If you were to ask a number of offensive skill players around the NFL just how important offensive guards are, you may get a selection of different answers. One skill position player who may have a stronger take on that than others is Tom Brady. Brady has been to nine Super Bowls in his estimable career, willing six and losing three. In the two the Patriots lost to the Giants, one player made as much of a difference as any other, and that was New York defensive lineman Justin Tuck. Tuck was able to get past New England’s interior offensive linemen and force Brady to deal with the one thing that drives him nuts — pressure up the middle that prevents him from stepping up in the pocket.
More mobile quarterbacks can benefit from great guards who can get up to the second and third levels, and running backs with top-level guards in front of them are obviously going to have a better go of it. Guards are no longer the anonymous guys who toil away without recognition, and here are the best in the NFL to do it right now.
More Top 11 lists: Slot defenders | Outside cornerbacks | Safeties | Linebackers | Edge defenders | Interior defensive linemen | Offensive tackles
Honorable Mentions
Brandon Brooks of the Eagles would have been in the top three on this list, and perhaps the second guard overall… because no matter what, nobody was replacing my top guy on the list. Last season, Brooks allowed just one sack and 19 total pressures on 647 pass-blocking snaps, and he was also a top-shelf run-blocker. Sadly. Brooks will miss the entire 2020 season with a torn Achilles’ tendon, which has the Eagles trying to switch Jason Peters from left tackle to guard — an interesting experiment. Also, had Baltimore’s Marshal Yanda not announced his retirement, he would have been in the top half of this list, as well.
Beyond that, there were some tough calls as to who to leave off this list. While Joe Thuney of the Patriots was an easy add. But Shaq Mason, his battery-mate, just missed the cut, as there were a few guys who were slightly better run-blockers in 2019, and Thuney’s pass pro was simply on a different level. Gabe Jackson of the Raiders had some great tape as usual, but was a bit too prone to allowing sacks. The same could be said of former Panthers guard Trai Turner, who’s been one of my favorite interior offensive linemen since he came into the league in 2014. Perhaps a change of scenery (Turner was traded to the Chargers in March in exchange for tackle Russell Okung) will put him back on the right foot. And Larry Warford, who the Saints released in May in a cap-cutting move, should find himself on a roster sooner than later.
Now, onto the top 11.
11. Kevin Zeitler, New York Giants
Cincinnati’s first-round pick in the 2012 draft out of Wisconsin, Zeitler was a stalwart force on the inside for the Bengals through the 2016 season, and was then the same for the Browns until he was traded to the Giants as part of the Olivier Vernon trade in March of 2019. While Zeitler can still get it done in nasty fashion as a run-blocker, he’s given away a bit of agility over time — not that agility was his primary attribute before, and he’s still got enough to make this list. Zeitler allowed three sacks in the 2019 season on 686 pass-blocking reps, as well as three quarterback hits and 16 quarterback hurries. That total of 22 pressures is the second-most the veteran has allowed in a season, behind the 29 he gave up in 2017. Zeitler did lower his penalty total from seven in 2018 to just two in 2019, though there were times when he seemed to get a bit of veteran love from the officials. Regardless, Zeitler is one of the most consistent guards of his era, and he’s still got a lot left to offer at age 30.
10. Elgton Jenkins, Green Bay Packers
All Jenkins had to do in his rookie season was to come from Mississippi State to a new and complicated Packers offense under new head coach and play-caller Matt LaFleur, with the added pressure of protecting Aaron Rodgers and integrating himself into an intricate running game. No big deal, right? Not for Jenkins, apparently. While he played multiple positions in college, he slotted into the left guard position when Lane Taylor suffered a season-ending biceps injury in September, and Jenkins managed to look like a multi-year veteran. He didn’t allowed a single sack all season in 694 pass-blocking reps, allowing just one quarterback hit and 23 quarterback hits — a remarkable feat for a rookie going up against so many new and difference blocking schemes. Some have argued that Jenkins was helped by Green Bay’s quick passing game, but per Sports Info Solutions, only the Chargers and Saints had more passing attempts with drops of 5-7 steps than did the Packers.
Besides, as they say, the tape never lies.
9. Brandon Scherff, Washington
One could legitimately question why Scherff ranks ninth on this list when he has every attribute you’d want in a top-three NFL guard. No question, but there is one ability Scherff has been a bit short on over the last three seasons, and that’s viability. The Iowa alum hasn’t seen a full 16-game season since 2016, and he missed five games in 2019 after missing half the 2018 campaign. Scherff still made the Pro Bowl last season despite his abbreviated reps, and he gave up one sack, no quarterback hits, and nine quarterback hurries in 394 pass-blocking snaps. When healthy, Scherff is as good as any guard in the league if you need a mobile technician who can still get evil in the run game, but health is a serious question at this point. Scherff has a contract-year situation with Washington in 2020 — the team gave him the franchise tag and he’ll make $15.03 million on that, but there’s some hesitation to ink him to a longer-term deal at this point. This will be a crucial campaign for one of the best in the business.
8. Richie Incognito, Las Vegas Raiders
There few better examples of the divide between what NFL coaches want and what the general public would find tolerable than Incognito, whose list of behavioral mis-steps (we’re putting this mildly at a New York Times level) both on and off the field would find a lot of guys out of the league forever. But coaches seem to universally love Incognito, because he’s a tough, smart guy who can bring an offensive line together when he’s not tearing a locker room apart. One could imagine that the combination of Incognito and Raiders offensive line coach Tom Cable (who has his own, ahem, history) would be a recipe for disaster, but it worked well enough in 2019. Incognito allowed just one sack, no quarterback hits, and eight quarterback hurries on 432 pass-blocking snaps, and per Pro Football Focus, no guard that played at least 50% of his team’s total snaps allowed fewer total pressures.
Incognito has never been the most technically precise blocker in the NFL, and he can be a mess when asked to block upfield, but he does bring a serious sense of power to his position.
7. Graham Glasgow, Denver Broncos
Whether it’s trading secondary standouts Quandre Diggs and Darius Slay, or allowing Graham Glasgow to enter free agency, the Lions seem to be determined to rid the organization of all its best players. The Broncos signed the Michigan alum to a four-year, $44 million contract in March, which is still a relative bargain for the guard position. Glasgow may play center in Denver, though he would prefer to play guard, and he was very good at the latter position in 2019, allowing no sacks, five quarterback hits, and 20 quarterback hurries in an offense that was severely restricted by Matthew Stafford’s back injury.
At 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds, Glasgow has enough power to be a factor in the run game, but it’s his flexibility and technical consistency that sets him apart, no matter which position he plays.
6. Joel Bitonio, Cleveland Browns
The Browns have gone through more than their share of coaches, quarterbacks, and offensive failures since selecting Bitonio, the college offensive tackle, out of Nevada in the second round of the 2014 draft. But Bitonio has been the one positive constant in that equation. Through all the cycles of dysfunction, he’s given up just 14 sacks over six seasons, and he’s made consistent strides as a run-blocker — of course, having Nick Chubb, the NFL’s most efficient running back, helps a bit. Few offensive linemen at any position can boast Bitonio’s combination of flexibility and effective power. He’s a perfect fit for the schemes new head coach and offensive shot-caller Kevin Stefanski prefers to run — Bitonio is built for a flexible zone run game and a boot-heavy passing attack.
5. David DeCastro, Pittsburgh Steelers
It’s funny how sometimes, when you’re eyeing one player in tape study, another player will jump off the screen and announce his presence with authority. That happened to me in 2012 as I was getting a better handle on what made Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck so special before the 2012 draft took place. Though Luck certainly stood out for all the obvious reasons, I couldn’t keep my eyes off guard David DeCastro, who alternated between perfect technique in his pass-blocking with reps in which he’d take unfortunate collegiate defensive linemen and just mash them all over the place in the run game.
Though his NFL career was derailed early due to injuries, DeCastro has proven to be equally effective at the NFL level. He’s made five straight Pro Bowls, and with good reason — he has never allowed more than three sacks in any NFL season, he didn’t allow a single quarterback takedown in either 2017 or 2018, and even though Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation was a hot mess last year, DeCastro gave up just two sacks, no quarterback hits, and 22 quarterback hurries. If Ben Roethlisberger has one or more healthy seasons left in him, expect more of the same from a guy who has impressed since his days at Bellevue High School.
4. Joe Thuney, New England Patriots
Thuney might be the least physically imposing player on this list. The third-round pick out of North Carolina State in 2016 doesn’t really pop off the tape in any particular category. At 6-foot-5 and 208 pounds, he doesn’t impose his physical will on defenders as other guards do. What Thuney has become, however, is the best possible distillation of the value of great technique. You just don’t see him out of position, and though he’s not some kind of leverage monster, he’s able to use that technique to get the job done in ways many far more physically gifted guards can’t.
The stats prove the story. Thuney allowed just one sack, four quarterback hits, and 12 quarterback hurries in 732 pass-blocking snaps last season after allowing no sacks, five quarterback hits, and 21 quarterback hurries in 765 snaps the year before. That kind of protection with that frequency of contact has made Thuney one of the most valuable offensive linemen in the league, regardless of position. And it’s especially impressive when you consider that Tom Brady got battered around quite a bit in 2019 as he waited for his receivers to gain separation — a process that generally yielded negative results. It will be fascinating to see how Thuney and the rest of the Patriots’ line adapts to Cam Newton in 2020. One thing’s for sure — New England doesn’t want that to happen without Thuney involved, which is why the team placed the franchise tag on him.
3. Ali Marpet, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Marpet was one of the most intense and entertaining players to talk with at the 2015 scouting combine. He had grabbed the attention of NFL scouts and personnel people despite his time at Division III Hobart College, especially after a promising week at the Senior Bowl, and we listened enviously as he regaled us with stories about his 7,000-calorie per day diet.
The Buccaneers selected Marpet in the second round of the 2015 draft, and even in his rookie season (when he allowed just two sacks and 22 total pressures), he proved right away that he had no issue dealing with the best the NFL had to offer. That has continued to this day. Though the 2019 Bucs didn’t have much of a run game, Marpet allowed just two sacks, eight quarterback hits, and 13 quarterback hurries in a league-high 751 pass-blocking snaps. Now, imagine Marpet going from blocking for Jameis Winston to Tom Brady, and it’s easy to imagine the veteran giving up even fewer pressures in a far more efficient passing game.
2. Zack Martin, Dallas Cowboys
When it comes to the best guards in the NFL today, you can choose between one Notre Dame alum or another. Martin, who the Cowboys took with the 16th overall pick in the 2014 draft, has clearly established himself as the rock of one of the NFL’s preeminent offensive lines. He was one of just five guards who played at least 50% of their teams’ snaps without giving up a sack (joining Buffalo’s Quinton Spain and three other guys on this list — Graham Glasgow, Elgton Jenkins, and Quenton Nelson). Martin has allowed just eight sacks in his six-year career, he’s as technically proficient as you’ll find with any offensive lineman at the professional level, and it’s a singular pleasure to watch him demolish defenders in the run game.
But as great as Martin is, there’s one other Fighting Irish product who’s just that much better.
1. Quenton Nelson, Indianapolis Colts
Throughout the history of the NFL draft, which goes back to 1936, only 11 guards have been selected higher than Nelson, who was taken with the sixth overall pick in 2018. In his rookie season, Nelson allowed just two sacks and 24 total pressures, while establishing himself as one of the league’s best run-blockers right out of the gate.
And then, in 2019, he got even better. Nelson didn’t allow a single sack last season, with just two quarterback hits and 18 quarterback pressures allowed. But it’s not the numbers that set Nelson apart– there are other guards with equally good metrics. Whet sets Nelson apart from everyone else who plays his position is the almost comically dominant reps he puts on tape. Yannick Ngakoue and Jadeveon Clowney, two of the better edge defenders in the league, would certainly testify.
First, the way he’s able to pick up this multi-gap stunt from Ngakoue is as textbook as it gets. Nelson isn’t just a mauler, though he can certainly beat the living crap out of defensive lineman — this is ideal technique regarding how to take an opponent into your area and dominate him from side to side.
There’s also this against Clowney back when Clowney was with the Texans, which pretty much sums the argument up that Nelson is the best guard in football, and everybody else is playing for second. This is just not normal.
