The four best defensive lines in the NFL could reside in the NFC East, but how do they rank amongst themselves
The NFC East is the home of possibly the best four defensive lines in the NFL. The Washington Commanders have elite defensive tackles. The Philadelphia Eagles have incredible depth and young potential. The Dallas Cowboys have maybe the best young defender in the league plus depth, and the Giants have a complete four-man defensive line unit.
This group of guys is unmatched by any position group, in any division in the league. No matter how these teams are lined up, some fanbases are going to feel disrespected. They shouldn’t, though. These are possibly the top four defensive lines, so even the team ranked last in the division is still likely the fourth-best in all the NFL. The defensive lines are the biggest weapons on each of these teams, and largest reason for their success except possibly the Eagles offensive line. Here are the defensive line rankings for the NFC East.
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Washington Commanders
The disappointing play of Chase Young brings the Commanders down to last place in this division. The second overall pick in the 2020 draft, Young hasn’t lived up to his draft value thus far in his career. After a rookie of the year campaign, he has only played in 12 games with very little impact. A total of 31 tackles, only three for a loss and 1.5 sacks isn’t what Washington was looking for out of the No. 2 overall pick.
The rest of the starting line are monsters. Johnathan Allen would be the best three-technique DT in the league if not for Aaron Donald. He had a healthy 2022 season and put-up excellent numbers including a PFF overall grade of 80.1 and a pass rush grade of 81.1. He pressures the quarterback, makes stops in the run game, and his 1.5% missed tackle percentage shows that people don’t get away from him once he gets around the ball. He has easily been the most impactful player on the Commanders overall since being drafted there.
Montez Sweat might not have been a game changer, but he was an above average level edge rusher in 2022. He started in every game, racked up 31 pressures and eight sacks with excellent PFF grades across the board. His overall grade was 86.4 and his run and pass grade were both 79.6. Sweat had excellent production but his consistency seems overlooked due to their great defensive tackles and the draft position and potential of Young.
Daron Payne was the Commanders best defensive player last season, and he was rewarded with a large new contract. He has been one of the better run stuffers at one-technique in his career, but he seemed to slip in that area in order to upgrade his pass rush in 2022. His run grade was below 50, terrible for his position, but the 11.5 sacks likely got him much more money from Washington then a high run stop grade would have, so the risk paid off in the end.
New York Giants
The Giants probably have the best starting four defensive linemen of any team in the league. Two interchangeable defensive tackles that can play the run and each have a season with at least seven sacks. Their edges are young but have already shown the promise in their games. The question for this line is health. Leonard Williams and Azeez Ojulari each missed a significant portion of the last season and Thibodeaux even missed three games. What could they be if they can all play together?
Last year Dexter Lawrence was the star of the New York defense. As mentioned earlier, Payne was paid by Washington after an 11.5 sack season from a position that is all about stopping the run, but Payne had a significant dropoff in his run defense according to PFF. Lawrence put up 7.5 sacks, but his run defense was still elite, with a grade of 92.4. Whether it was 36 pressures, 38 stops, or a 1.4% missed tackle percentage, Lawrence did it all for the Giants last year.
Leonard Willams is his running mate inside, but he routinely moved around the line in his time with both New York teams. In 2020 and 2021 Williams put up 18 sacks, which caught the attention of offensive coordinators. He became the top guy to stop for opposing offenses going into the 2022 season and with the attention on him, Lawrence was able to have a career season. The big numbers might not have been there, but Williams still had PFF grades over 70 versus the run, when pass rushing, and for his overall play.
Thibodeaux had a very solid first year for the Giants with 18 pressures, four sacks, and zero missed tackles. Most edge rushers come in with an ability to get to the QB, but need time to hold up against the run, but Thibodeaux was stubborn in the run game right away. His 70.1 run grade from PFF was higher than his pass rush grade even. With monsters like New York has inside, and Ojulari hopefully healthy, Thibodeaux could be in for a lot of one-on-one blocking assignments, and his success at those times could determine how well this defense performs.
Ojulari only played in seven games last season, with five starts. In those games he had a total of only 230 defensive snaps, but great production came from those plays. He had eight sacks in 780 snaps as a rookie, but last year had 5.5 in his 230. If you extrapolate that 5.5 sacks out to the same 780 snaps, he would have had an 18 sacks season. He added three forced fumbles as well. If he stays healthy, he is a sack artist with a lot of cover from three other possible studs on the line with him, setting him up for a major breakout season.
The Giants don’t have much beyond those four though. A’Shawn Robinson being the other big name, but he hasn’t been the same since he left the Detroit Lions. He went from 16 tackles for a loss, 14 QB hits, and seven sacks with the Lions to only four tackles for a loss with six QB hits, and two sacks for the Los Angeles Rams.
Dallas Cowboys
Another close call for in the top two spots between the Eagles and the Cowboys. Dallas has the best defender of the two teams in Micah Parsons and the best run defender in Demarcus Lawrence, but as good as the depth is behind them, it doesn’t quite match what Philadelphia was able to do last year.
Micah Parsons is an alien that can completely wreck any snap he is playing in. He was double teamed by offenses at one of the highest rates in the NFL, and often triple teamed. It didn’t help offenses much as Parsons accumulated double digit hurries, QB hits, QB knockdowns, tackles for a loss and sacks. He had over 40 pressures, with three forced fumbles and a PFF overall grade of 91.6. There is no reason to believe he can’t replicate or even surpass that in his third year.
Demarcus Lawrence might not be the impactful pass rusher he once was, but he still was effective with 21 pressures and six sacks. Where Lawrence makes his real impact is against the run. He is in the conversation for best run defender in the entire league. He had the top run stop win rate at 36%, plus nine tackles for a loss and 44 stops. His ability to close off the run on his side could be one of the most important things anybody does on that side of the ball this season.
The extra edge rushers put up excellent numbers for Dallas, which moved the team ahead of the Commanders and Giants. Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler Jr., and Sam Williams combining for 18.5 sacks, 27 tackles for a loss, and four forced fumbles. Williams was especially impressive because as a rookie he had four sacks and ten tackles for a loss on only 27% of the defensive snaps.
The defensive tackles are the unknown for this defensive line group minus Johnathan Hankins. Mazi Smith and Junior Fehoko are rookies at a position that can take a year or two to be truly impactful, and Chauncey Golston played well moving inside from the end position, but none of them are likely to be game changers. Hankins can be a game changing run defender, but the one who could be the guy that gets this unit to a whole other level for Dallas inside is Osa Odighizuwa.
If this defensive line is going to be one of those units that define every game they’re in, Odighizuwa has to make a large year three leap in impact and production. Four sacks, eight tackles for a loss and a 2.3% missed tackle percentage is solid, but he has room to make large improvements still. If he can put together a truly impactful season, then this Cowboys defense could be unstoppable and be the top unit in the league.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles best defensive lineman the last few seasons was Javon Hargrave, who signed with the San Francisco 49ers, so how could they still be the top defensive line going into 2023? The answer is depth.
Haason Reddick was one of the best free agent signings of any team last offseason. Philadelphia had a great line already, but they were missing a speed rusher off the edge and Reddick became one of the better ones in the league. He was the most impactful player overall on their defense with 41 pressures, 16 sacks, and five forced fumbles.
He even stamped the Eagles’ ticket to the Super Bowl by knocking out the 49ers starting QB early in the game. The only thing keeping him from being put in the highest tier of pass rushers is that he isn’t often double teamed. with Hargrave in San Francisco now that could change, and Reddick has to continue to deliver to take that very last step as an edge rusher.
Josh Sweat on the opposite side is a more complete defensive end. If Reddick is their Parsons, then Sweat is their Lawrence. He had PFF grades above 80 in all three major categories, he was one of the teams few good run defenders and added double digit sacks. He might not be the off the edge rusher that his teammate is on the other end, but he was double teamed at a higher rate so offensive coordinators knew he could be the issue he was.
Brandon Graham is one of the key reasons the Eagles go into this season as the top defensive line in the league. He was destructive coming back from injury, contributing 11 more sacks to the teams record breaking sack numbers. He wasn’t just cleaning up after the great players around him either. He had an overall PFF grade of nearly 90, to go with his nearly 90 pass rush grade. To add to those already ridiculous numbers in his thirteenth season, he missed zero tackles as well.
Fletcher Cox is clearly not who he once was, going into his twelfth season, but he is a veteran defensive tackle to help teach a very young group around him. He isn’t just a washed-up player used more as a coach, he added seven sacks last year as well, but his ability to help develop will be key. The rest of the DT group are young and have unlimited potential but are true unknowns.
Jordan Davis wasn’t an impactful player as a rookie, and Philadelphia didn’t play him as much as the probably would have liked, considering the draft capital they used on him. That is a lesson to take into the Jalen Carter evaluation. He might have been a top ten pick but expecting him to develop into Hargrave in his career is unfair, let alone to have that type of impact in his rookie season. Carter and Nolan Smith can’t factor in more than possible potential just because rookies are unfortunately unknown commodities.
Milton Williams belongs there too. He is going into his third season, but his snap count dropped last year and until he becomes an impactful contributor, he can’t be judged as one. The development of these young players could cement this DL as the top in the division, but if Cox continues to decline and Graham has a slight dropoff then the Cowboys could get to the top spot this season.
You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or at Youtube on the Across the Cowboys Podcast.
