2024 best NFL linebackers: Fred Warner, Roquan Smith lead top 10 rankings

Training camps have reached the dog days, preseason is underway and Week 1 is arriving soon, so it's time to roll out our annual NFL positional rankings.

We're starting with off-ball linebackers. Members of the FOX Sports NFL staff listed their 10 best in order heading into the 2024 season. A first-place vote merited 10 points in our methodology and descended from there, down to a single point for 10th place. We then combined the scores to determine our rankings. 

The elite players at the center of NFL defenses are so well established that nine linebackers on this year's list were also in last year's rankings, including the top three in the exact same order.

San Francisco's Fred Warner and Baltimore's Roquan Smith are so clearly the best at their position, that they took the top two spots on all of our writers' ballots, with Warner atop five of those and Smith ranked first on the other two.

This isn't an easy position for young players to break into the top 10 — not one of our linebackers is still on his rookie contract, and Patrick Queen, who turns 25 this week, is the youngest of the group. Five of our top eight are 30 or older. 

We'll continue to roll out the best players at other positions between now and the start of the season. For now, here are the NFL's best off-ball linebackers.

Eric D. Williams: A three-time All-Pro in six NFL seasons, Warner has been a vocal leader and tone-setter in the middle of one of the best defenses in the league. San Francisco has finished in the top 10 in points allowed over the past three seasons, and Warner’s 765 tackles since he entered the league in 2018 ranks fourth overall. He had one of his best seasons statistically last year, finishing with 132 combined tackles — including six