The NFL’s annual player-voted Top 100 countdown rolled on this week, and two of the league’s brightest young building blocks landed inside the top 60. Raiders tight end Brock Bowers came in at No. 60 in the NFL Top 100 of 2026, while Broncos quarterback Bo Nix followed directly behind him at No. 59, according to NFL.com’s official rollout of the list, which players around the league vote on themselves.
The reveal has been underway on X since June 22, with two names dropping daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET. That format runs through Aug. 21, when the show shifts to unveiling one Top 10 player each weekday from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4.
Bowers Cracks List Again Despite Lost Season
Bowers didn’t come close to matching his rookie-year explosion, but he still did enough to make his second straight Top 100 appearance. A knee injury dogged him for most of 2025, and it started early — he suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury and a bone bruise in Week 1 against New England, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He played through it for three weeks, then sat out three more to let it calm down.
When healthy, he was still a problem. His best game came in Week 9 against a Jacksonville team that would go on to make the playoffs. Bowers caught 12 of 13 targets for 127 yards and three touchdowns in a wild 30-29 overtime loss, adding his first career rush attempt for good measure. He capped the year with 64 catches, 680 yards and seven touchdowns across 12 games before Las Vegas shut him down for the final two weeks and placed him on injured reserve, per NFL.com.
Numbers aside, the pace he’s playing at is still historic. Bowers has racked up 176 receptions through his first two NFL seasons, the most by any tight end in league history over that stretch, per NFL Pro Insight.
Las Vegas overhauled its coaching staff and offense this offseason, and new head coach Klint Kubiak has made no secret of what he thinks of his tight end. “He’s a football robot from heaven,” Kubiak told reporters this spring, a line that reportedly got laughs in the Raiders’ own locker room. Bowers said this offseason he feels fully healthy heading into Year 3, and quarterback Kirk Cousins has already called him a potential problem for opposing defenses.
Nix Follows With Second Straight Top-65 Finish
One spot ahead of Bowers, Nix landed at No. 59 — his second appearance within the top 65 in as many NFL seasons. The 2024 first-round pick threw the most passes of any quarterback in football in 2025 and dragged Denver to the AFC’s No. 1 seed, its first division title since 2015 and its first appearance in the AFC Championship Game since the franchise’s last Super Bowl season a decade earlier.
Nix led the Broncos to a league-high seven game-winning drives during the regular season and was at his best in the postseason. In a back-and-forth Divisional Round matchup with Buffalo, he went 26-of-46 for 279 yards and three touchdowns, engineering a go-ahead drive late in the fourth quarter and again in overtime en route to a 33-30 overtime win.
The victory came at a brutal cost. On what head coach Sean Payton described as the third-to-last play of the game — a QB sweep to the left — Nix broke his ankle and required season-ending surgery. He missed the AFC Championship Game against New England, which backup Jarrett Stidham started in his place. Denver lost that game by three points, ending its Super Bowl run one step short.
| Category | Brock Bowers (No. 60) | Bo Nix (No. 59) |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Games | 12 | 17 |
| Key Stat Line | 64 rec, 680 yds, 7 TD | 3,931 pass yds, 25 TD, 11 INT |
| Rushing | 1 att | 356 yds, 5 TD |
| Season-Ending Factor | Knee injury (Week 1 onward) | Broken ankle (Divisional Round) |
| Consecutive Top 100 Nods | 2 | 2 |
Nix’s efficiency in specific packages stood out even in a down-accuracy year statistically. He completed a league-leading 77 passes to receivers running hitch routes in 2025, totaling 772 yards — no other quarterback topped 700 on those throws, according to NFL Pro Insight.
Nix has said he expects to be full-go for training camp following ankle surgery, and Denver enters 2026 hoping to pick up where a Super Bowl-caliber roster left off before the injury derailed it.
What Comes Next
Both players enter 2026 with something to prove after seasons interrupted by injury rather than performance. For Bowers, that means staying on the field behind an overhauled Raiders coaching staff. For Nix, it means proving last year’s breakthrough — and the injury that cut it short — was a blip rather than a pattern.
The Top 100 countdown continues daily through Aug. 21 before shifting to the Top 10 reveal format Aug. 24 through Sept. 4.
