Ranking the top 40 defensive linemen entering the 2023 season (25 edge/15 interior)

Using years of film study, numbers and discussions with several Pro Bowl & All-Pro offensive linemen to rank the game's best defensive linemen

Photo via Tyler Wise

Welcome everyone to the second annual ranking of the top 40 (25 edge/15 interior) defensive linemen in the NFL.

As I’m studying every game of the season focused primarily on the offensive line, I take notes on what I see from their opponents across the line of scrimmage and have cataloged my findings over the last seven or so years, particularly for the annual OL Masterminds summit. This all works together to maintain a knowledge-base on which players are the best, knowing how they win (pass-rush plan, run-defense, etc.) and tracking development in their game along the way.

This list is aimed at expanding the top 10 at each position (edge/interior) to dive deeper into my notes and share a more detailed look at the landscape of defensive linemen in the NFL as we enter the 2023 season.

I am a big fan of using ‘tiers’ to separate good from great (or elite from very good, good and solid) while the actual rankings within the tiers are more subjective based on what flavor or style the evaluator prefers.

To learn more about my grading scale and how I arrive at these conclusions, check out my recent article where I ranked the top 15 OL at each position (top 75) entering the season here. You can also view the 2022 top 40 DL rankings here.

Since the impact on the passing game and quarterback is paramount for the defensive side of the ball, I am weighing their skill-set rushing the passer over defending the run.

Side note: As you work your way through these rankings, you’ll notice that there are more top-tier rushers than offensive linemen. This has pretty much been the case since I started studying and chronicling the trenches in 2014. There is just more talent along the defensive than offensive line on a yearly basis. There are a few reasons for this that stem from the early stages of playing the game. Defensive linemen accumulate stats, rely more on raw physical talent and obtain much more notoriety than offensive linemen. This is inherently understood at the youth and high school levels and it carries over to higher levels. There’s also a stigma behind playing offensive line. It is often seen as a ‘last resort’ type of position that carries a negative connotation of the player not being athletic enough to make it at other more glamorous positions. It’s also deeply misunderstood by most fans and observers of the game, even those playing other positions.

This quote from recently retired LT Alejandro Villanueva sums it up well.

Tier 1 - Elite

Tier 2 - Very good

Tier 3 - Good/Above average

*Pressures via TruMedia

*PQR = pressure quality ratio

*Sack score

2023 Edge-rusher Rankings

*Stat rankings are among edge-rushers only*

Tier 3 edge-rushers who just missed the cut: Yannick Ngakoue - Bears, Aidan Hutchinson - Lions, Randy Gregory - Broncos, Brandon Graham - Eagles, Josh Allen - Jaguars

Tier 1 - Elite

I polled six Pro Bowl tackles asking them to list the three or four top edge-rushers in the NFL and there was a consensus of (in no order) Garrett, N. Bosa, Parsons and Crosby in every response. The only other name I received was J. Bosa, but more on him soon.

1. Myles Garrett - From a pure numbers perspective, Garrett usually isn’t considered the top edge-rusher in the NFL, but when you study the film and contrast it with everyone else, there is a level of physical dominance that sets him apart. “Garrett has everything that you look for in an edge-rusher: bend, power and length,” one All-Pro tackle told me.

Garrett’s dominance is supported through the lens of some lesser known, more nuanced metrics like double-team rate, which Garrett ranked first in last season. He is even triple-teamed without much success. Along with charting every sack from a defensive lineman since the 2020 season, I started charting pressures this off-season and categorizing them into high, low and rare high-quality categories using a simple grading scale. This determines which rushers are utilizing the highest degree of skill under the most difficult circumstances to record sacks and pressures. Garrett leads all rushers in sack score since 2020 and had by far the highest pressure quality ratio (PQR) of all rushers last season.

Garrett garners more attention from opposing offensive coordinators yet has still produced at an elite level over the last couple of years with less help around him than either Micah Parsons or Nick Bosa. The exciting part about this upcoming season is that Garett will have more help around him than at any time in his career thanks to the additions of Dalvin Tomlinson, Za’Darius Smith and Ogbo Okoronkwo, which will lead to more one-on-one opportunities.

Put simply: Garrett has speed and bend comparable to Parsons (who is 30 pounds lighter), power comparable to Bosa and a library of counter moves that rivals Maxx Crosby and Joey Bosa.

2. Micah Parsons - Change of direction. That was the term that kept popping up when Pro Bowl tackles that I talked to were summarizing what makes Parsons so special. At 6’3”, 245 pounds, Parsons runs a sub 4.40 40-yard dash, but it is his lateral and stop/start quickness while gaining ground upfield that make him a nightmare to block.

Parsons has the added benefit of playing on a deep defensive line with another ace pass-rusher in DeMarcus Lawrence, inside a brilliantly schemed Dan Quinn-coordinated defense optimized to exploit mismatches against opposing offensive line units. With true generational-level talent and ideal circumstances around him, Parsons amassed a DROY award, 26.5 total sacks and two first-team All Pro selections over his first two seasons and isn’t even close to hitting his prime.

3. Nick Bosa - The younger Bosa brother wins in very similar ways as his older brother, Joey, only with more bulk on his frame and power in his hands. Like Joey, Nick’s game needs to be studied on film to be truly appreciated for how technically savvy and refined it is.

“It’s his diversity and all the little nuances that’s hard to see from the outside,” a perennial All-Pro tackle told me when asked what makes Bosa special. “Like how he mixes his wrist grab with his double-hand wipes or how his get off looks like he’s bounding left to right which disguises his inside move. And to top it all off, he has unbelievable strength. He’s a tough matchup.”

Bosa is coming off of a Defensive Player of the Year award after leading the NFL in sacks (18.5), QB hits (49, which was 14 more than the next rusher) and 90 pressures, tied with Parsons for the league lead. Between him, Parsons and Garrett, it really is a toss-up for which player is ranked at the top of this tier. Each are transcendent, game-changing edge-rushers.

4. Maxx Crosby - Crosby is a volume and efficiency monster who wins with a mastery of tempo, stutters and hesitations that he uses to set up his signature double-swipe move with an array of inside counters off of it to cross the face of blockers in a flash. He doesn’t quite have as much power as Garrett or Bosa, but he is wiry strong and is an expert in slipping blocks against all levels of competition.

Crosby has averaged a little over nine sacks per season since entering the league in 2019. Last season, he finished third overall behind Parsons and Bosa in pressure score, eighth in true sack rate with eight high-quality sacks (13 total) and fifth in pressure quality ratio. Crosby was also a force against the run, elevating this area of his game to another level to solidify his status in tier one as an elite, all-around edge-rusher.

The most underrated part of Crosby’s game is his durability and stamina. Last season, he led all defensive linemen in snaps played at 1,186 and percentage of snaps played at 96.3%. The next closest D-lineman was Commanders DT Daron Payne at 87%. No edge-rusher in the NFL has played more snaps than Crosby since the 2020 season.

5. T.J. Watt - Watt is coming off of a down season production-wise primarily due to injuries after suffering a torn pectoral muscle in Week 1 followed by an arthroscopy knee surgery before a quick return in Week 10. He went on to post 5.5 sacks and 31 pressures over ten starts. Watt’s inclusion at the bottom of tier one is a nod to his track record of production (DPOY in 2021) while also factoring in him being his usual disruptive self on film and the expectation that he will return to this level when back at full health.

Tier 2 - Very good

6. Danielle Hunter - Hunter may be the most underrated edge-rusher in the NFL. This is at least partly due to the depth of the edge position combined with him missing the entire 2020 season with a scary neck injury and suffering a season-ending torn pec seven games into 2021. Before the injuries and an array of young edge-rushing stars minimizing Hunter’s place in the hierarchy at the position, he had the third-most sacks (29) and second-most pressures (154) among all defensive linemen during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Fast forward to the present day after his first full season healthy since 2019, and Hunter is coming off of a 70 pressure (seventh most), 10.5 sack year with dominant stretches of film that earned him a one-year, $20M extension for 2023. Placing Hunter on the fringe of tier one atop a loaded tier two group is a warranted distinction.

7. Von Miller - Miller is three years older than any rusher in this tier, but his game is still as potent as it’s ever been. The only difference is that at this stage it comes in surges rather than in volume. This is especially true now that he is coming off of his second ACL tear, which joins a medical history that includes a season-ending ankle injury in 2020.

Miller started 11 games in his first season with the Bills before the injury, finishing with eight sacks (five high-quality) and 45 total pressures. He averaged a high-quality pressure every 16.8 snaps, eighth best in the entire league, which signals that he is still an impact rusher that offensive coordinators need to have a plan for.

Top 10 in fewest snaps per high-quality pressure

Miller plays more of a defined role at this stage of his career (he played 60% of snaps last year, down from his usual 75%+ range in prior years), but combines enough of the legendary burst and bend from his younger days with a PHD-level understanding of how to set up blockers to justify high tier two status entering the 2023 season.

8. Joey Bosa - Bosa was the only other name that I received from the half dozen Pro Bowl tackles that got back to me when I asked them to give me their “three or four” top edge-rushers. As one All-Pro tackle told me, “It’s almost like when he [Bosa] makes up his mind to do something, nothing will stop him from making a play. He is as fluid a mover as anyone I’ve seen.”

NFL starting tackles routinely gush about the older Bosa brother’s skill-set. When you comb through the numbers (particularly on ‘money downs’) or study his film, he is absolutely a tier one rusher in ability.

Unfortunately, Bosa’s availability has come into question over the last few years, especially as the seasons wear on when he starts to lose juice as injuries pile up. This seemed to come to a head last year when he tore his groin muscle after four games, ending his season and causing his status to fade as his brother Nick won Defensive Player of the Year.

Entering 2023, Joey has added 20 pounds in an attempt to armor up his body to help him better withstand the rigors of a season and get back closer to his playing weight from a few years ago. Bosa is as good as it gets in ‘gotta have it’ moments against any level of competition. Now he needs to sustain that ability for the majority of a season to get back into the top tier.

9. Haason Reddick - Reddick is ranked higher than many might expect considering his disjointed first three seasons with the Cardinals as a primary off-ball linebacker, but he is a heavy hitter who has been ruthlessly productive since becoming a full-time edge-rusher over the last three years.

Since 2020, Reddick ranks 11th overall in pressures with 168 and third in sacks with 39.5 behind only Myles Garrett (44) and T.J. Watt (43). Moreover, Reddick had 200 less pass-rush snaps than Garrett over that span. When you filter every sack through the TSR since 2020, Reddick ranks second overall in sack score with 12 strip sacks, more than any rusher in the league, and he did that playing for three different teams!

Reddick is an elite-level speed rusher with lateral quickness that doesn’t take a backseat to anyone except Parsons. This allows him to threaten the corner first with breakneck speed across the face of blockers when their hips/shoulders open up. Reddick also has good enough power that tackles have to respect the bull-rush. While he won’t physically overwhelm blockers like others on this list or defend the run at as high of a level as the elite, Reddick is a bolt of lightning off the edge with the production to match.

10. Trey Hendrickson - Hendrickson has been on a steady, gradual upward trajectory since entering a full-time role with the Saints in 2020, his fourth year in the league. During that season, he went from a quality role player to a high-end number two edge-rusher with a 13.5 sack, 49 pressure performance opposite of Cameron Jordan. That led to a four-year, $60M deal with the Bengals in free agency. Admittedly, I was skeptical of Hendrickson’s ability to become a high-end number one rusher after 2020 considering Jordan did most of the heavy lifting that season, and of those 13.5 sacks, only three were high-quality, one-on-one wins.

Hendrickson has only gotten better since signing with Cincinnati, adding notable strength and power into his game that serve as a potent complement to his calling card relentless effort. In studying Hendrickson’s film and talking with tackles about him over the last couple of seasons for film rooms and at OL Masterminds, it is clear that playing him is a chore because of his blend of tenacity, strength and series of chop moves to capture the corner that wear on opponents over the course of a game. This has led to outstanding production with 186 pressures (fifth-most), 35.5 sacks (fourth-most) and a 27.25 sack score (seventh-highest) since 2020, cementing his status as a top ten edge-rusher.

11. Za’Darius Smith - Smith is the first and only edge-rusher on the list that does the majority of his damage reduced inside, where his power still has to be respected, setting up his quick, heavy hands to swipe and club across the face of the slower feet of guards and centers.

Smith was traded to the Browns in the off-season after a monster year with the Vikings. In 2022, he finished fourth overall in pressures with 78 and ten sacks. Of those 78 pressures, 36 were high-quality, giving him an average of one high-quality pressure every 13 snaps, good for the fourth-best mark in the NFL behind only Garrett, Bosa and Parsons. Smith missed the 2021 season due to a back injury, but when you add up pressures from the 2020 and 2022 seasons, he is tied for third overall (with Garrett and Crosby) with 129.

Despite winning in more unconventional ways than others on this list, Smith is a pressure-generating machine with a trump card as an interior rusher that makes him deserving of being a tier two player.

Tier 3 - Good/Above average

12. Brian Burns - Initially I had tier two expanded down to cover Burns and a few others below him on this list. That would be a more than reasonable tiering, but as I analyzed it deeper, a more apparent delineation started to emerge. Yes, Burns absolutely has tier two talent and even tier one flashes, and he is coming off of a career-high in sacks (12.5) and pressures (68 - tied for tenth-most with Reddick and Jaguars edge-rusher Josh Allen), but further inspection of the last few seasons and an emphasis on 2022 revealed that Burns was more of a beneficiary of scheme than initially suspected.

This is seen in the True Pressure Rate, where Burns’ 68 pressures places him in a tie for tenth-most contrasted with a pressure score of 34.25 (tied for 14th) and a pressure quality ratio of .4 (41st). Of Burns’ 68 pressures, just 15 were high-quality, meaning that he was a heavy volume rusher in the pressure department rather than someone winning a high degree of one-on-one matchups with skill and talent. Of course Burns is highly skilled and talented, but he didn’t win that way very often last season.

When separating the deepest position (defensive line) in the NFL, nits need to be picked with an emphasis on more detailed, granular analysis. In Burns’ case, he is a rusher with the talent of a higher tiered player who is coming off of a career-year in raw stats but who still has another level to reach in impact and quality of wins as a rusher.

13. Josh Sweat - Sweat is a fire-breathing sack artist with a ridiculous blend of burst, length and bend that combines to produce the rare ability to soundly beat the best competition in the NFL. This has been on display each year of the True Sack Rate, particularly over the last two seasons when Sweat has been healthy enough to become a full-time starter (although still on a pitch count).

Sweat finished sixth in sack score last season despite playing between 200-300 fewer snaps than the rushers above him. He averaged a high-quality sack every 58.7 snaps, which is the second-best rate among all rushers since I started the TSR three years ago behind only Myles Garrett’s 58.2 rate in 2020.

Sweat would be even higher on this list based purely off of pass-rushing ability, but due to a low volume of snaps and lack of true full-time ability (thus far) in his career, some of the more consistent, well-rounded (albeit less talented) edge-rushers get the nod in the overall rankings.

14. Rashan Gary - Gary is another rusher who is deserving of a higher ranking based purely on talent, but he only has one season with ten or more starts (2021) and has yet to string together back-to-back high-end seasons of production. Gary was on pace for a stellar season last year with a blistering 19.9 pressure percentage before tearing his ACL in Week 9 against the Lions.

Gary is a power-oriented rusher armed with a special blend of size (275+ pounds), burst and explosiveness that he uses to scream off of the edge out of wide-9 alignments to collapse the edge as a run-defender or to collapse the pocket with a devastating bull-rush. He can also run through the outside half of tackles to win the corner. Gary is still refining his overall pass-rush plan. He has fewer developed counter moves than the rushers above him on this list, but based on his last 25 starts, it is mostly a matter of time before he ascends higher up this list.

15. DeMarcus Lawrence - Slotting Lawrence is difficult due his raw production numbers being lower than most and his impact requiring more of an effort to uncover, starting with studying him on film and dissecting some of the rate and efficiency stats. Lawrence hasn’t had more than six sacks since the 2018 season and finished 20th among edge-rushers (tied with Alex Highsmith) in total pressures last season with 55, but Lawrence matched Highsmith on 100 fewer pass-rush snaps too.

Lawrence’s usage as a rusher was low last season (51st in total pass-rush snaps with 398), but his efficiency was high thanks in large part to his mastery of tempo, timing and spacing on stunts with a deadly cross-chop technique as his signature move. These rankings weigh pass-rush ability more than run defense, but Lawrence is tier one in the latter category with excellent leverage, strength and processing skills. He finished third overall in total tackles among edge-rushers last season (behind Crosby and Cameron Jordan) with 65. Lawrence had one less tackle than Jordan on 77 fewer snaps. Lawrence also bested teammate Micah Parsons on Cowboys analyst SturmStack‘s splash plays’ metric, which factors in many of the ancillary, yet impactful plays that are easy to overlook.

16. Carl Lawson - After posting the sixth-most pressures in the NFL (64) with an excellent 15.4 pressure percentage in his first season with 10+ starts in 2020 for the Bengals, Lawson earned a three-year, $45M contract with the Jets in free agency.

He suffered a torn Achilles in a scrimmage against the Packers in his first off-season with the team, missing the entire 2021 season. Lawson returned last year to start a career-high 17 games, finishing with seven sacks, 49 pressures and a 11.9 pressure percentage. Cumulatively, these numbers weren’t as impressive as 2020, but consider his return from a torn Achilles when those stats are broken down by week.

Over the first nine games of last season, Lawson posted a 10.4 pressure percentage before really getting his legs underneath him and hitting his stride over the second half of the year, notching a 15.0 pressure percentage. That was more in line with his impact from 2020.

Lawson’s vintage combination of devastating leverage and power using his signature inside stab and lift technique was on full display in the Jets first game after their bye week when Lawson really got cooking last year.

Lawson is a rolling ball of butcher knives as a rusher, with a compact, stacked frame at 6’2”, 265 pounds and elite-level power. With his burst back to full strength, he is in line for a career-best season as a key cog on one of the league’s elite pass-rush units.