{"id":226985,"date":"2025-07-22T12:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226985\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:05:11","slug":"nfl-execs-coaches-and-players-rank-chiefs-nick-bolton-as-the-no-4-off-ball-lb-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226985\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL execs, coaches, and players rank Chiefs’ Nick Bolton as the No. 4 off-ball LB in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to an annual NFL poll, Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> linebacker Nick Bolton battled injuries but was still impressive enough to be placed on a top ten off-ball linebackers list heading into the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

In a poll of NFL decision-makers and players<\/a> conducted by ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler, Bolton is viewed as one of the best players at his position.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The annual poll consists of voters giving the network staff their best ten players at a position. Then, they compiled the results and ranked candidates based on the number of top-10 votes, composite average, and dozens of interviews, with research and film study help from ESPN NFL analyst Matt Bowen.<\/p>\n

“Coaches say Bolton is elite at making checks or adjustments at the line of scrimmage. “He allows [the Chiefs] to get all 11 players in the best call based on all of the information provided by the situation,” a veteran NFL defensive coach said. “Very much a coach on the field.”<\/p>\n

Bolton returns to Kansas City on a 3-year, $45 million deal, which includes $30 million fully guaranteed at the start of the offseason. A vital member of the team’s defense remains in the fold as the former Missouri Tigers<\/a> standout has played a significant role in the unit’s dominance in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

During his four years in Kansas City, Bolton tallied 458 tackles, five sacks, and two forced fumbles while serving as the defense’s lead communicator at linebacker.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: ESPN’s NFL poll ranks Chiefs’ Nick Bolton as the No. 4 off-ball LB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to an annual NFL poll, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton battled injuries but was still impressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,7,6388,118,110,7206,6,2887],"class_list":{"0":"post-226985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-espn","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jeremy-fowler","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-missouri-tigers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nick-bolton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114896801205107457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}