With Luke Kuechly gone, the best defensive player on the Panthers roster is now DT Kawann Short, who has been one of the league’s most underrated defensive linemen for a long time. Last season, he sat out 14 games due to a shoulder injury. If Carolina’s defense is going to be anything but a total disaster, they need him healthy in 2020.
Is Short still among the top players at his position, though? Let’s find out. Here are the top 10 interior defensive linemen in the NFL right now.
10. Jurrell Casey
It’s rare for defensive linemen to play as well as Casey has for as long. He came into the NFL as a third-round pick by the Titans in 2011. Since then, Casey has played 139 regular season games, totaling 51 sacks and 115 quarterback hits. A model of consistency, Casey hasn’t had less than five sacks in a season since 2012. Casey was recently traded to Denver.
9. Akiem Hicks
Early in his career, Hicks didn’t look like anything special when he was playing for the Saints. He became a stud after signing with the Bears in 2016, though. Since then, Hicks has totaled 24 sacks and 58 quarterback hits in 53 games for Chicago. He missed most of the 2019 season (11 games) due to an elbow injury, but we anticipate he’ll bounce back.
8. Kenny Clark
Defensive tackle is perhaps the most thankless position in football. Often, all of their hard work results in the success of other defenders. Nobody exemplifies that dynamic more than Kenny Clark, who is constantly eating double teams. Last season, he opened up a lot of opportunities for Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith, who combined for 25.5 sacks. Don’t let the box score fool you. Clark is the real deal.
7. Geno Atkins
It’s hard to believe Atkins can possibly rank this low. It speaks to how deep this position is around the league, though. Since the Bengals drafted him in 2010, Atkins has made eight Pro Bowls and twice has been named a first-team All-Pro. He may be starting to show signs of age, though. Last season, Atkins (32) managed just 4.5 sacks and 10 quarterback hits.
6. Cameron Heyward
Heyward was always solid and generally underappreciated but somehow he’s gotten better with age. After missing out the first six seasons of his career, Heyward has made the Pro Bowl three straight. During that time, he’s averaged about 10 sacks and 21 quarterbacks hits a year. Heyward just turned 31 years old, so it will be interesting to see how long he can keep producing at this level.
5. Calais Campbell
Given his immense size (6-foot-8, 300 pounds) and advanced age, it’s tough not to think of Campbell as some kind of dinosaur. He’s been a disruptive force since he became a starter for the Cardinals in 2009, his second year in the NFL. Campbell has shown sensational staying power, making the Pro Bowl five of the last six seasons. Even at 33 years old, the already-loaded Ravens defense getting him for a fifth-round pick is an absolute robbery.
4. Fletcher Cox
If he’d played in almost any other era of the NFL, Cox might gone down as the best defensive tackle of his time. Even though he had just 3.5 sacks last season, Cox remains a menace for opposing quarterbacks. Pro Football Focus gave him an 84.8 pass rush grade for the year. He’s also a urnover threat. In 2019 he forced three fumbles, bringing his career total to 11.
3. Chris Jones
Like Grady Jarrett, Jones is another interior lineman who has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last few years. In 2018, he broke out with 15.5 sacks and 29 quarterback hits. He followed that up with nine sacks and 20 QB hits last season, but remember he missed three games with a calf injury. Jones returned in time for the playoffs though and he had a big role helping the Chiefs win their first Super Bowl in 50 years.
2. Grady Jarrett
Perhaps it’s the result of playing as part of an otherwise atrocious defensive front seven, but nobody flies under the radar quite like Grady Jarrett, who’s a fifth-round pick that has developed into an elite playmaker. His numbers have steadily improved each year he’s been in the NFL and in 2019 PFF gave Jarrett a 90.1 overall grade for the season. If he ever gets paired with another DL who can command double teams, Jarrett will explode.
1. Aaron Donald
Aaron Donald is more than just the best interior defensive lineman in the sport. He’s the answer to long-standing philosophical questions like what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. In Donald’s case, the unstoppable force wins. In 2019, Donald posted 12.5 sacks and led the league in tackles for a loss (20) for the second straight year. Nobody has been able to dominate a game from the defensive line like this since Lawrence Taylor. Another few years of this and Donald will be in the greatest-DL-of-all-time discussion.
Just missed: Kawann Short, D.J. Reader, DeForest Buckner, Gerald McCoy
