Interior linemen don’t receive enough praise around the NFL, unless it’s the lowlight where they give up a sack or don’t make a block. The guard and center positions are hard to judge already, especially since most blocking situations are between the A- and B-gap and not necessarily limited to 1-on-1 situations.
Thanks to advanced statistics, the league has better ways to evaluate how good interior offensive linemen are — along with how valuable they are for the offensive system they’re in. Of course, other factors are in play.
Like how tackles are graded, does run-blocking matter more than pressure rate? Are great interior offensive linemen the ones who protect the quarterback? Can they make their teammates they line up next to every week better?
The qualification for these interior linemen rankings is how good the player was in 2022. We’ll use success over the past few seasons to help weigh the ranking, but 2022 performance is the key equation in the formula. This is a ranking of the best interior offensive linemen right now, not entirely based on past or future success.
Before the 2023 interior offensive linemen rankings are dropped, these were the rankings from last year:
Zack Martin (Dallas Cowboys)Quenton Nelson (Indianapolis Colts)Jason Kelce (Philadelphia Eagles)Joel Bitonio (Cleveland Browns)Corey Linsley (Los Angeles Chargers)Shaq Mason (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)Creed Humphrey (Kansas City Chiefs)Wyatt Teller (Cleveland Browns)Joe Thuney (Kansas City Chiefs)Brandon Scherff (Jacksonville Jaguars)
Without further adieu, the top 10 interior offensive linemen in the NFL (guards and centers are lumped together). To see our top 10 offensive tackles for 2023, click here.
…..
