Every NFL team has diamonds in the rough, and every NFL team has players who don't lack production or consistency, but they might lack star power and recognition around the league.
As the NFL Top 100 players list gets slowly released over the longest portion of the NFL offseason, we thought it would be appropriate to highlight some of the most underrated players on every team in each conference, starting with the AFC.
The newest NFL Power Rankings will zoom in closely on exactly that -- each AFC team's most underrated player (or one of them) heading into the 2026 season. Which players don't get the recognition they deserve? Which players are productive and consistent, but simply aren't household names, for whatever reason?
16. New York Jets: Harrison Phillips, defensive lineman
The New York Jets have an extremely young, mostly unproven roster full of players at this point. There aren't many veterans on this roster you can point to as underrated, but Harrison Phillips is an exception on the interior defensive line.
Phillips is already entering his 9th NFL season, showing his reliability right off the rip, but he's also played and started all 17 games in each of the past four years. He had a career-high 5 tackles for loss last season, which might not seem like much, but Phillips is truly elite as a run stuffer. He earned the 6th-highest run defense grade of any interior defensive lineman in the league last year, according to PFF.
15. Las Vegas Raiders: Eric Stokes, cornerback
A former first-round pick and outcast of the Green Bay Packers, Eric Stokes signed a prove-it deal with the Las Vegas Raiders during the 2025 offseason. And prove it, he did.
Stokes played and started 16 games for the Raiders last year, and earned himself a 3-year deal worth $30 million this offseason to return. Stokes dealt with injuries throughout his time with the Packers, and availability was more the issue there than actual on-field ability. He allowed a passer rating into his coverage this past season of just 77.7, the best number he's posted in that regard since his strong rookie season in Green Bay.
Sometimes, the risks in free agency pay off.
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