Despite just becoming the highest-paid OL in NFL history, Rashawn Slater was left out of a list ranking the top 10 players who could bring home the first Protector of the Year award.
This season there will be a new postseason award handed out to the NFL’s offensive lineman of the year. It’s got a flashier name in “Protector of the Year”, but now there’s finally a real honor to be bestowed on the league’s best player at the most underrated position.
With the season inching closer and closer, NFL.com’s Nick Shook recently took to ranking his top 10 offensive linemen he believes have the best chance of taking home the award in its inaugural year. He’s the thing: Slater was not amongst his top….
And so you might be thinking, “HUH?!?”
Yes, that’s right. The league’s highest-paid offensive lineman in history is not in the top 10 most-likely players to win the award in 2025 per Shook. And to add some insult to injury, 49ers second-year guard Dominick Puni is not just above Slater, but he has the sixth-best odds among all linemen.
That doesn’t compute.
Everyone should have a qualm with Rashawn Slater, the NFL’s highest-paid OL in history, being a honorable mention candidate for the inaugural Protector of the Year award (top OL in NFL) while a second-year guard earned the 6th-highest odds. pic.twitter.com/frv2jeh3Xs
— Michael Peterson (@ZoneTracks) July 29, 2025
Slater was the fourth-highest graded offensive lineman in the NFL in 2024 (minimum 500 snaps) with a 91.1 overall grade by Pro Football Focus. Puni was 22nd with a mark of 80.5. That’s very good for any rookie! But to believe he is better than Slater entering the 2025 season is damn near laughable. It’s nonsense.
When healthy, Slater is among the top linemen in all of football. Period. The tape shows it. The resume shows it. There’s just no room to argue otherwise.
Any list of the top linemen without Slater can be disregarded. Still hard to believe I have to type this out.