remaining, the number of elite players expected to sit out some or all of Week 18 led me to put my roster together this week. Obviously, there’s still an opportunity for players to finalize their case with a big game, but one week of action isn’t going to be enough to massively swing most of them from the second team onto the first team (or off the roster altogether).
Since it’s my article, I’m going with 11 personnel on both sides of the ball, which means no fullback, two linebackers, three wide receivers and three cornerbacks. My picks are a product of what I’ve seen on film this season and what the numbers suggest about players in context versus one another. I also tend to discount players who missed more than a couple of games. This hurts Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, for instance, because he has been the league’s most efficient and productive receiver on a snap-by-snap basis but missed five games with an injury. When I was close between two players, I usually chose the one who was available more often.
Subscribe: ‘The Bill Barnwell Show’
I’ll start with the offense and work my way to the defensive side of the ball before finishing up with special teams. Most of the positions on this list have been wrapped up by the first-teamer. That isn’t true at quarterback, which feels as if it’s coming down to the final week of the season:
Jump to a position:
Offense: QB | RB | WR | TE | OL
Defense: EDGE | DT | LB | CB | S
Special teams: K | P | RET
Quarterback
Josh Allen, Bills
I won’t get too much into the conversation about quarterback here, given that we’re going to be talking about a lot of the same stuff next week in my year-end awards column. I laid out the numbers for the top three quarterbacks in my column Monday, and there isn’t much difference between the top two.
Lamar Jackson has been absolutely spectacular, and Allen has been more consistent (while still, of course, occasionally looking like he’s a space alien). They’re both incredible. I very narrowly lean toward Allen, but I’m not ruling out changing my mind between now and next week. It’s also worth noting that Allen isn’t expected to play much Sunday against the Patriots — Buffalo is locked into the 2-seed in the AFC — while Jackson and the Ravens need to beat the Browns on Saturday to win the AFC North and clinch the 3-seed.
Second team: Lamar Jackson, Ravens
Running back
Saquon Barkley, Eagles
There’s no such difficult decision to be made at running back, where Barkley is having the best season by any rusher since Adrian Peterson’s 2012 MVP campaign. He has generated a staggering 549 rush yards over expectation (RYOE), more than any other back since 2018, when the NFL started tracking this metric. (Derrick Henry’s 474 this season now ranks second in the RYOE charts, with both topping the previous record-holder, which was Barkley’s rookie season in 2018.)
Barkley also has evolved. In 2018, he was the back who always managed to beat the first unfortunate defender who tried to tackle him. He can still make guys miss — just watch that reverse hurdle from November — but he has made more plays with his vision, decisiveness and acceleration in the open field this season. No back is better at setting up defenders at the line of scrimmage and beating them before they even know they’re toast. In previous years, he would have needed to beat defenders one-on-one. Now, those defenders don’t even get close enough to have any hope of taking him down.
It would be naive to pretend Barkley isn’t helped by Jalen Hurts’ gravity or one of the league’s best offensive lines, but it would be equally as foolish to minimize his role in righting the ship for the Eagles. It has been an inconsistent season for Hurts and the passing game, which has topped 200 passing yards once over the past six weeks. Barkley, who will sit out in Week 18 and rest for the playoffs, has been the focal point of the offense, with nearly double the success rate of backups Kenneth Gainwell and Will Shipley. I’m not sure any player in the league has done his job better.
Second team: Derrick Henry, Ravens
Wide receiver
Ja’Marr Chase, Bengals
It would take something spectacular from Brock Bowers or Justin Jefferson to deny Chase the receiving triple crown, which would make him the fifth wideout since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to lead the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He is on pace to do so with a healthy lead on the rest of the pack; he’s nine receptions ahead of Bowers, 133 yards ahead of Jefferson and four touchdowns ahead of Terry McLaurin. He could add to those leads in a must-win game against the Steelers on Saturday.
Chase has his issues with drops — ESPN has charted him with seven this season — including a would-be touchdown in the first half against the Broncos last week. That might be the only weakness in his game. He has been spectacular with the ball in his hands this season, racking up a league-high 761 yards after catch and 293 yards after catch over expectation (YACOE). The only other player to come within 130 YACOE of his total is CeeDee Lamb (232).
Justin Jefferson, Vikings
Though Chase’s weakness might be the occasional drop, it’s a genuine shock when Jefferson doesn’t bring in any pass vaguely thrown in his direction. There’s no disrespect meant to Sam Darnold here, but Jefferson’s catch radius and ability to bring in passes thrown into the tiniest of windows make him an incredibly safe haven for any quarterback. His 2.8 yards per route run leads all receivers who ran at least 400 routes this season.
And with all due respect to Jordan Addison and the other receivers in Minnesota, coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense works as a product of the gravity and eyeballs teams have on Jefferson at all times. So many route combinations and progressions are built around how teams cover him and what that means for the quarterback and the other four receivers on the field. No receiver beats defenses in more ways than Jefferson, who is the prototype for what great wideouts will look like and how they’ll be used in the decade to come.
2:09
Should the Vikings move forward with Sam Darnold or J.J. McCarthy?
Mike Tannenbaum, Jason McCourty and Evan Cohen debate whether the Vikings should extend quarterback Sam Darnold’s contract or move forward with J.J. McCarthy.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions
Maybe he isn’t quite as spectacular as Chase or Jefferson, but if I were a coach who needed to complete one pass to win a game and could choose any receiver, I’d pick St. Brown. As good as Chase and Jefferson have been, no wideout has been more of a sure thing when the ball is thrown in his direction. On third and fourth downs, St. Brown has the most catches (35), first downs (29) and receiving touchdowns (seven). His yards per route run on those snaps rank as the fourth most in football.
St. Brown’s 2024 advanced metrics are almost unbelievable. Running a career-high catch rate of 81.3%, his catch rate over expectation (CROE) is 11.8%. That’s the second-best mark for any wideout with at least 100 targets (behind Terry McLaurin). He’s catching 15.8 more passes more than a typical wideout would be expected to gain across his 124 targets. Some of that might be a product of Jared Goff’s accuracy, but Detroit’s other wideouts and tight ends have combined to catch 2.2 passes over expectation across their 250 targets.
St. Brown has also grown into a larger, more expansive role than the guy who spent most of his time in the slot in previous season. He took 76% of his snaps in the slot or tight to the formation in 2021. That has dropped over each of the past three seasons to 46% in 2024, and he averaged an even 3.0 yards per route run split out wide this season. The Lions threw the ball less often and leaned more heavily on the run by virtue of holding so many second-half leads, but don’t confuse that for a less impressive or efficient season from St. Brown.
Second team: Terry McLaurin, Commanders; CeeDee Lamb, Cowboys; Brian Thomas Jr., Jaguars
Tight end
George Kittle, 49ers
Amid an injury-riddled season for the 49ers, Kittle has quietly been spectacular. As a world-class blocker, he has a higher production floor on a snap-to-snap basis than any of the other candidates at this position. If he’s even close with regard to receiving statistics to the top pass catchers at the position, my lean is to give him his flowers as a first-team All-Pro.
Kittle doesn’t have the cumulative reception totals of Brock Bowers or Trey McBride, but he makes up for that gap with incredible efficiency. He has caught more than 83% of the passes in his direction this season, a career-best mark, which has led to an NFL-leading catch rate over expectation (13.9%). He has caught 12.6 more passes than an average receiver would with the same targets. Plus, he has put up 163 yards after catch over expectation, which is tied with Tucker Kraft for the most in the league. The average Kittle target has generated 0.7 expected points added (EPA); that’s the second-best mark in football for any receiver, tight end or otherwise, with at least 80 targets.
Second team: Brock Bowers, Raiders
Offensive tackle
Tristan Wirfs, Buccaneers
With future Hall of Famer Trent Williams limited to 10 games, the door opened up for a younger tackle to take a spot on the All-Pro team. Wirfs is the most worthy replacement. He’s the only tackle to top Williams in pass block win rate this season, with his 95.5% mark ranking as the best for any lineman. NFL Next Gen Stats credit Wirfs with 1.5 sacks and five quarterback pressures allowed, which are both tied among regular left tackles for the fewest at the position. One of those sacks was on a play Baker Mayfield extended, meaning Wirfs has given up only one quick half-sack all season.
Wirfs also did that while getting double-team help just 13.6% of the time, which was the lowest double-team rate for any regular left tackle in the league. He’s also part of one of the biggest single-season improvements made by any unit in the league in 2024, as the Bucs have jumped from ranking 31st in expected yards per carry in 2022 and below average in 2023 to second in 2024. He already won an All-Pro nod at right tackle in 2021, but he deserves one for his work on the left side this season.
Penei Sewell, Lions
There’s just no denying Sewell, who might be one of the league’s most physically dominant players, independent of position. That can mean running over opposing players, of course, but his quickness and identification allow him to simply erase opposing pass rushers and their paths to the quarterback. That’s true of both one-on-one rushes and when defensive lines try to twist and run games to throw off Detroit’s timing.
Sewell hasn’t been perfect as a pass blocker — he allowed a pressure against the Texans in Week 10 that led to a Jared Goff interception as the quarterback tried to avoid a sack — but he hasn’t been far off. (Nick Bosa’s two sacks Monday night, as an example, were a coverage sack after Sewell had initially blocked the 49ers’ pass rusher out of the play and a sack that started from the other side of the line.) And as a run blocker? Well, good luck. I’m convinced Sewell could be a legitimate threat in the red zone if the Lions wanted to use him as a sixth lineman; I suspect a lot of defensive linemen would prefer to see him run a route.
Second team: Garett Bolles, Broncos; Lane Johnson, Eagles
Guard
Joe Thuney, Chiefs
Even before the Chiefs were forced to move their standout guard to left tackle out of desperation late in December, Thuney was being earmarked for an All-Pro spot. Playing in an offense with a quarterback who loves to extend plays, he has given up only 1.5 sacks all season, per NFL Next Gen Stats, and leads all guards in pass block win rate (98%). He has given up one quick pressure of Patrick Mahomes.
When aligned on the interior, Thuney has been blocking as part of a double-team just 42.3% of the time, which is the second-lowest rate for any guard. Moving to tackle only adds to his lore. After sitting out the final two games of the 2023 run to the Super Bowl because of a pectoral injury, one of the league’s iron men has played every single snap this season.
Quenton Nelson, Colts
Nelson might be the league’s most fun lineman to watch now that Jason Kelce has retired. It’s one thing to see a guard pull on power or trap, as Nelson will do, but it’s another to see him running all the way to the boundary and escort blocking, as he did on a big play against the Bills this season. Big men aren’t supposed to move the way Nelson does. He’s so good at actually blocking the defender he’s trying to hit as a puller when other linemen would otherwise strike a glancing blow or miss outright.
The Ravens and the Eagles are the only two teams that have more runs of 20-plus yards than the Colts this season, and so much of that goes behind Nelson. This final guard spot was close; it’s tough to keep out Elgton Jenkins, who became the second player in the past six years to allow zero quick quarterback pressures, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Nelson is a force of nature, though.
Second team: Elgton Jenkins, Packers; Sam Cosmi, Commanders
Center
Creed Humphrey, Chiefs
If you’re wondering how the Chiefs have managed to stay afloat and even thrive at times on offense over the past few years, look toward the guys blocking for Patrick Mahomes. Thuney is a special talent, but so is the guy next to him. Humphrey has mostly corrected the snap issues that plagued him last season, and he has done so while dominating in pass protection. He has gone all season with zero quick pressures allowed, per NFL Next Gen Stats, becoming the first center in six years to do so.
Humphrey’s awareness is also special: A lot of centers will stay put and maybe help on a nearby defender if they don’t have anybody on them after the snap, but I’ve seen him fan all the way out to block an edge rusher who wasn’t his initial assignment. He ranks third in run block win rate on the interior (96%) and is a big reason why the Chiefs have converted more than 81% of their fourth-and-short runs this season, even without the threat of Mahomes on sneaks.
Second team: Frank Ragnow, Lions
1:12
Bart Scott: Chiefs’ experience can lead them to third straight title
Bart Scott explains why the Chiefs’ playoff experience can guide them to a third straight Super Bowl win.
Edge rusher
This is always the most impossible position to sort through because there are annually about 10 to 12 players who could make a reasonable case to be considered as a first-team All-Pro. This season, Micah Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson are missing out because of injuries, but Greg Rousseau, Jared Verse and Andrew Van Ginkel have had fantastic seasons and aren’t even really close to the first team, which is just unfair. The bar to get in here is impossibly high.
And then there’s T.J. Watt, who is one of the favorites to win Defensive Player of the Year and doesn’t even figure into my top four. He has made a number of huge plays at critical times for the Steelers by forcing fumbles, but he ranks 65th in pressure rate among players who rush the quarterback at least 20 times per game, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
I prefer the quick quarterback pressure stat, which measures how often a pass rusher gets after the opposing quarterback within 2.5 seconds of the snap. Watt ranks 47th by that metric, at a rate (3.3%) less than half of what teammates Nate Herbig (9.4%) and Alex Highsmith (7%) have put together across from the future Hall of Famer. The Steelers actually have a better pressure rate without Watt on the field (31.1%) than they do with him between the lines (29.9%).
Watt’s double-team rate (14.5%) is half of what elite edge rushers Parsons and Myles Garrett have put together this season. Those big plays late in games matter more than typical sacks, of course, and Watt’s 19 tackles for loss ranks second in the league, but he has been more about the splash plays than drive-to-drive impact as a pass rusher this season.
Trey Hendrickson, Bengals
With that preamble aside, I found it impossible to keep Hendrickson out of one of the starting spots. While his teammates have finally picked up their production late in the season, he had more sacks than the rest of the Cincinnati roster combined for most of the season. On a team with no other significant pass rushers and with a secondary in which players have been getting benched throughout the season, he has been the lone standout.
Hendrickson is tied for the league lead in sacks (14) and ranks second in quarterback knockdowns (31). He has batted five passes at the line of scrimmage. He leads the league in quick pressure rate (9.2%) and ranks second in pass rush win rate (24.1%). He knocked Kingsley Suamataia out of Kansas City’s plans in Week 2, then drew an illegal use of hands to the face penalty against Wanya Morris that should have won the Bengals the game against the Chiefs, only for a fourth-and-16 pass interference call on the next snap to reopen the door for Andy Reid’s team. He also had the single most dominant rep I’ve seen from any player all season:
I screamed after seeing what Trey Hendrickson did to Thayer Munford on this snap. Desmond Ridder might have screamed too. pic.twitter.com/XdT23p1YR7
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 9, 2024
Myles Garrett, Browns
Just another ho-hum season from the most consistent elite player in football. Garrett is tied with Hendrickson for the league lead in sacks, leads all defenders with 21 tackles for loss and ranks second to Hendrickson in quick pressure rate. He has done that while being double-teamed on more than 30% of his pass-rushing opportunities, one of the league’s highest rates for edge rushers.
Garrett has turned 3.6% of his pass-rush opportunities into sacks, which trails only Dante Fowler Jr. for pass-rush efficiency this season. And just for fun, he blocked a field goal against the Eagles to produce a return touchdown and give the Browns a halftime tie against one of the league’s best teams in October. The Cleveland defense has taken a big step backward in 2024, but that doesn’t extend to Garrett.
Second team: Danielle Hunter, Texans; Jonathan Greenard, Vikings
Defensive tackle
Zach Allen, Broncos
Things aren’t much easier at defensive tackle, where there’s another glut of superstars. One guy who doesn’t have the name recognition but clearly belongs in that group after this season is Allen, who has stood out on the interior alongside Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper on the outside. Allen had a breakout season with the Cardinals in 2022 before signing with the Broncos, but he wasn’t as consistent in his first season in Denver.
Allen has been a game-wrecker in 2024. He leads the league with 39 quarterback hits, eight more than any other player. While he has a relatively modest 8.5 sacks by that standard, his work on the interior has helped create opportunities on twists and stunts for Bonitto and Cooper. He ranks third in pass rush win rate on the interior behind DeForest Buckner, who missed too much time with an injury to make my roster, and the other guy at defensive tackle in this team. Allen also helps anchor a Broncos run defense that leads the league in success rate, and he rarely comes off the field. Coming off a 3.5-sack, six-knockdown game against the Bengals, he has been a superstar this season.
Cameron Heyward, Steelers
Is this guy ever going to age? Heyward is in the middle of one of the best age-35 seasons by a defender in NFL history. He has racked up eight sacks and 20 knockdowns on the interior. He has batted down eight passes, which shouldn’t be possible for a guy on the tail end of his career. Jumping to knock down throws is typically a young man’s game. He had nine passes defensed in 2021 but just five over 28 games across the past two seasons; eight is more than some cornerbacks will have over a full season.
And then Heyward adds even more as a run defender. His 8.2% stop rate leads all defensive linemen. (Stops are tackles that generate negative EPA for the offense and positive EPA for the defense.) He gets pushed back an average of just 0.5 yards on run plays per ESPN’s tracking, which is well below average for linemen aligned inside. There are great players around him, but Pittsburgh’s run defense has a 61.4% success rate with Heyward on the field, a rate that drops to 53.8% across 99 carries when he has been on the sideline. He’s every bit as essential to the Steelers as he was five years ago.
Second team: Chris Jones, Chiefs; Jeffery Simmons, Titans
Linebacker
Zack Baun, Eagles
Though Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has understandably been feted for the decision to sign Saquon Barkley in free agency, there’s a case that the Baun deal has been even more of a steal. A rotational edge rusher in New Orleans after being drafted in Round 3 in 2020, he was expected to be a backup pass rusher and special teams player after signing a one-year, $3.5 million deal.
Instead, new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio saw Baun as an off-ball linebacker. After an impressive summer, Baun took over Devin White’s job in the starting lineup as an off-ball linebacker and never looked back. He has been the league’s best pass-defending linebacker by a significant margin. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, throws where he has been the nearest defender in coverage have generated minus-25.7 EPA. Among regular defenders, the second-best linebacker by EPA per snap as the nearest player in coverage is closer to 43rd than he is to Baun in first.
Defenders can rack up gaudy EPA figures by intercepting passes, but Baun has picked off only one throw. While nearest-defender stats aren’t perfect approximations for coverage responsibilities — players won’t get blamed if they blow an assignment and aren’t anywhere near the guy they’re supposed to be covering — the tape backs up that he has been a rangy, aware defender in coverage.
And then, as a run defender, Baun has eight tackles for loss this season, one behind Edgerrin Cooper for the most in the league. No player has made a higher share of his team’s tackles than his 15.7%. This has been one of the great out-of-nowhere years in recent league history for a free agent signing on a one-year deal. Barkley has been brilliant, but he was already regarded as one of the best backs in football when he signed with Philadelphia. Baun has been the revelation of the year and is a Defensive Player of the Year contender.
Frankie Luvu, Commanders
Two linebacker spots, two free agent additions. Luvu emerged as a fun player who repeatedly popped on film in 2022 with the Panthers, but like seemingly everyone else in Carolina, he was mostly anonymous last season. Signed by the Commanders as part of their offseason rebuild, the hope was he could be the more athletic half of a linebacker tandem next to future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner.
Luvu, 28, has been much more as he has stuffed the stat sheet. He has eight sacks, 11 tackles for loss and 14 quarterback knockdowns attacking the line of scrimmage. He has been a wildly entertaining blitzer, ripping off spin moves to speed around guards and bowling over running backs in pass protection. Some linebackers get sacks by chasing down quarterbacks late in snaps, but most of his takedowns have been as a pure pass rusher.
Luvu has picked off a pass and knocked away five in coverage, allowing a career-best 76.5 passer rating in the process. And while he hasn’t made a wild number of plays against the run, he has whiffed on only 4.3% of his tackle attempts, the seventh-best rate for linebackers with at least 80 tackles this season. In a year in which stalwarts such as Fred Warner and Roquan Smith have had down seasons, the unheralded Baun and Luvu have thrived.
Second team: Patrick Queen, Steelers; Daiyan Henley, Chargers
Cornerback
Pat Surtain, Broncos
Surtain, one of the easiest selections on this list, is in the middle of a banner season. He’s giving up a 55.6 passer rating as the nearest defender, the second-best rate for any cornerback, while leading a Denver defense that plays man-to-man coverage at the league’s highest rate. He has picked off four passes, returning one for a touchdown. He has zero missed tackles.
And when he matches up against superstar wideouts, Surtain is usually the one winning the battle. Last week, he went up against Ja’Marr Chase on 43 routes and limited the star wideout to three catches on six targets for 27 yards, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Chase had six catches for 75 yards on 13 routes against Denver’s other cornerbacks. Offensive coaches are too good at moving star receivers around to ensure a one-on-one matchup against a top cornerback on every snap, but Surtain is as close as the modern game gets to a lockdown man corner.
Surtain’s résumé isn’t perfect. He sat out all but one snap of one game and the entirety of the following week’s contest because of a concussion, which might hurt his Defensive Player of the Year chances. He’s tied for second among all defenders with 11 penalties, six of which occurred in the first three weeks of the season. Even allowing for those slights, he has been the NFL’s best cornerback.
Derek Stingley Jr., Texans
The best passer rating allowed among cornerbacks belongs to Stingley, who has limited opposing wideouts to a 51.2 mark. He has given up four touchdowns this season but has made up for it by breaking up 18 throws, trailing only Denzel Ward for the most in the league. He’s so good at making last-second plays on the ball to deny seemingly open receivers receptions. Nearly 67% of the passes in his direction have produced positive results for the defense, the most for any outside cornerback in football.
Unlike Surtain, Stingley has kept his number out of the mouths of referees; the 23-year-old has drawn two flags for a total of 10 penalty yards all season. That’s a big plus in his favor, but the downside is he mostly stays on one side of the field and operates in a scheme that plays man only 40% of the time, which ranks 19th in the league. It’s easier to escape Stingley than it is Surtain, but teams have still thrown in his direction nearly 18% of the time, which explains how often he has been locked in one-on-one coverage. They’ve usually regretted the attempt.
Christian Gonzalez, Patriots
Surtain and Stingley both play on teams with great pass rushes. Gonzalez decidedly does not. Surtain plays man coverage at one of the league’s highest rates, but one of the few cornerbacks who does it more often is Gonzalez, who has been a man-to-man defender on 43.8% of his snaps this season, trailing only Terrion Arnold. He moves into the slot and can follow his man anywhere on the field. He’s not always on the opposing team’s top wideout, but given the context in which he toils each week, no corner has a higher degree of difficulty in their work.
Gonzalez is thriving. He has given up a 71.5 passer rating in coverage. Opposing receivers have broken only 4.8% of his tackles, and he has committed only three penalties. Opponents have completed 51.9% of the passes thrown in his direction as the nearest defender in coverage, the third-lowest rate for a cornerback with at least 400 snaps on the outside. The Patriots are a mess, as evidenced by the fact that their other cornerbacks have combined to give up a passer rating north of 101 in coverage. Gonzalez is an elite cornerback stuck on a team that is anything but.
Second team: Joey Porter Jr., Steelers; Devon Witherspoon, Seahawks; Denzel Ward, Browns
Safety
Xavier McKinney, Packers
It’s another free agent and another player who left the Giants. McKinney was one of the few free agents to draw immediate and significant attention this offseason, as he signed a four-year, $67 million deal with the Packers. The hope was they could land a free safety who could hold up when new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley leaned into the single-high coverages he ran at one of the highest rates in the country during the coach’s time at Boston College.
Instead, things have gone entirely different. Hafley has played single-high at about a league-average rate, and McKinney has morphed into a big-play machine. After racking up eight picks in 49 games with the Giants, he has seven in his first season in Green Bay. After playing regularly in the box for the Giants last season, he has been used as a deep safety far more often for the Packers, usually when Hafley shows single-high looks before the snap.
In addition to the picks, McKinney’s role in center field has led him to become an essential part of what the Packers do best. They rank second in QBR allowed on deep throws (20 or more yards in the air) and first on bombs (30 or more yards in the air), with offenses going 1-of-15 for 31 yards with a touchdown and three picks in the latter category. They’ve allowed only 13 plays of 30 yards or more, the third fewest of any team. McKinney has been at the forefront of those efforts while chipping in as a reliable tackler and run defender.
Derwin James, Chargers
He’s back! During James’ time under former Chargers coach Brandon Staley, he had regressed into a defender more notable for accruing personal foul penalties than making big plays. He wasn’t attacking the line of scrimmage or taking advantage of his instincts to create negative plays as often as his skill set would seem to dictate, and the guy who helped lock down Travis Kelce at his best seemed to get lost as a half-field safety.
Used more often in the box under defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, there’s no missing James this season. He has been a difference-maker as a blitzer, racking up five sacks and 11 knockdowns. His passer rating in coverage is down 17 points. Watching James attack the run, though, has been fun all year. He helped beat the Falcons last month by making two key third-and-1 tackles against the run, including one of the best reaction plays you’ll see all year to break up a jet sweep. The Chargers have battled injuries throughout their defense all season, but they’ve been fortunate to have James for all but one game.
Second team: Kerby Joseph, Lions; Budda Baker, Cardinals
Kicker
Chris Boswell, Steelers
Boswell, a critical player for a Steelers team that doesn’t always have the consistency to march the ball down the field, leads the league in field goals (40) and field goals over expectation (6.7) and ranks second in field goal percentage over expectation (15.7%) among seasonlong kickers, trailing only Cameron Dicker. He has also gone 33-for-33 on extra points.
Boswell has generated 22.3 EPA on his scoring tries, per NFL Next Gen Stats, more than any other kicker in any single season since 2016.
Second team: Brandon Aubrey, Cowboys
Punter
Logan Cooke, Jaguars
The Jags have sadly needed to call on their punter far too often this season, but Cooke has been one of the few bright spots in a dismal campaign. He is third in the Puntalytics rankings, which attempt to adjust for punter performance while accounting for location and return length. The punters ahead of him — Blake Gillikin and Jack Fox — haven’t punted anywhere near as often as Cooke, who is also the only punter with two “coffin corner” punts this season.
Second team: AJ Cole, Raiders
Returner
KaVontae Turpin, Cowboys
Turpin is the only player in the league with a kick return and punt return touchdown this season. He’s averaging a league-best 33.6 yards per kickoff return.
Second team: Derius Davis, Chargers
