Top 10 NFL Players with the highest social interactions among fans

The first week of September saw the kickoff of the 2019-20 NFL season, the 100th since its inception, with the Bears and Packers renewing the league’s oldest rivalry. Now a few weeks into the season, we’ve gotten some answers to offseason speculation, but as always, even more questions. That said, with the start of the new season, we also welcome some new faces into our top 10 NFL players on social media for this month. Let’s break it down.

Odell Watch

Odell Beckham Jr. started the year off with a bang by going viral for wearing a $350k Richard Mille watch during the Brown’s season opener. The buzz generated by both his on-field attire and performance jolted OBJ all the way to #1 for the month of September, a month that saw OBJ garner 4.5 million more interactions than Patriots star Tom Brady, the #2 athlete this month. OBJ’s former LSU and current Cleveland Browns teammate, Jarvis Landry, also got in on the fun and cracked the top 10, featuring an Instagram post that included the both of them. 

On the Offensive

Sticking with last month’s trend, this month again saw offensive stars dominate social interactions. For September, the top 10 players were all on the offensive side of the ball. Patriots stars Tom Brady and Julian Edelman remained in the top 3 for September, with Brady launching a TikTok account as well. Antonio Brown also crept into the top 10 after a roller coaster of an offseason. Lastly, Russell Wilson is also among the top 10, after posting 118 times across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that mostly centered around his family

Zeke Returns

This month welcomed Ezekiel Elliott back onto the football field and into Hookit’s top 10, where he climbed 182 spots to 4th place.  A major chunk of his 3M interactions were from Instagram (2.6M interactions). Zeke’s offseason finally culminated with a contract resolution, signing a massive 6-year, $90M contract extension, making him the league’s highest paid running back. 

Wrap Up

With the NFL season now in full swing, fan engagement continues to climb. This month’s rankings show a strong correlation between on-field and social performance. We’ll see if these trends continue as hot starts fizzle out and new players begin to establish themselves. Stay tuned for next month to see how the 2019 social season progresses!


Written by Tim Ferguson

Tim is a 2016 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he double majored in Sports Management and Economics.  He recently moved to San Diego and joined Hookit as an Account Executive. In his free time, Tim enjoys exploring California, water sports, and snowboarding. Originally from Boston, Tim is a lifelong New England sports fan and his greatest sports memory was the Malcolm Butler interception at the end of Super Bowl 49.