Ranking NFL teams by under-25 talent: Pats, Texans lead list - ESPN

When we look at which NFL teams are set up for future success, a big part of that is considering how much young talent is on each roster. Young talent is important for a couple of reasons. These players are still developing and could become even better and more productive as they hit their peak years. They also come on affordable rookie contracts that help teams stay under the salary cap and give front offices the room to sign veteran free agents. Young talent helps establish how much success a team is likely to have over the longer term.

For the first time since 2022, we do not have the Houston Texans on top of this list. But that's fine, because they are No. 2. Instead, our new No. 1 team in terms of young talent beat Houston on its way to the Super Bowl last season. In fact, both of last season's Super Bowl teams rank in our top 10.

However, you don't need to have young talent to be a Super Bowl contender. The current favorite to win Super Bowl LXI is all the way down in last place when it comes to talent under the age of 25. Who needs the long term when you have so much veteran talent in the short term?

Here are our under-25 rankings for this season. All ages are as of Sept. 1, 2026. Blue-chip players are the top 60 cornerstone assets around the league from whom teams will likely derive their biggest future value. (Don't get too hung up on this, as there isn't some sort of big gap between player 60 and player 61.)

Jump to a team:
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN
CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND
JAX | KC | LV | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN
NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF
SEA | TB | TEN | WSH

As is our standard, we have created these rankings based on a combination of factors:

Number of starts made by