With the offseason slowing down ahead of the NFL Draft, now is a good time to dive into the NFL’s top franchise players for 2025. These are the franchise building blocks you’d want to build a team around, considering each player as an individual and not their current supporting casts—for example, it’d be difficult to pick against Patrick Mahomes’ situation playing for Andy Reid and the Chiefs, but real-life situations are separated for these rankings. In other words, all things being equal, which players would be the best picks if the league had a full redraft from the entire player pool? I tried to narrow it down to 10, so a handful of potential choices just missed out. Naturally, it’s all quarterbacks, as it’s the most important position in sports.
1. Josh Allen | Age: 28 | Team: Bills
There are a ton of phenomenal players—and, for the purposes of the top players to build a team around, phenomenal quarterbacks—in the NFL right now. But the quickest player to stack among franchise building blocks was Josh Allen in the No. 1 spot—and that’s not to say he’s a much better quarterback than the other worthy options. The 28-year-old is coming off his first MVP (an honor he could’ve received multiple times before last season), silencing any of the remaining doubters lingering around since the incomparable criticism the Wyoming product received as a prospect in 2018. We all know about Allen’s talent, and to perform at the level he has while lifting the Bills to the championship picture every year has been astonishing—he was thrown into the fire and has consistently performed no matter what’s happening around him. Football is a team game, not an individual sport. Allen has arguably been the best postseason performer in the league and has done more than enough to put Buffalo in position to win Super Bowls.
2. Jalen Hurts | Age: 26 | Team: Eagles
Coming in at No. 2 is reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, who has played at a very high level in two appearances in the Big Game. The Eagles quarterback has accomplished a ton at just age 26 (the age playing a factor in this No. 2 ranking), and he’s a player built for today’s game with an ability to kill defenses with both his arm and his legs. The damage Hurts does on the ground is a power element, while the highly underrated deep ball—perhaps the best in the league right now—and precision to all areas of the field bring a touch of finesse. Also, the former second-round pick has shown continued improvement against the blitz, which was perhaps the only weak point in his game earlier in his career. Overall, defenses must guard against just about everything Hurts brings to the table—which is a tall task.
3. Patrick Mahomes | Age: 29 | Team: Chiefs
While there’s no doubt Patrick Mahomes is one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks and would be a Hall of Famer if he retired today, the consensus goes a bit overboard with praise for some reason. For example, the talk of it being clearly Mahomes, then a massive gap, then everyone else is simply ridiculous. When the Chiefs win, it’s almost all Mahomes. When they lose, it’s because Mahomes didn’t get enough help. The reality is Mahomes is a super-talented player and a leader who gets his teammates to rally around him, but the situation in Kansas City with Andy Reid should not be discounted when stacking up the NFL’s best building blocks. The best part of Mahomes’ game right now is how calm and clutch he is with a chance to win the game; when things are on the line, Mahomes calmly operates Reid’s offense—sprinkling in plays with his legs when necessary—to push his squad over the top. That said, Mahomes hasn’t been at his typical level the past couple of regular seasons—and he’s somewhat quietly not been at his best in five Super Bowl appearances despite three rings.
4. Lamar Jackson | Age: 28 | Team: Ravens
Again, Allen was my clear pick for No. 1, but an easy and similar case can be made for Lamar Jackson there (or at least a spot or two higher than No. 4) given all he can do on the football field—and he seems to be getting better by the year. Ultimately, Mark Andrews not being able to come up with the catch on the two-point conversion didn’t allow Baltimore to tie the Divisional Round matchup at Buffalo in January, but it was extremely encouraging to see Jackson lead an 88-yard touchdown drive when his team needed it to stay alive. I’m not sure the former Heisman Trophy winner and two-time MVP—though I have been higher on him than anyone since his time at Louisville—would have pulled that drive off a couple of years ago. Jackson is one of the game’s most efficient and still probably the most dynamic quarterback, which says everything about why he’s one of the top guys to build an offense around.
5. Joe Burrow | Age: 28 | Team: Bengals
Again, it’s a team game, and Joe Burrow did more than enough as an individual performer to get the Bengals to the postseason in 2024, leading NFL in passing yards (4,918) and passing touchdowns (43). Concerns about his wrist injury from a couple of seasons ago were put to bed as he picked apart defenses. Helped by a highlight 47-yard touchdown run against the Giants on Sunday Night Football, Burow averaged by far a career-high in rushing success with 4.8 yards per carry, and that’s another part of his game making it tough for the opposition to get off the field. Throwing to Ja’Marr Chase helps, but Burrow’s 68.6% completion percentage is the best in NFL history, so he’s going to get the ball in the hands of his playmakers and put pressure on the defense.
6. Bo Nix | Age: 25 | Team: Broncos
Looked at from a lens of groupthink, this is no doubt the most controversial ranking on the list. However, how would Bo Nix be looked at right now if the pre-draft “analysis” about him wasn’t way off? Weak arm? Nix bombed the longest completed pass of the season in an epic fourth quarter at Cincinnati. Low upside? Nix had the third-most touchdowns for a rookie in NFL history. Just look at what Nix did with what was projected as a 4.5-win team with work to do at skill positions on offense. Nix’s 10-game stretch of 20+ total touchdowns and two or fewer turnovers was only done by Brady, Brees, Mahomes, and Rodgers of the past decade—and none of them were rookies. Like great quarterbacks do, Nix elevated the play of teammates around him. He’s an excellent processor, has a whip for an arm, can make plays with his legs, and should take care of the ball as well as anyone (as he did at Oregon) as he gets more reps at the next level. Nix quickly gained respect of his teammates like Patrick Surtain II and division rivals like Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Steve Spagnuolo, and the play style of keeping drives moving and just making plays is reminiscent of top signal-callers.
7. Justin Herbert | Age: 27 | Team: Chargers
The immense talent of Justin Herbert is the primary reason Jim Harbaugh took the head coaching job with the Chargers, and the first regular season together was very good—with a 23:3 TD/INT ratio as more and more was put on his plate over the course of the year while he got healthier. It’s the ugly four-interception postseason outing which keeps Herbert clearly outside of the top five among franchise building blocks—at least for now. The rocket-armed quarterback is now 0-2 in the postseason, and—again, while it’s a team sport—will tell you he hasn’t played enough individually to help his team advance. If he gets over the hump (like I believe we’re seeing with Jackson), watch out.
8. Trevor Lawrence | Age: 25 | Team: Jaguars
Age is a huge factor in Trevor Lawrence being here at No. 8. The former No. 1 overall pick has played four NFL seasons and will enter his fifth year at just 25 years old, so the combination of age, experience, talent, and upside make him an incredible option to build a franchise around. Injuries have become a concern, so Lawrence must stay healthy—and he must be more consistent, which hopefully can happen if the Jaguars as a roster and as a team can improve around him. To some extent, the playoff comeback versus the Chargers a couple of years ago—from four first-half interceptions to four touchdown throws in a comeback from a 27-0 hole—captured Lawrence through four seasons. I’m betting on the good he’s shown and that he gets better with even more football under his belt.
9. Jared Goff | Age: 30 | Team: Lions
If Jared Goff was a few years younger, he’d be at least a couple of spots higher—but I suspect his ranking in the top 10 is disputed regardless. Goff didn’t play well overall in the recent playoff loss to the Commanders, but it’s not like we haven’t seen him play lights out in the postseason before. Goff’s ability to thread the needle short, intermediate, and deep leads to big numbers if you surround him with the right pieces like Brad Holmes and the Lions have—and the style of play from the pocket is proven to be sustainable. Goff has rallied an entire city and team as the pinpoint distributor of an elite attack basically built from the ground up around him.
10. Caleb Williams | Age: 23 | Team: Bears
Brock Purdy and Jayden Daniels (frame/durability being one of the concerns leaving him out) get major honorable mentions here, and both Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud have shown great stretches through two NFL seasons. However, the nod at No. 10 goes to 2024 top overall pick Caleb Williams, who had some rough patches and held the ball a little too long sometimes in Year 1—but also showed the rare flashes of skill that made him such an exciting prospect. And, while the struggles and dysfunction of the Bears overshadowed it, Williams—with a 10:2 TD/INT ratio in the fourth quarter—led a few drives in crunch time that could have easily resulted in more wins, including the Hail Mary loss to Washington that derailed Chicago’s season. If a coach (Ben Johnson has the opportunity now) can mold and hone Williams, he has all the makings of a top-tier quarterback on the field, from a quick release to a laser arm to superb improvisation to clutch play.