49ers' Fred Warner accomplishes rare feat with top-10 LB ranking from ESPN poll

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The San Francisco 49ers have some incredible players on the roster, and in ESPN's series of top-10 rankings position-by-position, they have plenty of players representing the team in these rankings.

Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Trent Williams, and Nick Bosa are all top-ranked players at their positions. Brock Purdy just missed the cut, but the 49ers have one other top-10 player at their position with linebacker Fred Warner.

He's obviously top-10, even after a lost 2025 season due to injury. But, where was he ranked? ESPN's Jeremy Fowler shared that Warner accomplished a rare feat, earning the top spot despite missing most of the prior season.

Fred Warner's No. 1-ranking is rare feat after lost 2025 season

"Rarely does a player miss most of the season due to injury and maintain his standing in our top 10," Fowler writes. "Warner, however, earned around 70% of the first-place votes. It was a slight drop from the previous year, but his status in the position hierarchy remains clear."

Warner missed a ton of time during the 2025 NFL season. He played in just six total games, and didn't come back for the 49ers' two games in the playoffs either. In total, Warner was out for 13 games this past season.

And yet, NFL coaches, executives, and scouts polled by ESPN for this ranking still had him as the best linebacker in the league.

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Warner is a four-time first-team All-Pro, four-time Pro Bowler, and has been putting up incredible seasons year after year for the 49ers.

Even this past season, in just six games, he had 51 tackles, two for loss, with two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, three passes defended, and a passer-rating allowed of just 72.9.

The 29-year-old might've missed most of 2025 due to an ankle injury, but the NFL still views him as the best linebacker in the league, and by a decent margin as well.

Even after such a down season, Warner's lowest ranking was No. 5. But, with 70% or so of participants in this poll ranking him as the best LB in the league, Warner accomplished the rare feat of missing most of the prior season but still retaining his top ranking.