Chiefs' Creed Humphrey, Cowboys' Tyler Smith Top NFL IOL Rankings by Coaches, Execs

The retirements of Zack Martin and Frank Ragnow have led to a huge shakeup in the NFL's interior offensive line hierarchy entering the 2025 season.

In a survey of coaches, scouts and executives conducted by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey and Dallas Cowboys guard Tyler Smith were voted the top two interior linemen.

ESPN Top 10 Interior Offensive Linemen

1. Creed Humphrey, C, Kansas City Chiefs
2. Tyler Smith, LG, Dallas Cowboys
3. Quenton Nelson, LG, Indianapolis Colts
4. Trey Smith, RG, Kansas City Chiefs
5. Landon Dickerson, LG, Philadelphia Eagles
6. Joe Thuney, LG, Chicago Bears
7. Chris Lindstrom, RG, Atlanta Falcons
8. Quinn Meinerz, RG, Denver Broncos
9. Elgton Jenkins, LG, Green Bay Packers
10. Tyler Linderbaum, C, Baltimore Ravens

Since Fowler started conducting these positional surveys in 2020, Martin never ranked lower than second. He occupied the No. 1 spot in each of the past two years. Ragnow was as high as fourth (2021) and came in at No. 8 last year.

Humphrey becomes the first player other than Martin and Quenton Nelson to be voted as the best interior offensive linemen in this poll. He was named to the All-Pro first team in 2024 for playing every offensive snap in each of Kansas City's first 16 games.

"He's great in pass protection, great feet and instincts," an NFL coordinator told Fowler about Humphrey. "Not a mauler in the running game but can get it done enough. Deals with chaos well and can navigate a lot of moving parts for that offense."

Per ESPN's pass-block win rate, Humphrey's 96 percent success rate was third among all centers. Only Luke Wattenberg (98 percent) and Tyler Linderbaum (97 percent) were ahead of him.

Smith has taken Martin's spot as the best offensive lineman on the Cowboys. The 24-year-old ranked in the top 10 among all guards in Pro Football Focus' pass-blocking grade last season (76.0).

The biggest hindrance for Smith in his first two seasons was penalties. He had 23 accepted penalties against him in 2022 and 2023 combined, but that total was down to five in 2024.

"Most physically gifted guard in the league who could legitimately be a top starter at LT if they wanted to play him there," an NFL general manager said in praise of Smith. "Strong, athletic, nasty, and cut his holding penalties in half last year."

Even though Nelson is no longer head and shoulders above every other interior lineman like he was very early in his career, the Indianapolis Colts star remains one of the best players at his position and earned enough support to finish third in the voting.

Nelson ranked third in pass-block win rate, per ESPN's metrics. He was charged with allowing just three sacks in 1,083 offensive snaps.

It does speak to how volatile play on the interior offensive line is that Humphrey was the only player who appeared on every ballot received by Fowler. His lowest ranking was No. 10.

The other nine players on the list were all left off at least one ballot. It could also be a situation where various talent evaluators look for specific things from an interior offensive linemen in a way that they don't necessarily have to at other positions.

Whatever the reasons for so much variety, it makes for a fascinating examination of how decision-makers and scouts in the NFL think about play along the offensive line.