A good center is the unheralded captain of an offense. While we all talk about skill position players, and maybe throw in the names of a few marquee offensive tackles if we’re feeling particularly smart, interior offensive linemen are crucial to the implementation of any offensive design.
And centers are just as important as anybody. Not that it’s a pleasant job at times. Imagine you’re an NFL center. You have to have all the plays in your head as much as (or more than) your quarterback does. Most often, you’re in charge of the adjustment calls that tell other blockers how to switch their blocking patterns to merge with defensive line changes. You have to know all your single-blocks, all your combo blocks, and you have to be ruthlessly accurate when hitting the second and third levels of a defense to block linebackers and defensive backs on certain plays — sweeps, screens, and more.
Oh, and there’s also the matter of getting the ball to the quarterback, whether he’s under center, in the pistol formation, or in straight shotgun, with at least one gigantic defensive tackle aligned to one of your shoulders or head-to-head. You have mere milliseconds to snap the ball before those one or more gigantic defensive tackles come down on you with the hammer of the gods.
Few jobs in sports test one’s mental acumen and physical endurance on every play more than this one. Centers never get the attention they deserve, but at Touchdown Wire, we’re out to change that. Here, after poring over advanced metrics and watching a lot of tape, are the top 11 centers heading into the 2020 NFL season.
Honorable Mentions
Rodney Hudson was Kansas City’s center from 2011-2014, Mitch Morse replaced Hudson in that role in 2015 and held it through 2018, so we should definitely keep an eye on Austin Reiter, who helped the Chiefs win their first Super Bowl in 50 years as Morse’s replacement. Both Hudson and Morse are on this list, and Reiter could certainly find himself there soon — he allowed just 11 total pressures on a league-leading 835 pass-blocking snaps in the 2019 season, and if he’s able to improve his run-blocking, the sky’s the limit. The Jets signed former Broncos center Connor McGovern (not to be confused with current Cowboys guard Connor McGovern) to a three-year, $27 million deal this offseason, and McGovern should be a great addition to a line in desperate need of help just about everywhere. For all their quarterback issues, the Bears have two linemen — James Daniels and Cody Whitehair — who have been excellent centers through their times in the Windy City. Washington’s Chase Roullier, a sixth-round pick out of Wyoming in the 2017 draft, is another young center to watch. Tampa Bay’s Ryan Jensen was a particularly tough omission, as he pass-blocked very well in an unpredictable deep-passing offense, and should be even more efficient in the switch from Jameis Winston to Tom Brady.
Now, on to the top 11.
11. JC Tretter, Cleveland Browns
Tretter started his career as a rotational center for the Packers, but the Browns saw enough to sign him to a three-year, $16.75 million deal in 2017, and to extend that into a three-year, $32.55 million contract in 2019. Though Cleveland’s offense was off-pace in a lot of ways last season, Tretter did what he always does. He’s not a power blocker, but few at his position in the league are more agile at the line of scrimmage and beyond. In 2019, Tretter — who’s also the president of the NFL Players Association — allowed just one sack, no quarterback hits, and 16 quarterback hurries in 652 pass-blocking attempts. In addition, though this had a lot to do with Nick Chubb, the NFL’s most underrated running back, the Browns ranked fifth in Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Line Yards metric when running to the mid/guard areas.
10. Mitch Morse, Buffalo Bills
When Rodney Hudson left the Chiefs for the Raiders before the 2015 season, Kansas City responded by taking Morse in the second round of that year’s draft out of Missouri. Morse got a crash course in blocking at the highest level from Andy Reid and his staff — Reid has long been known as a master of offensive line technique, and line coach Andy Heck is equally highly-regarded — and that allowed Morse to accept a four-year, $44.5 million contract with the Bills in March, 2020. Smart move for the Bills, as Morse proved just as adept in Buffalo’s mobile quarterback-based offense as he had with the Chiefs. Morse allowed one sack, one quarterback hit, and 14 quarterback hurries for a quarterback in Josh Allen whose processing speed isn’t quite optimal yet. And when it was time for Allen to take off on designed runs… well, few centers are able to pull and block in space this adeptly.
9. Maurkice Pouncey, Pittsburgh Steelers
Without Ben Roethlisberger for most of the season, Pittsburgh’s offense absolutely cratered and wasted the efforts of the team’s top-level defense. The Steelers fell from sixth in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted offensive metrics in 2018 to dead last in 2019. As much as that offense was a disaster area with Mason Rudolph and Devlin “Duck” Hodges taking snaps from center, the guy snapping the ball was impressively consistent, especially in pass protection. Pouncey allowed no sacks, four quarterback hits, and 14 quarterback hurries in a season where just about everything around him was falling apart. Though he was suspended two games for his role in the Steelers’ dust-up with the Browns last season, and he missed Week 17 with a knee injury, but he still managed 489 pass-blocking snaps at a high level. Perhaps an overall offensive turnaround for the Steelers is all Pouncey will need to vault up this list next year.
8. Corey Linsley, Green Bay Packers
A fifth-round pick of the Packers out of Ohio State in 2014, Linsley played very well from his rookie season as the team’s starter in the middle, and he’s done so with over 1,000 total snaps in four of his six seasons. He’s been a paragon of consistency with 1,074 snaps in each of the last two seasons. In 2019, he gave up just 22 total pressures, per Pro Football Focus, and only the Saints and Eagles had a better Adjusted Line Yards rate than the Packers to the mid/guard area.
That said, when you have a player dinged for allowing five sacks in a season — the highest for anyone at Linsley’s position — you want to go back to the tape and see if the player is really responsible. Sometimes, it’s a matter of a blocker getting overpowered. At other times, there are clear blocking adjustment issues at play.
On the other hand, I brought up this play when writing up Packers guard Elgton Jenkins as one of the best players at his position coming into the 2020 season, but watch how Linsley handles the reach block in the middle.
7. Frank Ragnow, Detroit Lions
The Lions selected Ragnow with the 20th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Arkansas, and started his NFL career by placing him at left guard for all but one of his 1,087 snaps in his rookie year. Ragnow allowed four sacks and 36 total pressures in that role, but when he moved to center last season, everything fell into place. Ragnow allowed just two sacks and 18 total pressures in 2019 despite the back injury that cost Matthew Stafford half his season and put David Blough and Jeff Driskel in the spotlight. Ragnow has the strength and leverage to rock defensive linemen off their feet, and the agility to excel in any quick zone-based scheme. With Stafford back in the game, and more reps at center at the NFL level, there’s little doubt that Ragnow’s is a name on the way up at his position.
6. Brandon Linder, Jacksonville Jaguars
Some centers get their work done with pure quickness and agility without a lot of base strength, and as long as your offense jibes with that, it’s okay. Linder is decently agile, but what he really does well is use his power to latch on and embarrass defensive linemen — especially in the run game.
Last season, alternating between the unspectacular Nick Foles and promising rookie Gardner Minshew at quarterback, Linder gave up no sacks, no quarterback hits, and 12 quarterback hurries — not bad for a center in a deep-passing offense. Linder was busted for 13 penalties in 2019, but a cursory review of those calls reveals some specious decisions on the part of officiating crews. Linder and his coaches may want to advise the refs that when you can grab an opponent inside the numbers and throw him around within the rules… well, that’s not holding, guys.
5. Alex Mack, Atlanta Falcons
Mack will turn 35 in November, making him the oldest player on this list, but there’s nothing about his game that suggests he’s ready to pack it in anytime soon. In 2019, he had the most regular-season pass-blocking reps of any center in the NFL with 805, and he allowed two sacks, eight quarterback hits, and 19 quarterback hurries in all those snaps.
And as a run-blocker… well, last season, per NFL Next Gen Stats, Atlanta running back Devonta Freeman was the league’s worst when it came to Rushing Yards Over Expectation, while the Falcons finished fourth overall. That says something about the effectiveness of Atlanta’s offensive line, as does this absolutely preposterous block from Mack on this Freeman 13-yard touchdown run against the Panthers in Week 14:
4. Jason Kelce, Philadelphia Eagles
One of the most consistent offensive linemen of his era, Kelce has been a standout since the Eagles took him with the 191st overall pick out of Cincinnati in the 2011 draft. He allowed just one sack and 33 pressures in his rookie campaign, and proved to be tremendously quick and agile from the start. Where he’s improved in the last few years — and one of the reasons he’s been named an All-Pro in each of the last three seasons — is in power- and run-blocking. Kelce isn’t the biggest center at 6-foot-3 and 295 pounds, but he’s improved his hand technique and leverage to present real problems for defensive linemen outweighing him by 20-30 pounds. And few centers are better than Kelce when it’s time to hit the second level and wall off a linebacker in the run game. Kelce did allow two sacks and 35 total pressures last season, but given Philadelphia’s disastrous injury issues at the receiver position, and the complications inherent in a passing game where the receivers you have on the field struggle to separate, we’re not inclined to hold those numbers against Kelce as much as we might in other seasons. Kelce allowed no sacks and 11 total pressures in 2018, and that’s a more realistic reference point.
3. Ryan Kelly, Indianapolis Colts
Former Colts general manager Ryan Grigson has been justifiably panned for what was an unspectacular career, but selecting Kelly with the 18th overall pick in the 2016 draft out of Alabama was a rare brilliant move. In the transition from Andrew Luck to Jacoby Brissett (twice, once to to injury and once due to retirement), it didn’t matter who was under center for the Colts as long as Kelly was that center. In 3,398 career snaps, he’s allowed just two sacks in his NFL career (none in 2016 and 2017, one each in 2018 and 2019), and though he was aided in a timing sense by Indianapolis’ conservative passing game with Brissett in 2019, Kelly gave up just 21 total pressures, and he’s always been a pure masher in the run game.
Kelly combines intelligence, leverage, agility, and accuracy in a combination that makes him one of the league’s best centers in any season, and it will be interesting to see how he handles new quarterback Philip Rivers — a more stationary passer with an idiosyncratic sense of consistency.
2. Erik McCoy, New Orleans Saints
When former Saints center Max Unger announced his retirement in March, 2019, New Orleans was caught short at a very important position. Sean Payton’s team responded to this emergency by selecting McCoy out of Texas A&M in the second round of last year’s draft. All he had to do from there was to acclimate himself in one of the NFL’s most complicated offenses, especially for interior linemen — if you play inside the tackles for Payton and you can’t move, you won’t last. McCoy did that from the start at a rare level. He really hit my radar halfway through the 2019 season, and by the end of his rookie campaign, he had proven to have diagnostic skills beyond his years, perfectly matched with his athletic potential.
McCoy allowed one sack and 14 total pressures in 2019 as the Saints alternated between Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater, and no team was better in the run game up the middle, per Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Line Yards metric, than the Saints. Know his name now, and if Eric McCoy is the top man on this list next year, don’t be surprised at all.
1. Rodney Hudson, Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders have the NFL’s most expensive offensive line, with more than $58 million in contract value in 2020 alone — the Packers rank second at just under $50 million, so it’s pretty clear where Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock want their money spent. One deal that had to be made in 2019 to keep that line together was the three-year, $33.75 million extension given to Hudson in August, 2019. Hudson has been among the best at his position for a number of years, going back to his time with the Chiefs from 2011 through 2014, but he’s just added to his power, leverage, and agility as the years have gone on. Any linebacker on a blitz would be able to tell you how effective Hudson is as a brick-wall blocker; this rep from Jaguars linebacker Donald Payne is but one example.
In 597 pass-blocking snaps last season, Hudson allowed a paltry three total pressures — no sacks, one quarterback hit, and two quarterback hurries. 2019 marked the second straight season, and the third in the last four seasons, in which Hudson refused to give up a single quarterback takedown. When it comes to consistency at the top level at the center position, Hudson outpaces all the rest.
Hudson also insists on excelling off the field.
