Two Former Clemson Tigers Feature in NFL Top 100

The Clemson Tigers’ footprint in the NFL continues to grow, and the latest proof comes from two familiar names earning a spot amongst the best in the league.

With the 2025-26 NFL season starting this Sunday, two former Clemson standouts have received honors on the NFL’s annual Top 100 list, a recognition voted on by their peers that highlights some of the league’s best talents.

The first former Tiger to make his list debut was the Cincinnati Bengals’ Tee Higgins, sliding in at the No. 77 spot.

Higgins came out of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a borderline five-star recruit, ranking as the No. 34 overall recruit and the No. 4 wide receiver, according to 247Sports.

The 6-foot-4 wideout, expected to be the next Clemson great, considering he arrived just a few years after legends like Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins and Mike Williams – all of which got drafted in the first round of their respective NFL Drafts.

Higgins played at Clemson from 2017 to 2019, gradually improving year by year. As a freshman, he played in 13 games, but didn’t start one, recording 345 yards and two touchdowns on only 17 receptions.

His sophomore campaign saw him explode alongside True Freshman All-American Justyn Ross. Higgins racked up 936 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 59 catches on his way to earning a Second Team All-ACC selection.

On top of a great year, he shone when the lights were brightest en route to a 2018 National Championship win, accounting for 134 yards and two touchdowns in the College Football Playoffs.

The lanky receiver earned his WR1 spot in his final year with the Tigers, leading the team in receiving yards, touchdowns and yards per catch.

Higgins finished the year with 59 catches, 1,167 yards and 13 touchdowns, which was No. 6 in the nation. While he wouldn’t be able to help his team win back-to-back National Championships, losing to LSU 42-25, it was still a successful season, being honored as First Team All-ACC talent.

He finished No. 7 in Clemson all-time receiving yards, and tied for the most receiving touchdowns in program history with 27 total.

The talented junior was picked with the No. 33 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Bengals. 

He hit the ground running in his first three years with the team alongside Ja’Marr Chase, amassing 3,028 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns in his first three years. 

But, since his fast start, he’s been hit with injury after injury, playing in 24 games the past two years and only starting in 20.

Nevertheless, he had a strong 2024 season in which he started just nine games but finished with 911 yards and 10 touchdowns – a career-high for the 26-year-old. 

Looking into the future, as long as his health stays out of the way, Higgins can be a very special and valuable receiver for any team in the league that needs one.

The next former Tiger, Dexter Lawrence, has been consecutively on the list for three years and was a part of Clemson’s dominant ‘Power Rangers’ group of the mid-2010s. 

Lawrence is the highest-ranked former Clemson player to make the Top 100 list since it began in 2011, sitting at No. 17 this year. The next closest is Grady Jarrett at the No. 63 spot in 2023.

The 300-pound defensive tackle has seen nothing but success in his football career, coming into Clemson as the No. 2 overall recruit in the country, and still is their fourth-highest recruit of all time, according to 247Sports.

He immediately made an impact with the Tigers in 2016, earning ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and Second Team All-ACC in a freshman season that saw him put up 63 tackles, 10 for a loss and seven sacks en route to his first National Championship of his collegiate career.

Over the next two seasons, he racked up 71 tackles, including 11 for loss, four sacks, three pass deflections, and a forced fumble. When he declared for the 2019 NFL Draft, his résumé overflowed with accolades — a second National Championship in 2018, back-to-back First Team All-ACC honors, and a First Team All-American nod as a junior.

Lawrence got picked with the No. 17 overall pick by the New York Giants, where, similarly to Clemson, he’s been a stud since stepping on the field. He wouldn’t earn any accolades in his first three years, aside from an All-Rookie Team appearance, but still was one of, if not the best, interior defensive lineman for the Giants through that time, recording 145 tackles, 14 for a loss, nine sacks and 30 QB hits.

Since 2022, he’s consistently been in annual conversations of being the best player at his position across the NFL. He earned Pro-Bowl nods the past three years, and Second-team All-Pro nods in 2022 and 2023. 

In that time, he’s stuffed the stat sheet with 165 tackles, 22 for a loss, and 21 sacks. But interestingly enough, while he didn’t get an All-Pro selection this past season, it arguably was his best. In only 12 games, he recorded 44 tackles and a career-high nine sacks – the most by an interior lineman in 2024.

From former Tiger receivers making clutch plays on Sundays to defensive linemen wreaking havoc in the trenches, Clemson’s impact stretches across the league. And with the 2025-26 NFL season set to kick off, Clemson fans will again have plenty of reasons to keep an eye on their former stars as they continue to shape the game at the highest level.