It should come as no surprise that Seattle Seahawks star Bobby Wagner and San Francisco 49ers standout Fred Warner are seen as among the best at the linebacker position heading into the 2021 NFL season.
Both were named first team NFL All-Pro in 2020, the first such honor for Warner, a 2018 third-round pick out of BYU, and the sixth for Wagner, a second-round pick out of Utah State in 2012.
Pro Football Focus has been releasing its top players at each position in the NFL, and at linebacker, Wagner and Warner take the top two spots in the PFF rankings, with Wagner holding the No. 1 edge over Warner.
What makes the pair — who both play in the NFC West — rank among the best in the NFL at middle linebacker?
Note: the PFF list doesn’t include the NFL’s top edge rushers, like outside linebackers Khalil Mack and T.J. Watt.
Why Bobby Wagner is a top-rated NFL linebacker
Wagner has been one of the most consistently disruptive players from his position since entering the league back in 2012. He’s finished all nine of his seasons as a Seahawk with triple-digit tackle numbers, including last year when he had 138 tackles, including 81 solo stops, and he’s only missed two games in the past six seasons.
Wagner also had three sacks, seven tackles for loss, eight pass deflections and a fumble recovery in 2020, helping him earn first team All-Pro honors for the fifth straight year.
“Seattle’s defense may have deteriorated around him, but Bobby Wagner remains the class of the linebacker position, especially since Luke Kuechly‘s retirement,” PFF’s Sam Monson wrote. “Wagner has been asked to become a bigger part of the Seahawks’ pass-rush strategy given their struggles in that area, and he subsequently notched 23 quarterback pressures and his fifth straight season with an 80.0-plus PFF pass-rushing grade on the blitz in 2020.”
Why Fred Warner is a top-rated NFL linebacker
Warner is among the league’s best young defenders in the interior of the defense. He’s coming off his best season as a pro, putting up a career-best 125 tackles with 79 solo stops, and has proven disruptive in a variety of ways, like Wagner, adding six pass deflections, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and a sack in 2020.
Warner is also due a significant payday, as he enters the final year of his rookie contract in 2021.
“Fred Warner is the latest contender for Wagner’s crown as the best linebacker in the game, and he represents the new pathway for the position,” Monson wrote. “At BYU, Warner played the overhang, slot/linebacker hybrid role that exists in several college systems because of the wide hash marks, but it doesn’t really have an NFL equivalent. That has allowed him to post a 90.0-plus PFF coverage grade over the past two seasons.”