The NFL’s best centers

Centers are perpetually underrated and underappreciated, but they're the men who, noticed or not, keep their offenses together. Here are the best ones currently in the NFL. 
The NFL’s best centers
The NFL’s best centers /

Centers are perpetually underrated and underappreciated. They are never the glamour guys—they're in the pit on every snap, working their way through double-teams and blocking nose tackles who may outweigh them by 30 pounds. They’re frequently tasked with the line and protection calls that allow offenses to adjust to defensive strategies. You don't tend to notice how important it is to have a good center until you don't have one anymore. The Seahawks provided an instructive example last season when they traded Max Unger away for Jimmy Graham in the 2015 offseason, and thought they could replace him with a kid named Drew Nowak, even though Nowak had never played the position before. Nowak was an utter disaster, and had to be replaced to save Seattle's season. Not that it was his fault—he was at the mercy of a coach in Tom Cable who forgot what every line coach should have tattooed somewhere on his body: Without a great center, your offensive line, and subsequently your entire offense, won't go very far.

Here are the best centers heading into the 2016 season—the men who, noticed or not, keep their offenses together.

Just missed the cut

Alex Mack, Falcons: Mack was once the gold standard at the position along with Nick Mangold of the Jets, but he's been dealing with injuries of late. He's still a good player though, and he should benefit from Atlanta's zone-blocking scheme under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.

The next big thing

Ryan Kelly, Colts: The Alabama alum is thought to be one of the most complete and well-developed centers to come out of college over the last few years. The Colts selected him with the 18th overall pick in the 2016 draft to keep Andrew Luck upright and provide much-needed excellence in an offensive line that has underperformed for far too long.


Published
Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.