When discussing the most intimidating players in the NFL, it’s important to define what that looks like because it has changed throughout the years. 

It used to be players like Jack Lambert, who was missing all his teeth and looked angry. That evolved into Ray Lewis, and he just scared the offensive player when he was on the field. 

This list won’t necessarily be about how hard or often these players hit. While those types of players will be included, we will expand the conversation to players who, when they’re at their best, will dominate no matter what. 

Other 2023 Rankings: Top 10 Backup QBs | Top 7 Rushing Backfields | Top 5 Receiver Groups | Top 9 Receivers | 5 Best Offseason Moves | Top 14 Players over 30 

6 Most Intimidating Players

6. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals

Some people might cringe seeing a quarterback make this list, but I’m going to Cincinnati and calling Joe Burrow’s name. Burrow changes what a defensive coordinator thinks he’ll be capable of doing on any given Sunday. 

He’s intimidating to defensive coordinators because, going back to his time at LSU, Burrow has excelled at making the right read and making an accurate throw on almost every play. Then, he came to the NFL and proved he could do it on Sundays. 

You can’t hit quarterbacks as hard anymore; that’s just a fact. So defensive coordinators have to try and confuse him. Well, he doesn’t look confused often. In fact, he has the most command when the game matters most.

Think about the AFC. It’s the best conference in football, with the Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills at the top. Burrow has played at a consistently high level against those teams, oftentimes in the postseason. 

He may not be scary in the old sense of what a football player who’s scary is, but the way he plays and wins can be intimidating. It certainly affects what a defense thinks they can do on Sunday. — Burmeister 

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5. Nick Bosa, San Francisco 49ers 

Let’s switch to a player who is a little more of an old-school intimidator — San Francisco 49ers pass rusher Nick Bosa. 

He plays the game with high intensity and is locked in when he’s on the field. When you meet him, he’s pleasant enough, but he won’t spend a lot of extra time talking to you because he’s got work to get done. He’s got pass-rush moves to think about. 

Let’s be honest about it. When the Bosa family sits down for Thanksgiving, nobody is doing the Turkey Bowl. They’re doing pass-rush drills instead. 

Where do they go to get tuned up in the offseason? Quarterbacks have quarterback coaches. They go back to Ohio State and Larry Johnson, the best defensive line coach in college football.

Bosa wakes up in the morning thinking about it. He goes to bed at night thinking about it. He combines power, speed and technique. He and his brother Joey have the best hand usage out there. It comes back to the family for me with his intimidation.

Nick Bosa is the youngest and had to battle his way up. His father, cousin and brother were first-round picks. But he wants to be the best of them all and is well on his way. — Davis 

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4. Chris Jones, Kansas City Chiefs 

Chris Jones is an absolute disruptive force on that defensive line, not just in the run game. Ask the Philadelphia Eagles what they thought about Jones and what he did in the second half of the Super Bowl.

But how about 15.5 sacks this past season for an interior defensive lineman? Most defenses are designed to free up edge rushers and linebackers, so to get that many sacks from the interior makes Jones an absolute brute force. 

He did it all with a scowl on his face, too. I’ll finish up with this. I was on the field in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLIX when the New England Patriots played the Seattle Seahawks.

One thing that stood out to me was the speed and violence Seahawks interior defensive lineman Michael Bennett played with. Since then, I’ve watched the NFL’s top defensive lineman with that in mind. 

Jones and Bennett are different players, but Jones plays with the same speed and violence on the interior. That’s a great thing to be reminded of when you’re thinking about intimidating players. — Burmeister

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3. Aaron Donald, Los Angeles Rams 

If we’re going to talk about interior players, we have to mention the ultimate guy. Last year wasn’t Aaron Donald’s best season, and he didn’t finish the year due to injury. He didn’t put up his usual numbers either. 

However, his intimation factor will go up 100 percent this season. There are whispers out there that he’s not “that guy” anymore. Offensive coordinators should believe that at their peril. 

As we watched him enter the league, he continued to slim down his weight and get better. We kept asking ourselves — how? He’s getting double and triple-teamed on most snaps, but it doesn’t matter because his hand usage is one of the most underrated parts of his game. 

I asked him once about that. He said it started with his high school coach, Desmond Gibson. Then they started working hand but hand placement and movement in high school. Of course, that continues today.

I don’t know if Donald is using martial arts, but it sure looks like he is sometimes. Donald’s intimidation will go up this year because his motivation is increasing. 

I have yet to hear him talk about retiring or legacy this year. I have yet to hear about any of that stuff other than getting ready to play football. Look out, NFL. Here comes the most intimidating defensive tackle maybe the game has ever seen. — Davis 

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2. Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins 

Let’s get back to that wide-scope definition of what intimidation can mean. This person isn’t going to run into you, but he’s more often than not going to run by you. 

He’s getting older, but Tyreek Hill still has the speed and acceleration to consistently beat defenses over the top. His acceleration and make-you-miss ability are as fun to watch as any player in the league. He looks like he will get 1 yard, and he gets 8 or 9. The ultimate compliment a defensive coordinator can give an offensive player is saying the defense had to game plan specifically for that offensive player. Hill forces coordinators to do that.

You don’t know if Hill will catch the ball three or eight times, but they’re going to target him 10 to 12 times every game. Somebody on the defense — usually multiple players — has to deal with Hill’s make-you-miss ability in the short game and his ability to beat a defense over the top. 

Having Jaylen Waddle on the other side helps, but the intimidation comes from Hill’s speed and acceleration. — Burmeister 

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1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs 

It seems appropriate to finish this list with the league’s best quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. What makes Mahomes intimating is that he’s relentless and undaunted. 

What I mean by that is there are times when the Chiefs are down, and Mahomes brings them back. Remember his first Super Bowl victory? Their whole playoff run, they were coming back after being down two or three touchdowns and finding a way to win. 

Then, they came back from being down 10 in the fourth quarter to beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl. Mahomes doesn’t back down from anything. Oh, is he hurt? He plays hurt. He goes through it, and the same thing happens.

Here’s the intimidation factor on the other side of the ball. Normally on offense, you say, “Well, if we get in this situation, we might punt the ball and play field position.”Just because Mahomes is going to get the ball back, you alter what you do. You go for it more than you would. You’re trying to control the football so he doesn’t have it.

Sometimes that knocks teams off kilter because they know when No. 15 gets the ball, they’ve got problems. That’s why he is one of the most intimidating players in the game, if not the most intimidating. 

He changes teams’ game plans. Not just their defense but their offense, too. — Davis

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Charles Davis is an NFL analyst for CBS and NFL Network. He joined the sports media world after playing safety at the University of Tennessee.

Paul Burmeister, a former starting quarterback at Iowa, is a studio host with NBC Sports and the radio voice of Notre Dame Football. For a decade he worked as a studio host at NFL Network. Follow him on Twitter at @PaulWBurmeister.