Highlights
- Aaron Donald holds the all-time record among defensive tackles with eight First-Team All-Pro selections.
- Bob Lilly was one of the earliest superstars in Dallas Cowboys history.
- “Mean Joe” Greene was the first player to win Defensive Player of the Year honors twice.
For many years in the NFL, the defensive end and defensive tackle positions were defined and separate. Defensive ends were meant to rush the passer, and defensive tackles were meant to stop the run and maybe pick up a clean-up sack here and there.
The best defensive tackles, though, have always stood out. An all-around DT can destroy the opponent’s run game and also get after the quarterback. These guys are rare, but the NFL has seen more than a few over the years, and these are the 10 best ever.
|
Top 10 DTs of All Time |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Player |
HOF Mon. Score |
Pro Bowl |
1st-Team All-Pro |
Sacks |
|
Aaron Donald |
181.68 |
10 |
8 |
111 |
|
Bob Lilly |
159.35 |
11 |
7 |
95.5 |
|
Alan Page |
142.38 |
9 |
5 |
148.5 |
|
Joe Greene |
137.65 |
10 |
4 |
77.5 |
|
Randy White |
143.68 |
9 |
7 |
111 |
|
John Randle |
136.28 |
7 |
6 |
137.5 |
|
Merlin Olsen |
116.65 |
14 |
5 |
91 |
|
Warren Sapp |
128.40 |
7 |
4 |
96.5 |
|
Cortez Kennedy |
103.20 |
8 |
3 |
58 |
|
Ndamukong Suh |
84.58 |
5 |
3 |
71.5 |
Looking Back at Aaron Donald’s Incredible Career
Aaron Donald is without a doubt on the Mount Rushmore of greatest NFL defenders, but is he the greatest defensive tackle of all time?
1 Aaron Donald
The “undersized” tackle is one of the best defensive players in league history
Aaron Donald was an All-American in college and set the 40-yard dash record for a defensive tackle with a time of 4.68. Still, concerns over his height and weight (6’1″, 280 pounds) led to Donald slipping to 13th overall, where he was selected by the then-St. Louis Rams in the 2014 NFL Draft.
Donald made the worries about his size look ridiculous in hindsight, as he went on to an epic career that included 10 Pro Bowls, eight First Team All-Pros (a DT record), and three Defensive Player of the Year Awards in four years from 2017-2020. The defensive tackle also won a Super Bowl with the Rams in 2022. Over his career, he notched 111 sacks and recorded 176 tackles for loss.
|
Aaron Donald All-Time DT Ranks |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat |
Total |
DT Rank |
|
Tackles |
543 |
15th |
|
Sacks |
111 |
3rd |
|
Tackles for Loss |
176 |
1st |
|
Forced Fumbles |
24 |
1st |
The first-ballot Hall of Famer had been hinting at retirement for several years and finally made his decision to pass on the “Best Defender in the Game” torch official following the 2023 season. Donald is considered to be not only arguably the best to ever play defensive tackle, but also one of the greatest players in NFL history, period.
2 Bob Lilly
The long-time star was affectionately known as Mr. Cowboy
An All-American at TCU, Bob Lilly was the Dallas Cowboys’ first-round draft pick (13th overall) in the 1962 NFL Draft. Making it to the Pro Bowl for the first of 11 times in 1962, the defensive tackle became a power and speed force for the earliest successes of the Cowboys franchise.
Lilly, who also made First Team All-Pro seven times and Second Team All-Pro twice, won a ring in 1971 with Dallas. One of the best defensive tackles in the league during a time when DTs were much more celebrated, Lilly was named to the NFL’s 1960s and 1970s All-Decade teams, one of a very select few to have been named to two All-Decade teams for their career.
The defensive tackle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was the first player who spent his entire career with Dallas to be so honored and was also the first player inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor.
3 Alan Page
Page has long been a superstar on and off the field
Both an outstanding student and football player at Notre Dame, Alan Page was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1967 NFL Draft. He would go on to play in four Super Bowls during his time in Minnesota, though the Vikings would lose all four games.
Following the 1971 season, Page became the first defensive player to be named the League’s MVP, and he remains one of just two defenders ever to take home that honor. He was also named the League’s Defensive Player of the Year twice, in 1971 and 1973. An eight-time All-Pro, Page made the Pro Bowl for nine consecutive seasons, from 1968-1976.
Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, Page became a lawyer and a judge after his playing days were over. Currently, the former Viking serves as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Alan Page’s 148.5 unofficial sacks rank him eighth all-time and first among DTs by a pretty wide margin, with the next-highest total coming courtesy of another Viking in John Randle (137.5). If only Minnesota had as rich a history of elite QBs as it does at the DT position.
4 Joe Greene
The dominant tackle won four titles with the Steelers
Joe Greene entered the league as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-round (fourth-overall) selection in the 1969 NFL Draft. Blessed with incredible size for his day (6’4″, 275 pounds), the defensive tackle won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and was named to the Pro Bowl in his first year.
A dominant force on a dominant Steelers team, Greene was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1972 and 1974, becoming the first player to be honored twice.
The four-time Super Bowl Champion was part of one of the great dynasties in NFL history, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987 as the heart, soul, and leader of Pittsburgh’s iconic Steel Curtain defense. Greene was known as one of the nastiest, most ruthless players of his day, though his persona did change later in his career.
Greene’s star grew towards the end of his NFL tenure when he appeared in a famous Coke commercial, leading many to believe he might become an actor after his playing days, though that never came to fruition. Instead, the tackle became a coach, working for the Steelers, Dolphins and Cardinals, finishing his career on the sidelines in 2003.
5 Randy White
After the Cowboys figured out what to do with White, he became a Hall of Famer
The Dallas Cowboys made Randy White the second overall pick in the 1975 draft, but they didn’t seem to know what they wanted to do with him. A defensive end at Maryland, White spent his first two years in the league as a backup middle linebacker. He was made a defensive tackle during the 1977 season and immediately became a force.
White, also known as “The Manster”, made his first of nine straight Pro Bowl appearances during the 1977 season, carrying the torch on from Lilly, who retired in 1974. He would also be named a First Team All-Pro seven times and a Second Team All-Pro once.
Randy White was a key player during Dallas’ Super Bowl 12 victory and would be honored as the game’s co-MVP along with Harvey Martin, a defensive end. The pair, along with Chicago’s Richard Dent, are the only defensive linemen ever to take home the Super Bowl MVP award, and White remains the only DT to win it.
A career Cowboy, the defensive tackle retired following the 1988 season. In addition to being inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor and earning spots on the NFL’s 1980s All-Decade Team as well as their 100th Anniversary All-Time team, White was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.
6 John Randle
Randle is one of the greatest undrafted players of all-time
John Randle played college football at Texas A&M Kingsville, a very small school, to put it mildly. While he was productive in college, NFL teams felt he was too small, at 244 pounds, to play defensive tackle in the NFL (remind you of anyone?), and he went undrafted, later signing with the Minnesota Vikings.
The defensive tackle bulked up over the years and began to overwhelm opponents with his combination of speed and strength. In 1997, Randle led the NFL in sacks with 15.5, and over the course of his career, he would notch 137.5 quarterback takedowns, the highest official number for a DT in NFL history. He also made the Pro Bowl every season from 1993 through 1998 and again in 2001.
|
John Randle Undrafted Player All-Time Ranks |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Category |
Randle |
Rank |
|
Pro Bowls |
7 |
T-8th |
|
1st-Team All-Pros |
6 |
T-1st |
|
Starts |
185 |
T-5th |
Randle, a six-time First Team All-Pro, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and is among the greatest undrafted players every to take an NFL field. The former defensive tackle has also been named to the College Football, Texas Sports, and Minnesota Sports Hall of Fames.
7 Merlin Olsen
Los Angeles-based star parlayed his fame into several television gigs
After an excellent career at Utah State that saw him win the Outland Trophy (awarded to the best interior lineman in the nation) in 1961, the Los Angeles Rams selected Merlin Olsen third overall in the 1962 NFL draft. (He was also taken second overall by the Denver Broncos in the AFL draft that year.)
The move turned out to be a shrewd one, as the tackle was both a Pro Bowler and the Defensive Rookie of the Year in his first season. Olsen went on to make an astonishing 14 Pro Bowls in a row, which is more than any other DT in NFL history, also placing him in a tie for the second-highest number ever.
The tackle, named an All-Pro eight times, was a member of both the NFL’s 1960s and 1970s All-Decade teams as he and the other members of L.A.’s vaunted “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line, which also included three-time All-Pro Rosey Grier and fellow HOFer Deacon Jones, struck fear in the hearts of opposing offensive lines and QBs like never before.
The former Ram, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982 on the first ballot, not only worked as a football commentator in his post-playing career, but also appeared in several television shows, including Little House on the Prarie and Father Murphy. Olsen passed away in 2010 at the age of 69.
8 Warren Sapp
Sapp was the forerunner to today’s uber-athletic defensive tackles
A dominant force for the University of Miami, Warren Sapp was an incredible athlete at 300 pounds. The defensive tackle was considered one of the best prospects available, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him 12th overall after rumors of failed drug tests caused him to fall in the draft.
Sapp became a key player in the Bucs’ outstanding defenses of the late 1990s and early 2000s, helping them to a 2002 Super Bowl victory. After a 1999 season that saw him record 12.5 sacks and force four fumbles, he was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. A seven-time Pro Bowler and a six-time All-Pro, Sapp retired in 2007 after a stint with the Raiders.
|
Warren Sapp All-Time DT Ranks |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat |
Sapp |
Rank |
|
Tackles |
578 |
10th |
|
Sacks |
96.5 |
T-5th |
|
Tackles for Loss |
91 |
8th |
|
Forced Fumbles |
19 |
T-2nd |
The former Buc became the prototype for what teams now look for in defensive tackles, and Sapp was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013. The defensive tackle was a prominent media member following his career, appearing on the NFL Network until 2015.
9 Cortez Kennedy
Kennedy was one of the most dominant defensive forces of the 1990s
After a terrific career at the University of Miami, Cortez Kennedy was selected third overall by the Seattle Seahawks in the 1990 NFL Draft. A star almost immediately, the defensive tackle made the first of his eight Pro Bowl appearances in 1991.
Kennedy’s best season came in 1992, when he recorded 14 sacks, made 92 tackles, forced four fumbles, and was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year. In addition to his eight Pro Bowl appearances, Kennedy was named a First Team All-Pro three times and a Second Team All-Pro twice.
|
Cortez Kennedy 1990s DL Ranks |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat |
Kennedy |
Rank |
|
Tackles |
619 |
4th |
|
Sack |
57.0 |
17th |
|
Tackles for Loss |
13 |
T-12th |
|
Forced Fumbles |
11 |
T-24th |
The defensive tackle would retire in 2000 after 11 outstanding seasons, during which he missed just nine games out of a possible 176. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s loyalty to Seattle kept him from finding much team success: the Seahawks didn’t make the playoffs from 1989-1998, and Kennedy played in just one playoff game in his entire career, which came in his penultimate season in 1999.
In 2012, Kennedy was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but sadly, he passed away five years later in 2017 at the age of 48, likely due to heart failure.
10 Ndamukong Suh
A dominant defensive tackle with a famous nasty streak
During his college football career at Nebraska, Ndamukong Suh seemed like a man playing among boys. The second overall selection of the 2010 draft, he was dominant immediately for the Detroit Lions, winning Defensive Rookie of the Year while also making Pro Bowl and First Team All-Pro teams.
Over the course of his career, he made both the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro team four more times. He moved to the Miami Dolphins in 2015 on a deal that made him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, signing a six-year, $114 million deal with $60 million guaranteed.
A controversial guy often accused of taking cheap shots and just being an all-around nasty player, Suh was, at various times in his career:
- Suspended for stomping on an offensive lineman’s arm
- Fined for kicking a QB in the groin
- Fined $100K for a low block, the largest single fine for on-field behavior in NFL history
- Fined $70K for stomping on Aaron Rodgers’ leg
Unsurprisingly, the defensive tackle was named the league’s least-liked player in a 2012 survey. He was fined over $216K for four on-field incidents in his first four years in the league, but he rarely saw discipline over the last few seasons of his career as his reputation softened, earning just five flags during the entire 2019 campaign.
At the end of his career, Suh bounced around a bit, playing for a few different teams. In 2021, he bounced to the right one, winning a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2020 campaign.
All statistics are courtesy of Pro Football Reference, and all contract figures are courtesy of Spotrac unless otherwise noted.
15 best quarterbacks in NFL history, ranked
Patrick Mahomes isn’t yet the best quarterback in NFL history, but he’s rapidly climbing the list. Check out GIVEMESPORT’s top 15 QBs.
About Author
You may also like
-
Man United make move for Marco Carnesecchi as Andre Onana alternative
-
10 Greatest Comeback Victories in Sport History [Ranked]
-
10 Greatest Comeback Victories in Sport History [Ranked]
-
10 Greatest Comeback Victories in Sport History [Ranked]
-
Liverpool sign Freddie Woodman on free transfer as Alisson & Mamardashvili backup