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Bills quarterback Josh Allen topped the NFLPA’s annual Top-50 list in Player Sales list, a year after he finished sixth. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley previously held the top spot.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye finished second while Barkley was third. Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels rounded out the top five.
The list accounts for the league’s top retail performers based on sales of officially licensed products during the league year from March 1, 2025 to Feb. 28, 2026. The rankings encompass jersey sales, t-shirts, bobbleheads, backpacks, and figurines, among other items, and differ from the $17.7 million Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders banked in group licensing income. Sanders was No. 31 on the top-50 list.
The top-50 list does not include income players made from personal endorsements or sponsorships; much of Sanders’s $17.7 million was from a trading card endorsement deal with Panini.
“This is more consumer-driven,” Ben Ruiz, the VP of consumer products and strategy for NFL Players Inc., the union’s licensing and marketing arm, told Front Office Sports. “The LM-2 includes license product deals but also includes marketing and autograph deals. This list is ‘a fan walks into a store and buys a product and goes home with it.’”
Smith-Njigba was the biggest riser on the list. He jumped more than 50 spots from 2025 after leading the NFL in receiving yards and winning the Super Bowl. Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean (No. 22) and Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (No. 24) also saw their names much higher from last year.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams rose from 13th to eighth in his second year after leading the Bears to the team’s first playoff win since 2010. Ruiz said Williams’s commercial success helped him land on the Madden cover for this upcoming season.
“Caleb Williams was one of our strongest sellers the last quarter of the season and helped break him into the top 10 overall and that helped with our friends over at EA of who would be the face of Madden going forward,” Ruiz told FOS. “The last quarter of the season was driving so many sales individually that it felt like someone who could represent a group product well.”
Ruiz said Williams is a strong candidate to top next year’s list and added Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, running back Cam Skattebo, Rams defensive end Myles Garrett, and Raiders rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza as players who could find themselves high on the list.
“I have not seen many rookies come in with the amount of interest from partners that we’ve seen from Fernando for this point,” Ruiz said. “It’s really really challenging for a rookie to land in the top 10, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him land in the top 20.”
Ruiz expects more player sales to stem from toys in the coming years than the current list suggests. The union has been working with major toy companies to find ways to get more players into the category and expects it to be a major growth point in the near future.
The NFLPA has worked with Hasbro for a players edition of Guess Who and is also working with the company for a unique version of Bop It, the electronic handheld game.
“While people are showing up to the stores in droves the past few years to buy trading cards, buyers have been asking, ‘How do I get those buyers into other parts of my store?’ And toys has been the answer so far.”
The team listed indicates player’s team for sales during the time period:
