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Myles Garrett just got named the best player in football – and honestly, it’s hard to argue.
The Rams’ new pass rushing menace becomes only the third defensive player to win “NFL Top 100” in the show’s 16 years running. J.J. Watt did it back in 2015. Then Aaron Donald – now Garrett’s own teammate in Los Angeles – grabbed the honor in 2019.
Garrett’s climb up these rankings tells its own story. He fell all the way to 20th after the 2022 season, then bounced back to fifth in 2024, landed at eighth last year, and now sits at number one. What changed? Well, he broke the NFL’s single-season sack record with 23 sacks in just 17 games, took home Defensive Player of the Year, and earned first-team All-Pro honors – all while playing for a Browns team that couldn’t buy a win.
Cleveland ended up trading him to Los Angeles. The return? Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-rounder, and a conditional pick in 2029.
Behind Garrett, Bills quarterback Josh Allen came in second. Falcons running back Bijan Robinson took third. Rounding out the top 10: Rams QB Matthew Stafford, Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey, Rams WR Puka Nacua, Packers EDGE Micah Parsons, Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs, and Broncos CB Patrick Surtain II.
Did the voters actually get this one right?
These rankings always spark debate. And they’ve historically leaned hard toward offensive players at the top – quarterbacks have won this thing nine separate times. Interestingly though, the two winners right before Garrett weren’t QBs at all: Tyreek Hill took it in 2024, Saquon Barkley in 2025.
This time, though? The voters might have nailed it.
Think about the context here. Garrett just put together one of the best individual defensive seasons anyone’s seen in years – and he did it on a Browns team that finished 5-12, losing six games by double digits or worse. None of that explains why the Rams paid such a steep price to get him heading into his age-31 season. Actually, it explains everything. Combine him with the talent already on that roster, and it’s easy to see why Los Angeles enters 2026 as the favorite to win Super Bowl LXI.
Listen to how opposing players talk about him. They don’t see Garrett as just another good pass rusher – they see him as something different entirely, a problem that breaks game plans. His burst off the line, his first step, all of it remains elite. Offensive linemen genuinely gauge their own performance by how they hold up against him, even with a second blocker helping out. And most offenses won’t even try running their base plays without adjusting for where he lines up.
That’s what real impact looks like on a football field. Sure, those 23 sacks probably tipped the scales in Garrett’s favor over Allen. Would the vote have gone differently if Buffalo had actually won the Super Bowl? Maybe. That’s not saying a few extra playoff wins would’ve made Allen a better player – just that these votes tend to get swayed by how a season ends, not just what happened during it.
Garrett’s spot at number one feels earned, which isn’t something you can say about every past winner. Barkley’s selection last year raised plenty of eyebrows. And Hill topping the list two years back? That might go down as the most questionable call in this award’s history.
There’ve been stranger jumps too – Lamar Jackson going from unranked entirely to number one in 2020, or Cam Newton somehow topping the list in 2016 after sitting at 73rd the year before. Compared to those, this year’s pick feels grounded, even if Allen’s fanbase pushes back hard.
Not everybody’s going to agree that Garrett deserves the top spot. That’s fine – these things rarely get unanimous support. But the timing feels right, and the résumé backs it up. If the Rams go on to win it all this season, with Garrett playing the role everyone expects, this ranking will look even more justified in hindsight.
