Top 10 Defensive Players of All Time

[JuggernautJ]

NFL.com's Elliot Harrison's Top 10 Defenders of All-Time:
(All-Time begins in about 1965, it seems. Oddly coincidental with the coming of TV)

10. Deion Sanders
9. Ed Reed
8. Rod Woodson
7. Mean Joe Green
6. Dick Butkus
5. Deacon Jones
4. Ronnie Lott
3. Bob Lily
2. Reggie White
1. Lawrence Taylor

After the laughter dies down let the discussion begin...

[Todd Pence]

He immediately lost credibility right off the bat with #10.

[JWL]

That list is not bad. I do not know if it is great but it is not laughable. I would not have Sanders or Reed on my top 10 list but there are arguments to be made for them. Reaser might make an argument for them.

[MatthewToy]

Only thing laughable about that list are the spelling errors. But other than that ask 100 football fans for that list and you'll get 100 different lists so whatever.

[JohnTurney]

He has Night Train versus Deion for that 10th spot in the text of his article. My choice would have been Night Train. I think Ronnie Lott is too high, but certainly worthy of being in top 10.

Joe Greene had two careers, the first half where he was winning DPOY awards and then the last half, when he seemed to be nicked by injuries.

It's a pretty good effort, IMO, a couple disagreements but - - -

[slats7]

Ray Lewis is worthy of consideration. Ditto Charles Woodson and Merlin Olsen.

[JohnTurney]

Bruce Smith versus Reggie White is a good debate.

Bruce Smith got 156 AP DOPOY votes in 9 different seasons
Reggie White got 130 votes in 9 different seasons.


J.J. Watt already has 138 such votes in 4 different seasons.

Reggie was one who got more attention early, Smith has a reputation of not playing the run, but by 1990 or so, I thought he was playing run very well and that the tag stuck too long. But by mid-1990s he was down to 256 pounds and still winning DPOY awards.

Smith did hang on a long time and was compiling stats at the end, but in the "All-time" things, he sometimes gets overlooked.

[paulksandiego]

Joe Schmidt really should be on that list. So should Marchetti

[JohnTurney]

Joe Schmidt really should be on that list. So should Marchetti

Hard to have better resumes, 10-time First-team All-Pro for JS and 9-times for GM

[oldecapecod11]

Any "top 10" Defense without "The Lion" is a joke.

Leo Nomellini
10× Pro Bowl selection (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961)
9× All-Pro (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962)
NFL 1950s All-Decade Team
NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (1969)