2025 Pre-Season Ranking #22, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #49, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #79, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #118, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #142.  Peak Period: 2020-24

From 2020 to 2024, Fred Warner assaulted this list and terrorized rushers as one of the best (if not the best) man-to-man interior forces in football.  It was an incredible run that yielded four First Team All-Pros, and the quick-as-a-cat Middle Linebacker had a fifth one in his sights in 2025 before an early-season broken ankle took him out for the rest of the campaign. 

That led to his first tumble on our Notinhalloffame Football Monitor, but he enters this season in perfect health and ready to anchor the 49ers defense and possibly make a Super Bowl run.  Barring injury, this is what we expect from Warner, who will likely get right back on track.  This is one player we would not bet against.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #49, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #76, #2023 Pre-Season Rank #106, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #142, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #141.  Peak Period: 2020-24

The fanbase of the Tennessee Titans is still shaking its head at the trade of A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles.

A Pro Bowl Selection in 2020, Brown was traded to Philadelphia, and the Eagles made the right bet: in his first three years in the City of Brotherly Love, he was named a Second Team All-Pro.  The primary air weapon of Jalen Hurts, Brown had back-to-back 1,400-yard seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in 2024, he was a massive part of the Eagles' Super Bowl win.  That is where Brown's Philadelphia story ended, as he begins the season with the New England Patriots and should be able to get his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season.

As he is still in his prime, and should the Patriots return to the Super Bowl, Brown should see his Hall of Fame stock improve.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #17, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #39, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #69, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #98, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #117.  Peak Period: 2020-24.

Josh Allen has been incredible since he entered the NFL, but like Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, he is a quarterback and will be judged by his Super Bowl appearances and wins.

Allen (for our money) is the most exciting QB in the league, and has done an awful lot with not a lot of weapons or superstar defenders, so he has made himself the ultimate weapon.  He's come close to the Super Bowl, taking Buffalo to two AFC Championship Games, and in 2024 he narrowly beat Jackson for MVP with a 28 TD pass/12 rushing TD year; he also has four other top-five MVP finishes.

Despite being only 30, he set the record for rushing TDs by a Quarterback with 79, and 100 is easily in his grasp. 

Entering 2026, Allen is the leader of a Super Bowl contender and is himself an MVP contender.  Saying that, no matter what he does, he needs that Super Bowl to become a lock.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #40, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #38, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #48, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #57, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #118.  Peak Period 2019-23

Stefon Diggs is an interesting player, isn’t he?

After establishing himself in Minnesota, Diggs played four years in Buffalo, where he was a Pro Bowl selection in each campaign and led the NFL in Receiving Yards in 2020 (1,535).  After an injury-plagued year in Houston in 2024, he rebounded in New England, with 1,013 Yards and a trip to the Super Bowl.   However…

Diggs was accused of assault by his personal chef, and while he was found innocent, drama followed him to the Super Bowl, where he and megastar Nicki Minaj broke up before the game.  Diggs was flat, and after he was released by the Patriots, we weren’t sure if he would find work; luckily for him, he did, as he joins the Washington Commanders this season.

Diggs is still capable of great production, and he will have to go the compiler route to make a late charge for the Hall.