Ted Karras
Cincinnati BengalsModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 17 games
Draft & College
He went about where consensus had him.
STM Take
Super Bowl LIII ring plus the 2021 tier 1 (#8) peak plus a tier 4 (#31) finish at age 32 puts Karras in the small group of veteran centers still producing at the top-35 STTM level. The Illinois 6th-round pedigree plus 10 years of NFL survival makes him one of the most over-performing late-round centers of his era. The 2026 question is whether Karras holds tier 5 or better at age 33 or whether the structural age-related decline reasserts.
Karras came out of Illinois as the New England Patriots' 6th-round pick (221st overall) in 2016 and won Super Bowl LIII as a Patriots interior reserve before going on to start at center for the Patriots, Dolphins, and now Bengals. He signed a three-year deal with Cincinnati in 2022 and was named a team captain. His STTM career runs tier 1 (#8) peak in 2021, tier 6 (#44) in 2022, tier 3 (#17) in 2023, tier 5 (#40) in 2024, and tier 4 (#31) in 2025 at age 32.
Strengths
- Super Bowl LIII ring plus the 2021 tier 1 (#8) peak as a 6th-round pick puts him meaningfully above his draft-slot expectation across his entire career.
- Three-year Bengals chapter plus team captaincy gives him structural locker-room weight that pure stat-ranking doesn't fully capture.
Concerns
- Career STTM range from tier 1 (#8) in 2021 to tier 6 (#44) in 2022 shows the ceiling has always been highly dependent on surrounding line health.
- Age 32 plus ten years of center-position wear puts the structural age-related decline question on every 2026 projection.
What to watch: Whether Karras holds tier 5 or better in 2026 at age 33, or whether the structural age-related decline drops the rank below tier 6.