Highest-graded centers from the 2024 NFL season

• Injuries didn’t slow Erik McCoy: While the Saints‘ center played in only nine games, his run-blocking dominance held steady and made him the NFL’s highest-graded center.

• Drew Dalman enters free agency after a strong 2024: The Falcons‘ center ranked fifth in PFF overall grade among centers in a contract year.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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The Philadephia Eagles‘ win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 put a bow on the 2024 NFL season — and PFF’s grades. Here were the top 10 centers across the regular season and postseason.

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1. Erik McCoy, New Orleans Saints (94.2)

McCoy missed the middle chunk of the season due to a groin injury that required surgery, then missed the last two games due to an elbow injury. He ended up playing only seven games — barely enough snaps to qualify for this list.

However, when he was on the field he was as dominant as any center. McCoy opened the season with back-to-back 90.0-plus PFF game grades before suffering the aforementioned groin injury. He didn’t miss a beat upon his return, as his lowest-graded game was a 69.6 showing against the Giants in Week 14. Not only was McCoy dominant as a run blocker, as his league-leading 94.5 PFF grade can attest to, but he was also strong in pass protection, allowing just three pressures on 154 pass-blocking snaps, the best rate among 41 qualifying centers.

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2. Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs (92.4)

Since entering the league in 2021, Humphrey has never finished worse than the fourth-highest-graded center, including two first-place showings. He was the only center in 2024 with PFF run-blocking and pass-blocking grades of at least 90. His 91.5 PFF pass-blocking grade comfortably led all centers (next closest was Luke Wattenberg at 82.5).

Including the playoffs, Humphrey allowed just seven pressures all season, none of which resulted in sacks, on a league-leading 829 pass-blocking snaps.

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3. Frank Ragnow, Detroit Lions (86.1)

Ragnow has anchored the Lions’ offensive line for many years and continues to be among the game’s best at the position. His 90.9 PFF run-blocking grade ranked second in the league, marking his third season above 90.0.

He earned a pedestrian 65.8 PFF pass-blocking grade, allowing 21 pressures, but that was fueled by two games where he allowed five pressures and another where he allowed 4; otherwise, he didn’t surrender multiple pressures in his other 14 games. If we remove these outliers, Ragnow’s PFF pass-blocking grade jumps to 86.2 and his PFF overall grade to 93.4, each of which would be career highs.

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4. Tyler Linderbaum, Baltimore Ravens (79.9)

Linderbaum was considered as safe as a center prospect could be coming out of Iowa in 2022, a rare first-round pick at the position. Early returns suggest that scouts were correct about him, as Linderbaum hasn’t allowed a sack since his rookie year and his PFF grade has improved each season.

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5. Drew Dalman, Atlanta Falcons (78.8)

Like Erik McCoy, Dalman missed the middle portion of the season after suffering an injury in Week 3. While he wasn’t as dominant as McCoy, Dalman still showed that he was among the game’s top centers. His calling card has been run blocking, and while he didn’t match his 90.0 PFF run-blocking grade from 2023, his 79.8 mark in 2024 still got the job done.

Pass blocking was an issue for Dalman coming into the season, as he had never garnered a season-long grade above 60.0, but he showed a lot of improvement in 2024, posting a career-high 66.6 PFF pass-blocking grade while allowing just 10 pressures on 295 pass-blocking snaps.

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6. Zach Frazier, Pittsburgh Steelers (77.9)

It’s uncommon for rookie offensive linemen to quickly transition to the league, but Frazier did just that as a second-rounder out of West Virginia. The Steelers made their offensive line a major priority in the 2024 NFL Draft, selecting three linemen within their first five picks, with Frazier being the best in Year 1.

His game was very well rounded, as he finished in the top five in PFF run-blocking grade (80.5) at the position while allowing just one sack and 12 total pressures in pass protection.

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7. Hjalte Froholdt, Arizona Cardinals (76.1)

Froholdt has had one of the more interesting career paths among players on this list. Drafted in 2019 by the Patriots, Froholdt only played 61 snaps in New England and was waived after his second season. He was claimed by the Texans in 2021 but didn’t play a snap for them before joining the Browns in 2022, with whom he also had inconsistent playing time.

The Cardinals took a chance on Froholdt in 2023 as their starting center, and he has not disappointed, playing more than 1,000 snaps in each of his two seasons in the desert. Froholdt had a career year in 2024 in both PFF overall grade and PFF run-blocking grade (78.1).

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8. Joe Tippmann, New York Jets (73.4)

The Jets’ offensive line was considered a potential weakness heading into the 2024 season, but thanks to improvements from players such as Tippmann, those concerns proved to be unfounded. Tippmann enjoyed a significant rise in production over his rookie season, improving at each level of his grading. His PFF overall grade jumped from 61.0 to 73.4, his PFF run-blocking grade from 67.4 to 77.3 and his PFF pass-blocking grade from 52.7 to 63.1.

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9. Aaron Brewer, Miami Dolphins (73.3)

After four years of mixed results with the Titans, Brewer joined the Dolphins in 2024 to shore up a battered offensive line. He put up strong numbers across the board. Brewer earned 70.0-plus PFF grades overall, in run blocking (73.8) and in pass blocking (70.2, career high). He also allowed just two sacks and 14 total pressures, both career bests since he became a regular in 2021.

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10. Connor McGovern, Buffalo Bills (69.5)

Having primarily played guard for much of his career, McGovern moved to center heading into the 2024 season. It wasn’t a completely foreign position to him, as he had logged 100 career snaps there earlier in his career, but considering he had played 1,301 snaps at guard in 2023, the move wasn’t insignificant.

McGovern put up solid grades as a run blocker (69.7) and a pass blocker (68.1). While he did allow the most pressures on this list (27, tied for ninth most among 41 qualifiers), none resulted in sacks or quarterback hits.