麻豆国产

This isn't my first time picking out underappreciated players for each NFC team, and it's not the first time I've wanted to write about Froholdt. He's been on my radar since he stepped up for a severely underachieving Cleveland squad back in 2022, which has unfortunately become something of a theme for the veteran center, whose next winning NFL season will be his first. (I'm not counting his rookie campaign with the 12-4 Patriots in 2019, considering he spent the entire season on injured reserve.) Froholdt has logged 3,134 offensive snaps since joining the Cardinals in 2023, according to TruMedia, 12th-most in the NFL and 493 more than any other teammate in that span. He's been a part of 15 Arizona victories, which works out to one win for every 209 snaps. Could you call this a participation award? Sure -- if you do so sincerely. Like, you've got to commission an actual trophy and pull together an audience to give him a standing ovation, with plenty of whistles and whoops. He's carried a heavy load over the past few years, which should position him perfectly to be the kind of "everything is a big deal" veteran leader new coach Mike LaFleur can lean on.

By the time Deablo came back from a stint on injured reserve last year, the Falcons were 3-7 and rapidly falling out of the playoff picture. And his contributions to Atlanta's late-season defensive surge might have been overshadowed by flashier output from players like Xavier Watts, Jessie Bates III, Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. Not in Next Gen Stats Land, though: The numbers paint a stark difference between the 2025 Falcons' performance with Deablo on the field (5.1 yards allowed per play, with -0.10 EPA per dropback and -0.10 EPA per called run) and without him (5.7 yards per play, 0.09 EPA per dropback and 0.02 EPA per called run). It's fair to wonder how much longer Deablo will be in Atlanta's plans, with one year remaining on his contract and a potential on the scene (fourth-round pick Kendal Daniels). But it's safe to assume Deablo will have a major role to play for returning coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who should have a pretty good idea of how he can help keep the defense on the right track heading into the Kevin Stefanski era.

You are probably familiar with Coker, who made enough noise as an undrafted rookie in 2024 (four games with four-plus catches and 60-plus receiving yards) to pop up on Kevin Patra's list of that season's Unsung Heroes. And then the Panthers used the eighth overall pick in 2025 on Tetairoa McMillan, who won Offensive Rookie of the Year behind one of the best debut seasons by a Carolina receiver in recent memory. With third-rounder Chris Brazzell II joining the fray this year, Coker's target count (he was already fourth on the team last year) might not tick much higher. You know who won't think any less of him, though? Drew Brees, who worked the broadcast of Carolina's upset of the Rams last season. Watching Coker rip off four catches, all of them for conversions on key third or fourth downs, Brees used phrases like "secret weapon" and "dirty work" to describe his impact as a blocker and receiver -- almost like, you know, he wants us all to appreciate Coker more. Well, sir, I'm doing what I can.

I was ready to make an argument for Swift's junior backfield partner, Kyle Monangai, who rampaged to 947 scrimmage yards as a rookie last season. Then fellow full-season prognosticator Ali Bhanpuri suggested going with Swift instead, reasoning that he might actually be the one on the ropes, appreciation-wise, as the old-hat veteran next to an exciting young upstart, and I found that to be much more in keeping with the spirit of this exercise. Monangai could be considered slightly below the radar, but Swift has been around, accumulating the public expectations that come with being part of multiple headline-making transactions. Sure, there are plenty of miles on the odometer, and doesn't go beyond the upcoming season, but he still averaged 5.39 yards per touch in 2025, eighth among all players with a minimum of 150 touches. He still scored 10 total TDs, most on the team.

Though the Cowboys' playoff viability crumbled early in December, Williams kept chugging along, finishing out a 252-carry, 1,201-yard season with 11 rushing TDs (plus two receiving scores). That wasn't just a veteran free agent on a one-year prove-it contract putting up a nice line for a team that scuffled to a 7-9-1 finish. That wasn't even just the best season of his career -- it was one of the best running back seasons by any Cowboy this century. Since 2000, three Dallas players have logged at least one season with 1,100-plus rushing yards and 10-plus rushing TDs: DeMarco Murray (2014), Ezekiel Elliott (2016 and '19) and Williams. CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Dak Prescott deserve the spotlight, but how important Williams is to Dallas' success on offense. And the three-year, $24 million extension Williams signed this offseason hardly pushes him out of the salary range for this list, putting him at the same as D'Andre Swift ($8 million).

Lions fans probably won't remember 2025 as anything other than a disappointment, especially if Dan Campbell can get the fireworks machine going again this season. There is one memory they should hold dear, though: Williams' final transformation into an honest-to-god load-bearing member of the offense. We're not just talking about earning a pay day; he did that with his effort in the 2024 season, when he cracked 1,000 yards for the first time. Plenty of players have hit that total at least once. But Williams was one of just 11 to reach the 1,000-yard mark in each of the past two seasons. And he's almost certainly the only player in NFL history to record back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons as the follow-up to a one-catch rookie year and multiple suspensions. Yes, he produced the way he was paid to in 2025. He also proved moving forward, which did not seem like such a sure thing at this point two years ago.

Like the Panthers' Jalen Coker above, Cooper is an alum of Kevin Patra's Unsung Heroes of 2024, and it looked like he was going to become a full-fledged star in Green Bay -- until the Packers added one of the most famous defensive players on the planet. Of course, Micah Parsons cannot actually play all 11 positions himself, as the Cowboys well know. And while Cooper's sack total slipped from 3.5 in his rookie season to 0.5 with Parsons on board, Cooper did manage to put up a team-high 35 run stops, per NGS. Rashan Gary is gone, Parsons and Devonte Wyatt are coming off season-ending injuries and there's a new coordinator (Jonathan Gannon) and middle linebacker (Zaire Franklin) in the house. Cooper has the chance to prove he can be a steadying hand in Green Bay as he moves through his third professional season.

Does a count as too much appreciation for Ford to qualify for this list? Or does the fact that Macaulay Culkin feels the need to evangelize for Ford mean he definitely belongs on this list? Ford signed with the Rams on the most lucrative deal of his career last offseason, but he's still getting paid less per year ($9.2 million) than 36 other interior defensive linemen, . That seems like a pretty good value, considering the massive difference he made for the Rams. In 2024, Los Angeles gave up 4.6 yards per carry, with a per-tote defensive EPA of -0.02 -- figures that improved to 4.1 and -0.14, respectively, when Ford was on the field last season. The young stars up front garner plenty of deserved praise, but we can't overlook the hefty veteran's crucial role. Ford's , Macaulay Culkin loves him -- what excuse do you have?

Turner didn't do much in 2024 after being drafted 17th overall, appearing in 16 games as a rookie but playing just 28 percent of Minnesota's defensive snaps and mustering a paltry three sacks. His eight-sack effort last season sort of snuck by me, with 4.5 of those coming between Weeks 13 and 18, when the Vikings were mostly playing out the string on the remainder of a lost season. Turner's encouraging sophomore effort came into better focus when I was digging deeper into a slightly bizarre (but positive!) speculative case I was building about his team. Thanks to Jonathan Greenard's exit via trade, Turner's, uh, turn to show what he can really do. So don't be like me; start appreciating Turner now, before it's too late.

Do you know who threw Johnson the first successful pass of his NFL career? That's right, noted Jalen Coker fan Drew Brees, on Nov. 1, 2020, in an overtime win over the Bears, when the tight end logged fewer snaps than two other players with "Johnson" in their surname (Bears corner Jaylon Johnson and Saints DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson). Since then, Johnson has been targeted by a dizzying array of QBs, including Trevor Siemian, Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton, Derek Carr, Spencer Rattler and, yes, even Taysom Hill (14 times, for 10 catches, 127 yards and a score). This offseason, New Orleans brought in multiple new targets for Tyler Shough, including first-rounder Jordyn Tyson at receiver and a pair of TEs (veteran Noah Fant and third-round pick Oscar Delp), and Chris Olave is still presumably the top dog in the passing game at this point. But let's not overlook the connection between Shough and his . In just 11 games together, Shough and Johnson hooked up on 44 catches for 556 yards -- nearly as many as he recorded with Rattler (577) and Carr (587). Johnson's nine drops, which tied for the league lead last season, per Next Gen Stats, stand out, but that number becomes much more reasonable (two) when we filter only for throws from Shough. And based on catch rate (78.6%), Shough-to-Johnson was practically automatic; it's the most successful pairing between Johnson and any other QB and between Shough and any other Saints player (minimum of 20 targets).

I get why folks went gaga for Cam Skattebo, who ferociously outplayed his draft slot, running with the same charisma that made him a college star. His zeal was irresistible -- until he went down with a dislocated ankle in October. Meanwhile, Tracy churned out another 1,000 yards from scrimmage, becoming the first Giants player since Saquon Barkley to hit that mark in back-to-back seasons, and just the fifth to do it since 2010. Skattebo's unrestrained style pairs well with Jaxson Dart, and it's reasonable to assume Skattebo will continue to draw eyeballs. He's also coming off a catastrophic injury. No matter what happens, there figures to be plenty of work for Tracy, who made nearly as much magic catching passes from Dart (20 receptions on 26 targets for 115 yards, two TDs and a 110.3 passer rating) as Skattebo did (14 receptions on 19 targets for 120 yards, two TDs and a 124.9 passer rating). So, maybe you won't find Tracy on WWE, but he did end early to see John Harbaugh's first press conference as Giants head coach, which is kind of extreme in its own way.

This is less about lauding an undervalued performance last season and more about providing a general reminder that Bigsby exists. You probably remember him being traded to Philly last September after being displaced in the running back pecking order by Jaguars rookie Bhayshul Tuten. And there's a good chance you know he ripped off 104 yards on nine carries for the Eagles in a Week 8 win over the Giants. But he otherwise didn't really do much -- with even that 100-yarder overshadowed by 174 scrimmage yards from Saquon Barkley. So maybe you missed some of the reasons to be encouraged about Bigsby, like his per-carry mark (5.9, almost 2 full yards better than Barkley's 4.1), or the fact that NGS credited him with 13 explosive runs out of his 63 carries (with both Philly and Jacksonville), which worked out to the best explosive-carry rate (20.6%) of any NFL running back with 50-plus rush attempts in 2025. Barkley turned 29 in February and has logged 288 touches or more in each of the past four seasons. If new coordinator Sean Mannion is going to turn the Eagles' offense around, Bigsby could be busy.

Tonges already arguably got his flowers, or at least a daffodil or two, via placement on Kevin Patra's list of Unsung Heroes of 2025. And he did just sign a new contract with San Francisco. Then again, that pact pays him $4 million per year, less than 34 other tight ends in the NFL, -- as the going rate for George Kittle insurance, that's not bad. Let's zero in on two of Tonges' five TDs last season. His third of the year, a 6-yard grab against the Rams on Thursday Night Football in Week 5, ended the first possession of Mac Jones' third win in relief of Brock Purdy. His last, against the Bears on Sunday Night Football in Week 17, helped Purdy recover from his opening-drive pick-six in San Francisco's thrillingly close victory. Both came in Kittle's absence. Neither catch was especially flashy, but without Tonges there to actually make them, would a sliding-doors scenario have opened up to tip San Francisco's unlikely playoff run into true nightmare territory? For the purposes of this piece, the answer is yes, obviously.

If we made a heat map of love for Lucas, it might lay neatly over the Seattle area and Lucas' nearby hometown of Everett, Washington, with a little jag east toward the Idaho border and his college alma mater of Washington State. It's a region from which -- as a cursory glance at the Seahawks' sub-Reddit will confirm -- Lucas draws plenty of support. Depending on how far you live outside of that boundary, you might not be aware Lucas' sacks allowed rate (0.8%) was just a tick behind Penei Sewell's (0.7%), according to NGS, and better than that of any right tackle to log 300-plus pass-blocking snaps for any team that Sam Darnold started double-digit games for previously. There were plenty of candidates to represent a roster built on savvy veteran pickups and well-developed draft picks, but what finally sold me on Lucas was watching a clip of him into a traffic light during the Seahawks' Super Bowl parade. It was the Ultimate Tall-Guy Mishap, and as a Fellow Gangly myself, I've got to give him bonus points for playing it off so well.

Baker Mayfield has thrown passes to a lot of players over the course of his funky NFL journey. One of the best working relationships of his career was undoubtedly with Mike Evans, who caught 27 TD throws from Mayfield during their time together, nearly more than twice as many as anyone else since Mayfield entered the league. What's Mayfield going to do with Evans in San Francisco? Sure, he'll throw plenty to wideouts Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka, who are probably two of the most important factors when it comes to the Bucs' immediate success. But Godwin missed significant chunks of the past two seasons with injuries, and Egbuka only just emerged as a rookie in 2025. Otton, meanwhile, has been there for Mayfield, ranking second on the team in targets in each of the past two years and second in total offensive snaps over Mayfield's three years with the team (behind only Mayfield himself). And he's caught 69.8% of Mayfield's passes to him, a greater percentage than anyone who's been targeted 50-plus times by the QB. Mayfield definitely has enjoyed more success with Otton than with any other NFL tight end, and I imagine seeing the big target out there is plenty comforting -- well worth the $10 million Otton is getting from the Bucs per year on the extension he signed in March.

If the Commanders' defense becomes competitive again after finishing 32nd in total D and 27th in points allowed in 2025, expect to hear plenty about the wave of new rookies and veterans who joined the party this offseason. But don't forget about Armstrong, who sparked a little pass-rushing overhaul of his own last year, when he racked up 5.5 sacks through Week 7, tied with Montez Sweat (2023) and Matthew Ioannidis (2018) for the most by any Washington player in the team's first seven games of any given season since Ryan Kerrigan had 6.0 in 2017. A knee injury interrupted Armstrong's attempted one-man renaissance in mid-October. Between all that time on the shelf and the addition of free agents Odafe Oweh and K'Lavon Chaisson to the depth chart, along with rookie Joshua Josephs, Armstrong might get lost in the shuffle. If he comes back healthy, though, he figures to be just as important to the overall project of giving Jayden Daniels the support he needs to bring this team back to contention.