NFLPI Unveils 50 Rising Stars

NFL Players Inc. has released its first-ever Rising 50 list, which identifies the next crop of NFL players poised to break out and rank among top sellers of licensed merchandise.

April 6, 2018


Odell Beckham Jr. (New York Giants)	Le’Veon Bell (Pittsburgh Steelers)	Marcus Mariota (University of Oregon)

NFL Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association, has released its first-ever Rising 50 list, which identifies the next crop of NFL players poised to break out and rank among top sellers of licensed merchandise.

The inaugural list covers the 2014 season, taking into account on-field performance, fantasy league popularity, early demand from current partners and licensees and new faces in strong markets. Players cannot have appeared in previous NFLPI Top 50 Player Sales lists.

Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants leads the roster of these future retail stars followed by Le’Veon Bell (Pittsburgh Steelers), Marcus Mariota (University of Oregon), Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers) and T.Y. Hilton (Indianapolis Colts).

“NFLPI’s depth of knowledge about NFL players provides our business partners with some valuable sales and marketing insights, and the Rising 50 list is designed to be a unique resource they can use to plan for the upcoming season,” says Ahmad Nassar, president,

NFLPI. “We believe the list will stir up some healthy debate while becoming a useful tool for evaluation going forward.”

The Rising 50 list will be updated once a year.

2014 NFLPI Rising 50 List: