Alim McNeill hit a career high in sacks, Devin Bush had his best game as a Bear next to Jeffery Simmons, and Emmanuel Forbes shut down his old team in a Rams win.
Superstars may lead the discussion when it comes to success in the NFL, but more often than not, it’s the guys you barely know who will make the plays needed when they’re needed. Such players can be underrated for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps they’re playing in a smaller market, and the media isn’t appropriately trumpeting their exploits. Maybe they’re hidden in a depth chart behind bigger names who may not be doing as much. Or, it’s always possible that a wayward coach hasn’t quite figured out that one guy needs elevation to bring better results to the team.
Whatever the reason, we at SB Nation always like to bring the underrated names to you with the offseason Hidden Gems and in-season Secret Superstars series. You can also catch up on the AFC and NFC Secret Superstars for the 2026 season right here.
Here are our NFC Secret Superstars for Week 9 of the 2026 regular season. And if you haven’t yet, download the new SB Nation app, so you can better read our stuff and join the conversation wherever you are!
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Next Gen Stats, Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and Sumer Sports unless otherwise indicated).
Alim McNeill, IDL, Detroit Lions
I’ve always had a thing for undersized defensive tackles. From John Randle to Geno Atkins to Grady Jarrett to Aaron Donald and on and on, the whole “low man wins” thing has always made sense to me. Because if you have the chops to succeed in the NFL when you’re not meeting any of the established size parameters, there must be something pretty special about you.
The Detroit Lions are well aware of this, and they’ve been well aware of this since they selected North Carolina State’s Alim McNeill with the 72nd overall pick in the third round of the 2021 draft. It’s why the Lions gave McNeill a four-year, $97 million contract extension with $55 million guaranteed in 2024, and 2026 may be the 6’2”, 310-pound McNeill’s best season yet. Overall, he has 5.5 sacks, 34 pressures, 14 stops, and a whole lot of chaos for opposing offensive guards when he’s lined up at three-technique.
Against the Miami Dolphins and guards Kadyn Proctor and Jonah Savaiinaea in Sunday’s 19-9 Lions win, McNeill was an absolute force, with a sack and four total pressures. Now, he’s in exalted company among interior disruptors around the NFL — right up there with Jeffery Simmons of the Chicago Bears (more on him in a minute) and Zach Allen of the Denver Broncos.
As Dan Campbell has said, McNeill ties the whole thing together when it comes to Detroit’s defensive line.
“Well, we talked about this a while back,” Campbell said of McNeill on Nov. 6. “I mean, it’s one of the reasons Mac is an impact player. If you can get push up the middle, first of all, he shuts down the run between he and [DL] Tyleik [Williams]. He’s excellent against the run game. But then to be able to get an edge and create pressure, and push and make the quarterback move, that helps [EDGE Aidan Hutchinson] Hutch, and that helps [EDGE DJ] Wonnum, and our other guys, [DL Skyler Gill-Howard] Sky.
“So man, it’s big. You get an edge guy and you get somebody in the middle, then man, it really opens up your pressure package. So that alone in itself, four-man rush, you can create some havoc. But now, when you do decide to bring some of these pressure packages, it helps significantly.
“So, Mac’s doing a hell of a job. He’s playing at a high level right now.”
The Lions stand at 6-2 in an NFC North that has become one of the most competitive divisions in NFL history, and as they look to make sense of a defense that has been up and down (to say the least), Alim McNeill will continue to do his level best to keep the math solid.
Devin Bush, LB, Chicago Bears
Football is the most interdependent sport. Nobody can succeed without the efforts of others. And there are those few special players in the NFL who, at any given time, can not only blow you away with their own abilities, but who can also make those around them better.
The Bears’ trade for Jeffery Simmons has done just that for a whole lot of Chicago defenders. Since Chicago sent 2027 and 2028 first-round picks, as well as a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Tennessee Titans for Simmons and a 2028 fifth-round pick on October 28, a middling defense has morphed into the new Monsters of the Midway.
Per SumerSports:
Games | Plays | EPA per Play Allowed | Opp Success Rate (%) | Yards per Play Allowed | EPA per Rush Allowed | Rushes | EPA per Dropback Allowed | Dropbacks | Pressure Rate (%) | Sacks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With Simmons | 2 | 110 | -0.358 | 32.7 | 4.45 | -0.121 | 43 | -0.51 | 67 | 37.7 | 7 |
| Without Simmons | 7 | 361 | -0.038 | 41.8 | 6.39 | -0.074 | 142 | -0.014 | 219 | 40.3 | 19 |
But it’s tough to mention anybody who has benefited more from Simmons’ arrival than linebacker Devin Bush. In wins over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8, and in Chicago’s 27-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night, Bush has used Simmons’ status as the guy every opposing offense needs to worry about into his own status as someone who is closer in the rear view than he may appear. Bush was especially outstanding against the Bucs, with eight solo tackles, four stops, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hurry, and two pass breakups in coverage.
Basically, everywhere the Bucs wanted to be, Bush was there first. And he helped the Bears win a game in which their own offense had five or more turnovers — the first time they’ve done that since 2006, when they did it twice — once in a 23-13 Week 13 win over the Minnesota Vikings, and more famously in a 24-23 Week 6 win over the Arizona Cardinals that had Arizona coach Dennis Green getting all legendary at the podium after the fact.
As for Bush, the 2019 10th overall pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers who also had stints with the Seattle Seahawks and the Cleveland Browns before the Bears signed him to a three-year, $30 million contract with $21 million guaranteed. For the first time in his career (though he was very good with the Browns last season), Bush is looking like the guy the NFL always wanted him to be.
“I think he keeps getting better every week,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson said of Bush after the Bucs win. “And off the cuff, we’ve got to look at this tape here, but this might have been his best game yet as a Bear. And we’ll see if that stays true or not. But he’s all over the place, playing physical when he’s hitting guys. He’s fast. He’s a great coverage player. We already knew that. But I think his understanding of the defense is really what’s allowing him to play instinctive, fast football right now.”
That, and Jeffery Simmons, will get you there every time.
Emmanuel Forbes, CB, Los Angeles Rams
The Rams welcomed Myles Garrett back to the field on Sunday for the first time since Week 1 — and Garrett went off against the Washington Commanders for three sacks and eight total pressures — but the team’s injury issues continue unabated in other areas. The two cornerbacks the team got in offseason acquisitions — Trent McDuffie (back) and Jaylen Watson (shoulder; season-ending) were unavailable for this game, which meant that Josh Wallace and Emmanuel Forbes were the next men up. In Forbes’ case, that made him a starter against the franchise that selected him with the 16th overall pick in the 2023 draft, and released him on Nov. 30, 2024.
It’s obviously unusual for a team to jettison a first-round pick less than two years into the experiment, but Forbes’ Washington tenure was a disappointment for all involved. The Rams signed him on Dec. 2, 2024, and started to help Forbes turn his career around. Not that it was a total reclamation story — the Rams still went after McDuffie and Watson to solidify a cornerback group that needed help — but Forbes proved to be willing and able when it was time to enter the octagon. In the 20-13 win that put the Rams at 5-4 on the season, Forbes allowed six catches on 10 targets for 19 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, three pass breakups, a coverage tackle for loss, and an opponent passer rating of 97.9.
“Yeah I had this one circled,” Forbes said postgame. “I was motivated to play them guys. They let me go two years ago, and I was just ready to go out there and show myself what I got.”
And what did he show himself?
“That I’m a ballplayer, and when I’m playing my best, I think I’m the best in the world.”
McVay wasn’t quite ready to go there, but he was impressed.
“I thought he was great. I thought he played tough. I thought he came up in run support. I thought he was sticky in coverage. [Pass Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach] Jimmy Lake does such a great job with that back end as a whole. I thought he and [CB] Josh Wallace were really… they were great for us today. Obviously, [Commanders QB] Jayden [Daniels] does such a great job of being able to extend plays. They got a lot of different guys that can make some plays, and I was really proud of Emmanuel Forbes. He did a good job today.”
With the Dream Team stuff out the window, the Rams are just trying to maintain hope for the postseason. It obviously helps when their backups need to play like more than backups, and they do just that. And it was nice for Forbes to let his old team see what he’s learned.