• Ar’Darius Washington spearheaded Baltimore’s defensive turnaround: The safety has been one of the NFL’s best coverage defenders since Week 10.
• Andru Phillips already looks like a stud: The Giants cornerback was the third-best defensive rookie in PFF overall grade.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
Like virtually every sport, the NFL is perennially driven by the best players and top talents. But what makes football so much fun is the unheralded stars who fly under the radar despite stepping up.
Although there isn’t a signature PFF metric for “underratedness,” these 32 players would qualify based on how good their seasons were relative to wider discussion.
Click here to jump to a team:
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN | CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND | JAX | KC | LVR | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN | NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF | SEA | TB | TEN | WAS
Arizona Cardinals: C Hjalte Froholdt
Even though the Cardinals fizzled out in 2024, their offense still displayed tremendous growth, ranking in the top 10 in both EPA per play and success rate in the regular season. It’s easy to be overshadowed when playing next to James Conner, Trey McBride and Kyler Murray, but Froholdt quietly put together a strong season. His 76.1 PFF overall grade ranked sixth among qualified centers, as did his 78.1 PFF run-blocking grade. The Cardinals can rest assured that they have a long-term center on the roster in Froholdt.
Atlanta Falcons: LB Kaden Elliss
Much of the reason that Atlanta wasn’t able to make the playoffs fell on a defense that already moved on from defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake, but Elliss put together a well-rounded season. His 43 pressures led Atlanta, as did his 20.3% pass-rush win rate — good for third among all defenders with 150 or more pass-rushing snaps. Beyond that, Elliss was solid as a run defender yet again, netting a 70.3 PFF run-defense grade. If he can cut down on the missed tackles (13.2%), Elliss could ascend even more in Atlanta in 2025.
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