Creed Humphrey is the best center in the NFL. Somehow that label is a disservice.
Over the last half-decade, Humphrey has only ascended to the top of any ranking of the game's best interior linemen. That much is not in question. But somehow, just referring to the Kansas City Chiefs' center as the NFL's best is to miss what the composite results are saying on a historical level. Basically, Creed Humphrey is not just the best in the NFL at the current time, but his craft is the groundwork for historical impact.
Sure, it's just five seasons and, to be historically great, a player is going to need a much larger body of work if Canton is going to call his name for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Humphrey, as you will see in a minute, is on a trajectory that even the game's finest centers never reached—the sort of young ascendancy that's unheard of at a position that generally takes a few years to even grow into dominance.
The sad part is that Creed Humphrey is still somewhat disrespected. Maybe it's a center thing—that other positions are going to get more glory, even those lesser performers in the sexier roles—but that doesn't make it right. Humphrey is known as the best in the game, and yet was recently voted No. 94 overall in the NFL's Top 100 for 2026—yeah, that's a ranking slightly lower than Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young.
Creed Humphrey is redefining supremacy at the center position
As Humphrey comes into his sixth season, it's time to start referring to him in terms of all-time greatness. Instead of simply being the "NFL's best center," the conversation needs to also include allusions to the legacy—whether talking about him during broadcasts or placing him in offseason rankings.
Some of the accolades are obvious. The former second-round pick ranked third in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting—as a center!—in 2021 and followed that up by making his first Pro Bowl and earning his first All-Pro nod in 2022. From there, the achievements are almost understood, as if you could pencil Humphrey's name in for both year after year. The total count is at four Pro Bowls and three All-Pro nods before the age of 27.
But it goes beyond the individual acclaim. Humphrey has been to three Super Bowls in his first five seasons and won two of them. During that time, he's also started every possible game in his NFL career, which has included deep postseason runs almost every season. That's 85 starts in the regular season with another 13 in the playoffs. That's ironman status.
The thing that sets Humphrey apart isn't any one line on the résumé. It's the combination of it all. NFL history highlights plenty of excellent centers, and others have demonstrated amazing reliability. Other centers have anchored dynastic runs, but for someone to accomplish all of this on their way to their prime years is something else entirely. Most of the legends at the position needed a full decade to build what Humphrey has stacked in half of one.
Jim Otto, Oakland Raiders
The one center who can live up to Humphrey's body of work, Otto was a first-team All-AFL selection in every one of his first five seasons from 1960 through 1964. For that matter, Otto can claim this in every one of his ten AFL years. This actually trumps Humphrey on paper, but the caveat is the league itself, because Otto played in the nascent AFC, an eight-team league still fighting the NFL for talent. The talent pool against which Otto played was considerably shallower than the one Humphrey faces now. Context matters here. Still, Otto is a true legend.
Dwight Stephenson, Miami Dolphins
Stephenson rattled off four straight first-team All-Pros from 1984 through 1987 and five straight Pro Bowls from 1983 through 1987, a peak arguably higher than anything Humphrey has hit yet. However, he wasn't a full-time starter right away. His first three seasons, from 1980 through 1982, produced no honors at all, and the run didn't begin until year four of his career. Through the strict first-five-year window, that leaves Stephenson at two Pro Bowls and one first-team All-Pro. Humphrey is actually ahead of him at this same checkpoint.
Maurkice Pouncey, Pittsburgh Steelers
The closest thing to a true parallel on the fast start. Pouncey made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and went four times in his first five seasons (2010, '11, '12 and '14), with a first-team All-Pro in 2011 and second-team nods in 2010 and '12. That feels eerily similar to Humphrey in terms of a player's trophy case. But the difference is availability, because Pouncey tore his ACL and MCL in the 2013 opener, which caused him to miss his fourth season. Pouncey's own body betrayed him at times, and the Steelers never won a title in his decade with the team.
Mike Webster, Pittsburgh Steelers
Mike Webster's first two seasons (1974-75) are blank in the awards column, since he backed up Ray Mansfield in Pittsburgh before taking over. His first Pro Bowl and the All-Pro nods didn't arrive until 1978, his fifth year. That means through five seasons, "Iron Mike" sits at one Pro Bowl and one first-team All-Pro to Humphrey's four and two. But Webster deserves a helluva nod since he finished with nine Pro Bowls, five first-team All-Pros, and four Super Bowl rings. Looking at the next five years, Webster is a player for Humphrey to continue to chase. (Fun note: Webster ended his career with two seasons in Kansas City.)
Dermontti Dawson, Pittsburgh Steelers
Boy, the Steelers are very, very well-represented here. Dawson came into the league as a guard and slid over to center to replace Webster, but he didn't start stacking first-team All-Pros until 1993, his sixth season. Through five years, he's got roughly one Pro Bowl to show for it. That said, Dawson retired a seven-time Pro Bowler and six-time first-team All-Pro on his way to a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But, like Webster before him, the acclaim didn't find him until well after Humphrey started.
Kevin Mawae, New York Jets / Tennessee Titans
Kevin Mawae is possibly the most decorated late bloomer of the bunch. He spent his first four seasons in Seattle largely without major hardware. The first league-wide recognition came in his fifth season, in 1998, with a second-team All-Pro nod. From there, the honors arrived in bulk with the Jets and Titans. Through five years, he's at zero Pro Bowls and no first-team All-Pros, yet he'd finish with eight Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pros. Another Hall of Fame case who was miles behind Humphrey's pace at this stage.
Where does this leave Creed Humphrey?
Nothing is a given in the NFL, of course, which means Creed Humphrey's run of excellence, stamina, and good health will have to continue in order to find himself in the conversation for the greatest center of all time. But the fact that he's even positioned himself to make a run for the title speaks to the ultra-rare position he's in. The NFL's best centers mostly found their footing as they gained experience, which has given Humphrey a head start.
Even if the book were closed on Humphrey at this point, we'd reference his dominant run in historic terms. That he's building on it at the age of 27 in front of the NFL's greatest quarterback should keep him in the crosshairs of league-wide attention. It's quite possible that Chiefs Kingdom is watching the career of the NFL's best-ever center unfolding in real time.
Add us as a preferred source on Google