• Calais Campbell is an ageless wonder: The soon-to-be 39-year-old is still an asset to any NFL defensive line. He is coming off the top-ranked PFF run-defense grade among all interior defenders last season.

• Matthew Stafford continues to provide the Rams with a high ceiling: Few NFL quarterbacks have as much command of their offense as Stafford does in Los Angeles, which keeps him in the top 10 conversation at 37 years old. 

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Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Some of the most talented players the NFL has ever seen retired before turning 30 years old — most recently, Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly — due to the game’s incredibly physical nature.

While it’s not the norm, there are still players around the league who are playing at a high level in the later stages of their careers. Here are 10 who stand out heading into the 2025 season, most of whom will end up in the Hall of Fame.

Johnson and teammate Jordan Mailata were the league’s only two offensive tackles who earned a PFF pass-blocking and PFF run-blocking grade above 85.0 in 2024. Johnson’s 88.9 PFF overall grade was a career high, a remarkable feat for a player in his 12th season.

Including the playoffs (four games), Johnson allowed just 14 pressures across 574 pass-blocking snaps during last year’s Super Bowl run. He’s still on the short list for best tackles in the NFL, and according to recent comments made by him at minicamp, he is feeling better than he has at any point in his career at 35 years old.

Despite playing more than 14,000 snaps in his 13-year career, Wagner is showing no signs of slowing down. Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels received a lot of the headlines amid the Commanders’ impressive turnaround last season, and deservedly so, but Wagner’s impact on the defense in his first year with the team should not go unheralded.

Wagner’s 88.3 PFF overall grade ranked third out of 84 qualifying linebackers, and he led the position in PFF pass-rush grade (90.9) and ranked second in PFF run-defense grade (91.2). It was his third straight year of earning a PFF run-defense grade higher than 91.0.

Stafford wasn’t at his best last season, finishing with a 74.4 PFF overall grade, but some factors were working against him. Aside from right guard Kevin Dotson, all Rams starting offensive linemen missed time due to injury. The team was also hit hard by injuries at the skill positions, most notably to wide receiver Puka Nacua and tight end Tyler Higbee. Despite that, Stafford still had the Rams in position to knock off the eventual Super Bowl champions on the road in the divisional round with just over a minute to go in the fourth quarter.

Few quarterbacks in the NFL have as much command of their offense as Stafford does in Los Angeles, which keeps him in the top 10 conversation at 37 years old. 

Evans made history last season, tying Jerry Rice for the most consecutive seasons topping 1,000 receiving yards (11) despite missing time with a hamstring injury. He was elite in Tampa Bay’s wild-card playoff loss to the Commanders (91.8 overall grade), dominating longtime rival Marshon Lattimore. He caught all six targets thrown his way in the matchup for 84 yards and a touchdown while also drawing a defensive pass interference penalty.

Earlier this month, Evans commented that this year’s Buccaneers wide receiver room might be the best he’s been a part of in his career. He will be joined by fellow veteran standout Chris Godwin and first-round pick Emeka Egbuka out of Ohio State atop the depth chart this season.

Like Lane Johnson, Williams is a lock for the Hall of Fame. Williams’ 85.6 PFF overall grade in 2024 signaled a down year by his standards but still ranked seventh out of 81 qualifying tackles in the NFL. He was the highest-graded tackle in the league from 2020 to 2023, grading no lower than 91.7 in any of those seasons.

Williams appeared in just 10 games last season while battling injury, playing his fewest snaps (649) since 2017. He will be 37 years old by the time the 2025 campaign kicks off, but if healthy, he remains one of the game’s best at left tackle. 

Heyward is yet another player on this list who is a lock for the Hall of Fame, trailing only Chris Jones in PFF overall grade (90.1) among interior defenders last season. At 35 years old, he finished the year with a career-high 85.9 PFF pass-rush grade.

The five-time All-Pro is a big reason why the Steelers top PFF’s list of the best defensive lines in the NFL heading into the 2025 season. His presence will be especially valuable for Derrick Harmon, the Steelers’ first-round pick in this year’s draft.

G Joe Thuney, Chicago Bears

Thuney has been a model of consistency over his career, grading no lower than 74.2 overall since 2017. Although his grade last year (80.0) fell short of his career-best mark (81.2) in 2021, it’s important to point out that he was playing out of position at times. Thuney started at left tackle from Week 15 on through the Super Bowl, with 30.2% of his snaps for the season coming there.

The four-time All-Pro was traded from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Chicago Bears back in March and was rewarded with a two-year extension worth $17.5 million per season, making his new three-year contract worth $51 million ($33.5 million guaranteed). Thuney will be a big part of a revamped Bears offensive line under new head coach Ben Johnson in 2025.

It’s still unclear where Ramsey will be playing in 2025 (likely not with the Dolphins), but wherever it is, that team will be getting one of the most talented cornerbacks in the NFL. 

While he’s no longer a top-five player at his position, Ramsey proved last year that he still has a lot left in the tank. He ranked 10th out of 116 qualifying cornerbacks in PFF overall grade (76.9), eighth in PFF run-defense grade (85.7) and 25th in PFF advanced coverage grade, allowing two touchdowns across 607 coverage snaps.

Aside from quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco, Calais Campbell (who turns 39 years old in September) is the oldest active player in the NFL. The Dolphins were one of the league’s biggest disappointments last year, starting the season 2-6, but Campbell still played in all 17 games, ranking first among interior defenders with an 85.9 PFF run-defense grade.

Campbell signed with the Arizona Cardinals in free agency and will finish out his Hall-of-Fame career back where it started in 2008. His leadership will be valuable for an improving defensive line, most notably 16th-overall pick Walter Nolen.

The Titans will be Zeitler’s sixth NFL team, which is surprising, given how well he’s played over his career, grading lower than 71.6 overall just once in 13 seasons. His lone year in Detroit was excellent, ranking fourth among 73 qualifying guards with an 86.5 PFF grade — his highest since the 2014 season. 

The former first-round pick out of Wisconsin has been extremely durable, averaging 1,038 snaps per season. In Tennessee, he will be tasked with protecting No. 1 overall pick quarterback Cam Ward.