Jeffrey Simmons’ NFL Top 100 ranking is so bad that it’s hilarious, even though his peers said all the right things about the Titans superstar
Jeffery Simmons was arguably the best defender not named Myles Garrett last season. His peers know that based on what they said to NFL Films, but his 2026 Top 100 list ranking doesn’t reflect that at all…
The NFL Top 100 Players of 2026 list has Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons at 83rd in the league.
If your initial reaction to that is “wow! That seems wrong!” then you would be objectively correct.
It’s a ranking that suggests 82 players in the league are better than the man who was essentially the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2025. Simmons, who just signed a market-setting contract that blew past the previous high-water mark for his position, put together the best defensive tackle season in football last year. The ranking has drawn widespread criticism from players and analysts across social media, and for good reason. But there’s more substance here that shouldn’t go overlooked.
Simmons at 83rd is a complete joke
The NFL’s Top 100 series rolls out each summer as a player-voted showcase. It amounts to players voting for their friends and the guys they play against, making it one of the most unscientific polls in all of sports. The actual science behind the ranking is nonexistent, and the results reflect that almost without fail every single year. That’s fine when the series is treated as what it is: a cool opportunity to hear teammates and opponents talk about each other. But when a player of Simmons’ caliber lands at No. 83, it’s worth pointing out how far off the mark this one landed.
Simmons had a career year in 2025. If Myles Garrett hadn’t existed, walking the planet and breaking the sack record in a career year of his own, Simmons would have won Defensive Player of the Year. At the bare minimum, he would have been one of the two or three names debated week in and week out for the award. That’s how dominant he was. He didn’t just have a great season for a Titan. He had the best season of any defensive tackle in the NFL, and it wasn’t a particularly close conversation.
Simmons is a top-20 player in the league right now. I don’t think anybody with a proper NFL perspective disagrees too much with that assessment. When you scroll through the reaction to this ranking, a handful of the biggest ball-knowers in the sport came out and singled out Simmons’ placement as the most egregious miss on the board. Nobody thinks No. 83 is remotely close to where he belongs.
If you’d like to join me over the coming days and weeks as the rest of the list rolls out, counting each individual player ranked ahead of Simmons who clearly isn’t better at football than he is, I welcome you to do so. Brush up on your counting skills, though, because you’re going to need to count to around 60!
What his peers actually said about him
The part of the Top 100 series worth paying attention to is the video itself. What Simmons’ peers said about him tells you everything you need to know about the gap between this ranking and reality.
“Jeff with push you backwards, he’ll beat you sideways, and he’ll run right through you,” Bills tackle Dion Dawkins said. “And then he’ll talk crap.”
“Yeah, I mean, Jeffrey Simmons is probably the best D-lineman that we face this year,” said Saints QB Tyler Shough.”I remember throwing a quick out route and he was already hitting me. I was like, what, what just happened? That dude is in the backfield, dude. He’s just an elite-level guy to have in the middle that you can’t really account for. He’s going to win whenever he wants to.”
Chiefs Center Creed Humphrey added: “Just tenacious. How much disruption he causes, the chaos he causes out there, it’s pretty impressive.”
As if Simmons needed any more motivation heading into this season, this ranking is going straight to the bulletin board. Tennessee gave him a record-breaking deal because they know what he is. His opponents know what he is. The voters on this list apparently know what he is, too, based on what they said on camera. They just forgot to vote like it.