Tag: nfl best defensive tackles

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Why defensive tackles matter more than ever

Why are defensive tackles more important in today’s NFL than they’ve ever been before? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar are here with the answers.

In today’s NFL, with as much quick game as teams are using, it’s more important than ever to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible. Often, the shortest distance between the line of scrimmage and the quarterback is a straight line, and when your edge-rushers don’t have time to get home, it’s up to your interior defensive linemen to make those sacks and pressures happen.

It’s why the NFL has placed an increasing importance on those inside guys, and the money has gone up accordingly.

In 2019, there were 15 interior defensive linemen with in-season cap hits of more than $10 million, led by Aaron Donald at $17,108,000. In 2024, there are 22 such players. Now, a lot of those contracts are ones in which the cap hit happens to explode in this league year, but the point still stands – the NFL is placing an increased financial priority on interior defensive linemen. 

It’s also why NFL is paying more centers and guards more money and selecting more higher in the draft, as well.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all the reasons why interior defensive linemen are of such crucial importance, the techniques they use to pester enemy quarterbacks, and the best players at creating pressure in the shortest possible time.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

You can also listen to and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The NFL’s 11 best interior defensive linemen

From Vita Vea to Chris Jones, here’s Doug Farrar’s list of the 11 best interior defensive linemen in the NFL today.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That simple truth is important for the purposes of our list of the NFL’s best interior defensive linemen because we’re in a league where quick-game passing concepts are perhaps more prevalent than ever. And with those zero- and one-stop drops, and one- to three-level RPOs, your edge-rushers aren’t always going to get to the quarterback in time.

So, it behooves your NFL franchise to develop as much interior pressure as possible. That’s where the straight line comes in.

In a recent episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell,” Greg and I got into the traits for every player aligned to every gap along the defensive line, and those big guys getting to the quarterback made up a big part of that.

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The attributes required to make our list of the best interior definitive linemen coming into the 2023 season are as follows:

  • Gap versatility is an absolute must. If you can only win from one or two gaps, especially if those gaps are right next to each other… well, that’s nice, but we’re looking for more.
  • You must have different ways to get to the ball, and if you’re too reliant on schemes and stunts and those around you, that’s a debit. We need guys who can do it all without help all the time.
  • When we’re talking about inside guys, the ability to stop the run obviously becomes more important and is more paramount. Defenders with high stop rates will find that paying off on this list.

So, here’s our list of the 11 best interior defensive linemen in the NFL today. You can read the rest of our position lists linked below, leading up to our list of the 101 best players in the NFL today.

The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders
The NFL’s top 11 linebackers
The NFL’s top 11 slot defenders
The NFL’s top 11 cornerbacks
The NFL’s top 11 safeties

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated). 

The NFL’s top 12 interior defensive linemen

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar continues our position lists with the NFL’s 12 best interior defensive linemen.

It’s an interesting time to be an interior defensive lineman in the NFL. Not only do you have to beat guards and centers inside in traditional four-man fronts, you also have to show a lot of positional versatility, and you’ll be moving around anyway as the league transitions to more five-man fronts. We’re not spoiling much here when we say that once again, Aaron Donald is our best interior defensive lineman, and last season for the Rams, Donald played 11 snaps in the A-gap, 430 in the B-gap, 628 snaps over the tackles, and 188 snaps outside the tackles.

What does this tell you? The Rams want Donald aligned everywhere — whether it’s straight over the center, attacking gaps, or blowing tackles off their feet from the edge. These versatility requests are common in today’s NFL to the point where an interior defensive lineman who works from one of two gaps is the exception, not the rule. Even Vita Vea, the Buccaneers’ ginormous interior threat, spent 50 of his 2021 snaps over the tackles, and 10 snaps outside.

So, when we talk about the NFL’s best interior defensive linemen, we’re really talking about run-stoppers and disruptors who make the cake inside, and manufacture the frosting outside to a greater or lesser degree.

Four of the players from last year’s list (Fletcher Cox, Akiem Hicks, Stephon Tuitt, Grady Jarrett) didn’t make the cut this time, which can be put down mostly to injury and attrition. Tuitt, for example, missed the entire 2021 season and then retired. Hicks, a serious problem for any offensive line when healthy, played in just nine games last season. Cox was healthy all season, but as much as he’s built up what will be a pretty decent Hall of Fame argument down the road, 2021 just wasn’t the same — though one of his teammates is part of this year’s new blood. Jarrett just missed the cut, and given what he had around him last season, you could certainly make a case for him.

The new blood makes for some amazing players and defensive schemes, and here are Touchdown Wire’s 12 best interior linemen in anticipation of the 2022 season — another one of our position lists as Mark Schofield and myself lead up to our rankings of the 101 best players in the NFL today.

The NFL’s top 13 safeties

The NFL’s top 12 slot defenders

The NFL’s top 12 outside cornerbacks

The NFL’s top 11 linebackers

The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders