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There isn’t a more important position to a potential Super Bowl run than quarterback. It’s why guys like Brock Purdy and Lamar Jackson are not only MVP favorites but figureheads for the oddsmakers’ current favorites to go the distance in the 2023 playoffs.
And yet, what is a title-contending QB without title-contending help? As we look ahead to Super Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, here are 10 of the most important players at other positions across the playoff landscape:
Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua get the headlines for driving L.A. back to the playoffs, but Donald is the anchor of a defense that lost so many other key veterans due to an offseason purge. Without his push on the interior, there’d be even more pressure on Stafford and Co. to light up the scoreboard. Running back Kyren Williams, a quiet workhorse, is another fair candidate.
Detroit gets a lot of credit for the way it balances the run and pass, with coordinator Ben Johnson utilizing both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery in the backfield. But St. Brown is a machine out wide, serving as an endless safety valve and playmaker for Jared Goff. Take him out of the lineup, and you’re working with an entirely different offense.
Roquan Smith is another pillar of Baltimore’s stingy defense, but Hamilton has been even more rangy as a do-it-all playmaker. With 10 tackles for loss, 13 pass deflections, three sacks and four picks, there’s literally no area of the defense he doesn’t affect. Coordinator Mike Macdonald wouldn’t have nearly as much flexibility without him.
Dallas has moved the ball — and taken it away — in many different ways. But Lamb has proven to be one of the game’s best pure pass targets this year, finishing second only to Tyreek Hill in receiving yards (1,749). He’s just always open. Brandin Cooks and Michael Gallup aren’t nobodies down the depth chart, but no one has more of Dak Prescott’s trust.
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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-playoffs-ranking-10-most-important-non-qbs-including-chiefs-chris-jones-49ers-trent-williams/
Author : Cody Benjamin
Publish date : 2024-01-11 22:54:03
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