Top 100 Players of 2026, Nos. 30-21: Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson vaults 25 spots; Eagles’ Jalen Carter returns
Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson intercepts the pass from Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and returns it 58 yards during Week 15 of the 2025 NFL season.
The "NFL Top 100" -- voted on by the players themselves -- reveal is underway on X! Two players will be revealed at 10 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. daily Monday through Friday from June 22-Aug. 21, before one Top 10 player is unveiled each weekday beginning at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 24 through Friday, Sept. 4.
2025 stats: 17 games | 54 tackles | 14 tfl | 14.5 sacks | 1 INT | 35 QB hits | 4 FF
Hutchinson's career year came at the perfect time. Fresh off signing a mega-extension, with a record $141 million guaranteed, the Lions star proved his worth. Hutch set career highs in sacks, QB hits and forced fumbles, fighting off constant chip blocks to log a league-best 89 QB pressures. That he did all this coming off a season-ending leg injury made Hutchinson's 2025 campaign all the more impressive; he just missed out on Comeback Player of the Year honors, but made his second Pro Bowl, earned his first second-team All-Pro accolade and ranked as a Defensive Player of the Year finalist. With a fully healthy offseason under his belt, there's no telling what Hutchinson and the playoff-hungry Lions can accomplish.
NFL Pro Insight for Hutchinson: Hutchinson is the first player since sacks were first tracked in 1982 to record 35+ sacks and 5+ interceptions in his first four career seasons.
2025 stats: 11 games | 33 tackles | 5 tfl | 3 sacks | 12 QB hits
Carter didn't log a snap in Philly's 2025 season opener after getting ejected for spitting on Dak Prescott, retroactively serving a one-game suspension in the process. But the Eagles pass rusher's campaign mightily improved from there. Alongside Jordan Davis, Carter held down the interior D-line on an Eagles defense that finished top-five in points allowed. The DT's pressure rates decreased in 2025 as his snap totals increased, but his peers still thought highly of him, rewarding Carter, who missed multiple games due to shoulder injuries, with a 14-spot increase in this year's ranking following last month's contract extension.
NFL Pro Insight for Carter: Carter generated a career-low 7.7% pressure rate despite facing a double-team on a career-low 41.7% of his pass rushes in 2025.