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Justin looks at the top five most improved players from the 2023 NFL season. Which players made the list?
The 2023 NFL regular season is over, so it's time to look back on what was an exciting season of NFL football. One that featured several great performances.
Some of those performances came from the expected players, but not all of them did. Some players who had disappointed earlier in their careers -- or at least hadn't lived up to expectations -- had huge 2023 seasons.
Below are the top five most improved players of the 2023 NFL season.
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5. Baker Mayfield - QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The No. 1 overall pick back in 2018, quarterback Baker Mayfield just never really found his stride with the Cleveland Browns. He wasn't bad per se, but he wasn't living up to the hype of a No. 1 pick. After four years in Cleveland, he was traded to the Panthers in 2022, then was released by the team later in the season and signed with the Rams.
After bouncing between multiple teams last year, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Mayfield's time as an NFL starter was over, but he signed with the Bucs back in March, a team that needed a QB after Tom Brady's retirement.
Mayfield beat out Kyle Trask for the starting job and then led the Buccaneers to a playoff appearance. He completed 64.3% of his pass attempts for a career-high 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns. He was picked off on just 1.8% of his pass attempts, the second-best mark of Mayfield's NFL career.
4. Trey McBride - TE, Arizona Cardinals
As a rookie, Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride didn't see the field a ton, catching 29 passes for 265 yards and a touchdown as he played second fiddle at the position to Zach Ertz. The talent was there, but he wasn't able to showcase it because of a small role.
2023 started the same way, but an Ertz injury opened the gates for a breakout season for the former Colorado State tight end. McBride was targeted 106 times, catching 81 of those passes for 825 yards and three touchdowns.
McBride was especially good over the final 10 games of the season. Over that span, the second-year player averaged 8.5 targets, 6.6 receptions, and 65.5 receiving yards per game. He's established himself among the NFL's best players at the position. Now, the big question becomes if McBride can sustain this momentum heading into next season.
3. David Montgomery - RB, Detroit Lions
David Montgomery left the Chicago Bears last offseason, ending a strong four-year run with the team to join the Detroit Lions. Montgomery was really good with the Bears, rushing for 3,609 yards and 26 touchdowns in his time there, but he went to the next level in Detroit.
Right away out of the gate, Montgomery was a touchdown machine. He scored in Week 1 against the Chiefs, then again in Week 2 against the Seahawks. Montgomery missed Week 3 with an injury but made up for that with three touchdown runs when he returned in Week 4 against Green Bay. He made it four games in a row the next week.
Overall, Montgomery rushed for 13 touchdowns this season, carrying the ball 219 times for 1,015 yards while missing three games. His 72.5 rushing yards per game were a new career best. Add in the fact that he did this despite the emergence of fellow running back Jahmyr Gibbs, and you get a great campaign for Montgomery.
2. Nico Collins - WR, Houston Texans
Ask any Houston Texans fan over the past couple of years, and they'd tell you that a Nico Collins breakout was coming. He flashed potential at times, but didn't really manage to put it all together.
That changed in 2023, as Collins broke out and looked like one of the NFL's best wide receivers. It probably helped that he saw a massive upgrade at quarterback, going from Davis Mills to C.J. Stroud, who was one of the NFL's top QBs despite being a rookie.
Collins finished the 2023 season with 80 receptions for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns. He was eighth in the NFL in both receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and seventh in receiving yards per game with 86.5. Early in the year, there was talk about Houston needing to find a bona fide No. 1 receiver for Stroud, but Collins showed that he might just be that guy. His future in Houston is bright.
1. Raheem Mostert - RB, Miami Dolphins
The fact that Raheem Mostert led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2023 is wild. A 31-year-old running back who had just one season in his career with more than three touchdown runs wound up running for 18 of them in 2023.
Mostert finished the 2023 season with 209 carries for 1,012 yards, both career highs as well. The journeyman back has been revitalized in Miami over the past two seasons, setting new career highs in rushing yards two seasons in a row.
The shocking nature of Mostert's 2023 season gets him the nod as the top surprise of the 2023 season. No one expected Mostert to find the end zone 10 more times on the ground than his previous best mark, and that's not even mentioning the fact that he caught three touchdown passes as well, another new best mark for Mostert.
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