NFL Player Power Rankings Week 5: The defensive players
No. 5-1
5. Lavonte David – LB – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Confession: I love Lavonte David. He’s one of my favorite (non KC) players in the NFL. GMs around the NFL were foolish for passing on David because his 6’1″ and 233 lbs size is small by traditional LB standards. However, David’s speed and coverage skills more than make up for the fact that he’s a few inches shorter than the “norm”. In a pass happy NFL having a LB with his skills in invaluable. Check out David’s stat line from 2013: 145 tackles, 7 sacks, 10 pass deflections, and 5 interceptions. That’s just plain ridiculous.
4. Earl Thomas – S – Seattle Seahawks
While Richard Sherman gets more attention (and definitely self promotes more) the real star of the Seattle secondary (in my opinion) is Earl Thomas. Thomas is the definition of what teams want in a safety in today’s NFL. There is still a need for a safety to be physical and to be able to stop the run and control the middle of the field, but with so many teams becoming more and more reliant on the passing game the best safeties simply must possess good coverage skills. Having a player like Thomas helps defenses in so many different ways. Not only do they help against both the pass and run, that versatility makes it hard for offenses to know what their responsibilities are on any given play. That allows defenses to disguise coverages and keep opposing offenses uncomfortable. With Eric Berry missing most of the young season so far their simply isn’t any other safety that can compete with Thomas’ skills.
3. Gerald McCoy – DT – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Some people (mainly those that haven’t watched him) may question putting Gerald McCoy this high, especially since he’s been banged up and already missed a game this season. However, no other defensive tackle, not even Suh, is as disruptive as McCoy. He’s not on J.J. Watt’s level, but he’s probably the closest thing to him playing in the NFL today. Last season he had 10 sacks, 14 QB hits, and an incredible 56 QB hurries. Last week he had four defensive stops, a sack, a hit, and a hurry in the Bucs upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It appears that McCoy is back to his disruptive ways and poised to terrorize offenses again the rest of the way.
2. Luke Kuechly – LB – Carolina Panthers
Luke Kuechly is a tackling machine. I remember watching Mike Singletary as a kid and being in awe of his intensity and how he could find his way to the ball carrier no matter where they were on the field. Kuechly is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to being able to match that. Truth be told, in today’s NFL of bigger, faster, stronger athletes Kuechly is probably even more impressive since he stands out so clearly amongst so many other great athletes. I could quote you his league leading 46 tackles or his PFF grades, but all you really need to do to understand why he’s rated as the second best defender in the NFL is turn on a Carolina Panther game and watch him for about two minutes. Watching him fly around and dominate games is all the proof anyone should need.
1. J.J. Watt – DE – Houston Texans
While the rest of this list may be subject to debate, I don’t see how anyone can argue with J.J. Watt being at the top of the list. As good as the other players in the top five are, none of them are as dominant. In fact, if I were to do a list of the best players in the NFL regardless of position I would probably put Watt at the top of that list too. Watt’s PFF grade is an unbelievable +24.1. That would be an impressive score for an entire 16 game season, let alone for FOUR GAMES. The second highest PFF score for a defensive player is Cameron Wake at +15.3. Watt’s grade for the Buffalo game last Sunday was an unheard of +13.5. That score for a single game is higher than the season scores of every other 3-4 DE, DT, or NT in the entire NFL. He has 16 QB hits on the season, which is higher than any defensive player, including the elite edge rushers. Simply put, the man is a freak of nature and without question the best defensive player in the NFL.
So there you have it, the 25 best defensive players this season. What do you think? Is there anyone that you think is rated too high or too low? Is there anyone that was left off the list that you think has to be on it? With so many good defensive players and only 25 spots there are countless players that you could make a case for. Also, with different positions included there is even more subjectivity involved when trying to compare who’s better between an elite CB and an elite DL. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
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