In the 2020 NFL season, per Sports Info Solutions, quarterbacks threw from 0-3 step drops on 12,252 dropbacks. Conversely, quarterbacks threw from 5-7 step drops on 4,760 dropbacks. When you have an increasing quick game, and RPO concepts have become the order of the day, there often isn’t enough time for edge-rushers to upset the quarterback’s timing and rhythm.
Because of this, the importance of interior defensive pressure has become more crucial than ever in today’s NFL. It’s a simple matter of the shortest distance and a straight line, and the inside guys have the advantage. There are many reasons that Aaron Donald is the most important defensive player in the NFL, but that’s certainly one of them.
Beyond Donald, there are other interior defensive linemen who have proven their importance to their defenses without a doubt. The Steelers had the NFL’s best defense and best pass defense per Football Outsiders’ DVOA metrics, and that wouldn’t have happened without the efforts of Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt, who combined for an incredible 135 total pressures, mostly on the interior. And two of the NFL’s five best interior disruptors wound up in the Super Bowl — Kansas City’s Chris Jones (70 total pressures in 2020) and Tampa Bay’s Ndamukong Suh (62 total pressures).
If you want to drill down to the importance of a run-stopping defensive tackle, let’s stick with the Super Bowl champs, who lost tackle Vita Vea to injury from Week 5 through the NFC Championship game due to injury. Without Vea in the lineup, the Bucs’ run defense was pretty good, allowing 4.0 yards per carry. But with Vea on the field, Tampa Bay allowed just 2.8 yards per carry.
That’s how one very large man can make a very large difference on the field.
The 2021 class of interior defensive linemen isn’t stocked with those kinds of difference-makers, but even in a relatively sparse class, there’s talent to be taken based on team and scheme.
Note: The percentiles in parentheses listed next to pro day data are compared to all historical athletic testing (combine and pro day) at the respective position of the player. Kudos to Pro Football Focus, and their Pro Day Schedule and Results Tracker, for this. As there was no scouting combine in 2021, and pro day schedules vary, we may not have all testing information for all prospects at publication time.