Welcome to Part 2 of our most underrated player series, a post that is (hopefully) as fun for you to read as it is for me to put together. I’ve made no secret about this: I love reading everyone’s thoughts on underrated players and using that as a baseline for my own research, which includes asking NFL folks or simply tossing on some game tape from big moments and seeing what sticks out.
A random bit of coincidence: New England Patriots linebacker Jahlani Tavai received a three-year extension Tuesday, merely a few hours after he was included in our AFC list. To be clear: We’re not taking any credit whatsoever. It’s simply nice to know that underrated doesn’t necessarily mean underpaid. New England seems to have felt the same way.
Now, let’s pick out one player from every NFC team.
Brandin Cooks, wide receiver
Cooks will turn 31 in September, is on his fifth team and may be playing his best football yet. There’s a difference between best and most productive, to be clear, and Cooks is no longer the centerpiece of a high-flying New Orleans Saints offense piloted by Drew Brees. However, last year he had the second-best down-by-down success rate of his career, which meant that almost 60% of his catches picked up what Pro Football Reference defines as a successful grab (40% of the yardage to go on first down, 60% on second down, 100% on third down). A look back at Cooks’s grabs from last season show immense physicality. Teams clearly struggled with how to play him, and he still possesses breakaway vertical speed.
Kayvon Thibodeaux, edge
This is a fun topic around these parts, so much so that a radio host (whom I love, by the way) hung up on a Giants all-time great (Carl Banks) while defending the 2022 No. 5 pick on the air. It was far more complicated than that, but the moment painted a very clear picture of what kind of polarization Thibodeaux has carved out for himself. Personally, I felt like Thibodeaux turned into a really solid run defender in his second season and was able to clearly showcase and define his maturity. Thibodeaux played in the most unique NFL defense last year. The Wink Martindale system was a complete outlier in terms of general philosophy—I thought it fit the team’s situation but may not be a long-term solution—but now we’ll get the chance to see him paired with both a legitimate threat on the other side (trade acquisition Brian Burns) and a system run by new coordinator Shane Bowen that has generated consistent productivity from its edge defenders.
Milton Williams, defensive tackle
Williams was so fun to watch last year on certain plays when he had the audacity to simply olé an over-aggressive run blocker against New England then walk into the backfield to make a tackle. In the AFC post, we mentioned unique players who were perfect stylistic compliments, and I think Williams, whose size (290 pounds) does get him into trouble and has been wallopped by offenses who will run a double team right at him, could turn into a monstrous third-down tackle who is more regularly featured as a pass rusher. About 20 pounds heavier than most of Philadelphia’s edge players, and 25 pounds lighter than most of Philadelphia’s defensive tackles, he’s got a niche that is worth exploring and is incredibly athletic for his size.
Jartavius “Quan” Martin, cornerback
Martin played fewer than 400 snaps last season but still managed to log two picks, four pass breakups and a sack. He was definitely the stronger of the two defensive backs the Commanders took atop the 2023 draft, though Martin will profile better as a safety moving forward. His highlight tape from his rookie season is full of moments where he’s hurling himself at bigger, stronger and faster offensive players and refusing to go down. Dan Quinn can work with that. Martin blitzed on a fair number of snaps last year in a Ron Rivera defense that was middle-of-the-road conservative. Quinn had similar blitz numbers as defensive coordinator in Dallas last year, but sans Micah Parsons could turn to multi-tooled, physical players such as Martin to pressure the quarterback.
Tyrique Stevenson, cornerback
Last season, as a rookie second-round pick, Stevenson logged more than 700 snaps from the wide cornerback spot and contributed across special teams. He started 16 games and was asked to take on some big-time assignments, matching up with top receivers every week and also logging some highly physical, run-support play. He announced his arrival by blasting Jayden Reed on a zone-read option in the team’s season opener against the Green Bay Packers. Stevenson, one could argue, played his best games against the Bears’ top divisional opponents and closed out the 2023 season with seven tackles and a critical pass breakup against the Packers as well. I could see him legitimately vying for top-10 honors this year if all goes well for the Bears.
Alim McNeill, defensive tackle
This shouldn’t be a surprise, as I also pegged McNeill to be selected as a first-time Pro Bowler this year. Just 23, the bruising defensive tackle has talent that can be deployed all across the line of scrimmage and commands a presence ideal for creating stunt opportunities alongside Aidan Hutchinson. McNeill’s growth, to me, underpins the entire rise of the Lions. Certainly there are bona fide star players at critical positions who have developed, but there is also McNeill, a very young, very high-effort player who hasn’t even tapped the entirety of his potential. Watch last year’s Lions-Giants game and tell me he didn’t singularly upend the game plan on his own.
Zach Tom, tackle
There’s a great cutup of Tom versus T.J. Watt from the team’s Week 10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers available on YouTube, which I think illustrates why I like Tom so much. He played against a lot of really talented pass rushers last season and blanked most of them. But Watt, in my mind, is still the gold standard. In that game, Green Bay didn’t go through any kind of extraordinary effort to help Tom or provide him with training wheels. In fact, most of the time I noticed the use of a running back or receiver to chip took place when Tom had another assignment and wasn’t going to be matching up on Watt. Also, as an aside, when he pulls from one side of the line to the other and makes contact, you can feel it through the television screen. Absolutely brutal.
Ivan Pace, Jr., linebacker
Pace was an undrafted free agent out of Cincinnati who got named to the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team. This clip shows just how incredible Pace’s feel for the movement of an offensive line is. There is raw talent and there is supernatural instinct, the latter of which Pace seems to major in. Despite coming into the season at the bottom of the pecking order in a notoriously amoebic Brian Flores defense, Pace ended up not only being as good a blitzer as he was in college but a true off-ball linebacker who could handle just about any situation. Pace was up on the line of scrimmage for about 10% of his rookie-year snaps, which can help Minnesota diversify a tough unit even more in 2024. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him as part of the next generation of foundational leaders for this unit, which is being turned over under the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah regime.
Drew Dalman, center
Dalman plays alongside arguably the best guard in the NFL, Chris Lindstrom, but it’s important to discuss how much Dalman brings to the table individually. For this, I took a look at Atlanta’s mucky, rain-soaked loss to the New York Jets last year. Dalman and Desmond Ridder began the game with a fumbled exchange. On second down, Dalman was asked to provide a key block for a running play, and then on third down he picked up a blitzing linebacker (Atlanta picked up the first). Even at the end of a long shift handling Quinnen Williams and Solomon Thomas, Dalman was still decisive but nimble enough to work backward when a delayed blitz shot through his gap. This team has such a fun and athletic interior that can be elevated with the new Rams-style offense.
Troy Hill, defensive back
The veteran, who will turn 33 in August, played mostly as a slot cornerback last year for the Panthers and put together arguably his best season as a professional. He allowed a 61% completion rate on throws against him and 10.1 yards per completion, and the defense was clearly better against the pass when Hill was on the field. While some of that is indicative of Hill coming on the field in a package with more defensive backs, the Panthers were almost a half yard per pass better on plays when Hill was in the game, according to NFL GSIS statistics. Deep into December of a lost season in 2023, Hill was still flying into Bijan Robinson and knocking out footballs. His gritty veteran style will be essential for a Panthers team trying to turn it around under new coach Dave Canales.
Derek Carr, quarterback
This will perhaps be my most controversial take here. I did point out some of Carr’s issues last season, including what seemed like a disinterest in playing defense after a pick and some deflections at the podium. But I do wonder how much of that was Carr feeling unseen by the offense. I know opinions on Carr across the league are scattered, but it’s important to note that a down year for Carr still means 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions (also that there seems to be a growing body of evidence that a Sean Payton offense isn’t world-beating without Drew Brees; imagine that). For the first time in his career, Carr is now in a Shanahan-style system, a scheme that builds in more time for him to see the field with more boot action that will turbocharge Alvin Kamara (possibly). Is it wild to think of Carr as, like, the 10th best QB in the league this season?
YaYa Diaby, linebacker
There was a great play during Diaby’s rookie season in which he was setting the edge and bench-pressed Lions all-world offensive tackle Penei Sewell on a run play that was churning right into his lap,and then he made the tackle. Diaby made a significant number of violent, eye-popping tackles last year and is physical enough to plow through multiple blockers. Another huge tackle for loss he made against the Tennessee Titans showed that Diaby could read tendencies enough to know that Derrick Henry was running away from him, so he shoved his outside shoulder ahead of his blocker and popped upfield for an easy (not really easy against Henry) tackle. Diaby had 7.5 sacks during his rookie year and eight quarterback hits, earning him a fifth-place finish in the Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, despite Diaby playing just 46% of the Bucs’ defensive snaps. If players were a stock, this feels like a good one to be on the ground floor.
Greg Dortch, wide receiver
“A guy you don’t hear a whole lot about, but all he does is make catches,” is what Troy Aikman once said on television about Dortch, a 5’7″, 175-pound wideout now entering his fifth season. Dortch had just 41 targets last year, but logged nearly 12 yards per catch and 6.3 yards after catch per reception. Dortch has made some standout plays over the past two seasons, with a subpar quarterback situation around him—including a toe touch sideline grab from Trace McSorley—and had a two-game stretch soon after Kyler Murray’s return in which he was targeted 17 times. A potential comfort blanket in this new evolved Cardinals offense, Dortch is tough, has great finesse and should work himself into the running game as well with his punt and kickoff return speed.
Demarcus Robinson, wide receiver
Robinson did not crack the target minimum to be considered for Next Gen Stats’s average separation metric, but I would be curious how well he did given that he’s a natural at removing himself from defensive backs. At 29 (he’ll be 30 in September), everything seems to have clicked for the wide receiver who spent the front end of his career with the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. Last year, Robinson did most of his damage over a five-game stretch in which he caught 21 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns. The Rams’ receiving room looks difficult to crack, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sean McVay give Robinson a longer runway this season and more opportunities to earn some playing time.
Laken Tomlinson, guard
While Tomlinson is in his first year with the Seahawks, this can be both a carryover honor from previous seasons and an acknowledgement that the interior spots on Seattle’s offensive line are critical. Tomlinson was imported not just for his athleticism but for his seniority. The Seahawks’ offensive line is otherwise composed exclusively of players who were taken in the 2022 and ’23 drafts, which is great for long-term building purposes but also produces a void requiring veteran leadership. Tomlinson was a first-round pick out of Duke in ’15 who had been a consistent, healthy presence for the Jets despite injury chaos that diminished the reputation of that line and caused the team to overhaul its unit this offseason.
Isaac Yiadom, cornerback
Another player on this list who has not yet played a down with his new team, Yiadom enters the 49ers’ defensive backfield mix at a time of transition. With the defense clearly on the doorstep of something great, Yiadom arrives as he seems to be peaking. Last season with the Saints, he allowed fewer than 50% of the passes thrown in his direction to be completed and, more importantly, he held receivers to a paltry 6.9 yards per catch. Last year, when Yiadom came in as an injury replacement against the Packers in Week 3, Green Bay began throwing right at him in the red zone, and he held his ground. In those moments he flashed what seemed to be ideal traits for a member of the 49ers’ defensive backfield: chirpy, aggressive and fearless. Tip of the cap to this post for putting Yiadom on my radar and my offseason watch list. From the moment teams began testing him with the likes of Adam Thielen and Chris Godwin, he showed an ability to handle tough receivers in critical moments.
