Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins checked in at No. 57 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026, revealed Tuesday on the league’s player-voted countdown. It is his third consecutive appearance on the list, per the team’s announcement.
The résumé behind the vote is substantial. Dawkins has made the Pro Bowl in each of the last five seasons and started 15 games in 2025 for a line that paved the way for James Cook III to win the NFL rushing title. The pass-protection numbers hold up just as well: NFL.com’s accompanying insight noted Dawkins allowed a 7.5 percent pressure rate last season, seventh-lowest among left tackles with at least 200 pass-block snaps.
The ranking also makes for a useful contrast with how the league’s front offices see him. Earlier this month, ESPN’s poll of executives, coaches and scouts left Dawkins in the honorable mentions outside its top 10 at the position, with one evaluator dinging his consistency of effort. The players who line up across from him on Sundays keep reaching a friendlier verdict: for three years running, they have voted him among the best 100 players in the sport, at any position.
The timing is convenient for a franchise opening a new chapter. Buffalo’s rookies reported to St. John Fisher University on Tuesday for the team’s 26th camp in Rochester, with veterans due July 28, and tackle remains the one spot on Joe Brady’s first roster that requires no summer sorting. The countdown itself now moves into the 40s, and Buffalo’s most obvious remaining candidate is Josh Allen — the reigning question is where, not whether, the quarterback lands.
For fantasy purposes, left tackles do not get drafted, but their stability gets priced in everywhere else. Dawkins protecting Allen’s blind side at a top-100 level is part of why Cook’s rushing-title workload projects safely and why Buffalo’s passing volume carries less risk than most offenses at similar draft cost. Continuity up front is the quiet floor under every Bills skill player.
