Quinyon Mitchell doesn’t get targeted much anymore. That’s the whole point.
The Philadelphia Eagles cornerback landed at No. 47 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026, the league’s annual peer-voted ranking, according to Yahoo Sports and Eagles Wire. It’s a two-spot jump from where he sat a year ago, when he debuted at No. 49 as a rookie, per Bleacher Report. The NFL’s official X account revealed the ranking Tuesday evening with an NFL Films segment, part of the league’s rolling countdown that unveils two players a day, weekdays, through late August.
Why Mitchell Moved Up
This isn’t a courtesy nod from voters who liked his rookie tape. Mitchell backed the jump up with a full season of receipts. He earned first-team All-Pro honors and his first Pro Bowl selection in 2025, and quarterbacks around the league treated him accordingly — like a problem to avoid, not a matchup to attack.
No. 47 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026…@Eagles CB Quinyon Mitchell! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/bOQbShgDrv
— NFL (@NFL) July 28, 2026
The numbers back that up. Mitchell led all NFL cornerbacks with a 42.4% catch rate allowed and averaged 1.8 yards of target separation among defenders who faced at least 60 targets, per Next Gen Stats data cited by Eagles Wire. He forced tight-window throws on 41.2% of the passes sent his way, trailing only Denver’s Patrick Surtain II among qualifying corners. When the catch did happen, he limited the damage — 2.3 yards after the catch allowed per reception, tied for the best mark at the position.
Grade the tape and the story holds up just as well. Pro Football Focus had Mitchell at a 74.4 overall defensive grade for 2025, 16th among 114 qualified cornerbacks. Opposing quarterbacks posted just a 58.4 passer rating targeting him, and he broke up seven passes on the season. Zero interceptions sits on the stat sheet — but that’s less about missed chances and more about quarterbacks refusing to give him any.
The Bigger Picture
Two years. That’s all it took. Mitchell finished as Defensive Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2024, the same year Philadelphia won the Super Bowl. Then he followed it with an All-Pro season that turned him from a promising rookie into a certified difference-maker.
Not everyone thinks No. 47 goes far enough — a recent A to Z Sports column noted ESPN’s positional cornerback rankings had Mitchell as low as No. 6 among corners, out of step with the tape. The debate over exactly how high he should sit hasn’t settled. His trajectory has.
What’s Next
The NFL Top 100 reveal keeps rolling through Aug. 21, before the top 10 gets unveiled one player at a time starting Aug. 24.
