Nine players who quietly defined the 2025 season

For every Will Anderson Jr. and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, there's a Robert Spillane and Parker Washington. In other words, for every superstar who clearly left his mark on a given season, there's a role player who also helped define what the league was, and were it could be going. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen highlight the players who quietly defined the 2025 season on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

Rundown:

0:00 Welcome to the show

3:14 Parker Washington

11:36 Byron Murphy II

19:00 AJ Barner

20:20 Colby Parkinson

28:15 Reed Blankenship & Evan Williams

34:49 Devon Witherspoon

41:45 Robert Spillane

46:30 Kamari Lassiter

Host: Robert Mays

Co-Host: Derrik Klassen

Executive Producer: Michael Beller

Senior Producer: Katy Duffy

Social Producer: Scott Krinch

Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social

Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social

Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays

Theme song: Haunted

Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs

Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.