Ranking the NFL's Defensive Leaders

The retirements of Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau, coupled with the trades of Mike Vrabel to Kansas City and Richard Seymour to Oakland, have left the Patriots without a true defensive leader.

They no longer have that boisterous, authoritative go-to guy to provide motivation and guidance on the field.

What they do have is a guy like Gary Guyton (pictured), a linebacker who leads the team in tackles this year. Guyton, a second-year player from Georgia Tech, recorded just 34 tackles a season ago, but already has 14 through two games in 2009.

Once Jerod Mayo returns from his knee injury, the mantle of leadership will be passed to him. But right now, it's Guyton leading by example.

After becoming the first NFL team to go 0-16 in a season, the Detroit Lions blew things up and are starting over again.

The Lions got a new head coach, a new general manager and completely overhauled their roster—especially on the defensive side of the ball.

If Robert Porcher was still playing, he would be the unquestioned leader of this defense. But he's long gone and instead, through two games, five of Detroit's six leading tacklers are all new to the team. The only guy back is fourth-year linebacker Ernie Sims (pictured tackling Green Bay receiver James Jones).

Former Steeler Larry Foote was Detroit's big defensive splash, but the Lions also brought in corner Anthony Henry (Dallas), safety Marquand Manuel (Denver), corner Philip Buchanan (Tampa Bay), defensive end Jason Hunter (Green Bay) and drafted safety Louis Delmas in the first round.

Adding some beef to the defensive line is former Packer and Falcon Grady Jackson.

Foote, who leads the team in tackles so far, and Sims can give the Lions the shot of toughness they need in the interim, but this is still a bad team without an identity or true effacious leader.

Julius Peppers is a born-and-raised North Carolinian. He grew up in the eastern Carolina town of Bailey, played football and basketball at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and has played the last eight years in Charlotte for the Carolina Panthers.

Apparently, he wants to broaden his horizons. He wanted to play elsewhere this year, but the Panthers convinced him to return for one more season.

Peppers is among the best in the league, but it's hard to believe his heart is in Charlotte. It's hard to believe his teammates are going to follow him wherever he wants to take them if they're unsure what his commitment is.

He's also seen a dropoff in productivity. After recording 14.5 sacks last year, the fifth time in seven years he's recorded double-digit sack numbers, Peppers has just one this season and only seven tackles in two games.

Conversely, linebacker Thomas Davis has four times as many tackles after recording 113 tackles last year with 3.5 sacks. In five years, he's played all but two games and has forced two fumbles every year. All without even a rumbling of complaints.

Jon Beason led the team in tackles last year, with Davis right behind him. Beason has 10 tackles so far this season, but it appears that Davis is the one guy the Panthers cannot do without.

Last year, Brian Dawkins was considered one of the best locker room influences in the NFL. A leader on and off the field, the "Hawk" spent 13 years in Philadelphia before the team unceremoniously released him last spring.

He landed in Denver, and his departure left the Eagles searching for its next field general.

Dawkins commanded the same respect on defense that quarterback Donovan McNabb receives on offense. The Eagles don't have another Brian Dawkins, but they do have veteran corner Asante Samuel (22) and safety Quintin Mikell (27). Both are seven-year vets, but Mikell, unlike Samuel, has spent all seven years in the City of Brotherly Love and leads the team in tackles. He was second behind Stewart Bradley for the team lead last year and had one fewer interception than Samuel's four.

Dawkins was the face of the defense for a decade. Now it appears that Quintin Mikell might become the new one.

The Buffalo Bills have definitely had their fair share of defensive stalwarts.

In the last 20 years, names like Bruce Smith, Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett and Takeo Spikes jump to the forefront.

Since London Fletcher left following the 2006 season, the Bills have had just three players record 100 tackles in a season and nobody more than once.

Fletcher had more than 130 tackles in all five seasons he spent in Buffalo.
Third-year linebacker Paul Posluszny may grow into that type of player. He led the team with 110 tackles a year ago, but he doesn't have the presence yet to command a locker room.

Safety Donte Whitner may possess that type of leadership. He is a productive player, but he has yet to play a full 16-game schedule now in his fourth year.

Marcus Stroud was productive last year as a 310-pound defensive tackle, picking up 45 tackles and 2.5 sacks with seven batted balls.

The one guy who I think can emerge as both a productive player on the field and a leader off it is Keith Ellison (pictured). I believe Ellison is on the cusp of a breakout year and he's well on his way with 27 tackles in two games. Recording 16 tackles and forcing a safety, he did all he could do to help the team win in the one-point loss to New England. He followed that up with 11 tackles in the win over Tampa. Ellison is probably the one guy the Bills cannot afford to lose this season.

The time has come for D'Qwell Jackson to claim the Cleveland Browns as his own.

The fourth-year linebacker from Maryland has seen his numbers steadily increase every year, jumping to a staggering 154 tackles in 2008. He also recorded two sacks and intercepted three passes last season. Those are Pro Bowl numbers. He was the only Cleveland player with more than 100 tackles last year, recording 64 more than second-place Andra Davis.

Jackson has emerged on the NFL scene and will be in more than a couple Pro Bowls before his career is done. An already below-average defense could ill-afford to lose its best player.

Champ Bailey intercepted 10 passes in 2006. That was a season after he picked off eight passes, taking two back for scores. He also had a combined 44 passes defended in those two seasons.

Since 2006, he has just four interceptions with 19 defended passes.
His numbers have decreased, but Bailey is still a player to be accounted for by opposing quarterbacks. He's also the one guy the Broncos look to in a pinch.

An 11-year veteran who's seen it all, Bailey provides stability and leadership for an extremely young defense that has five rookies. Helping carry that leadership role is new Bronco, and 14-year vet, Brian Dawkins. Philadelphia was Dawkins' team. Denver belongs to Champ.

The New Orleans Saints defense will never be compared to the 1985 Chicago Bears or the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

But what they do have is an aggressive defense, and one that may get burned from time to time, led by the steady play of linebacker Jonathan Vilma.

The six-year vet led the team with 132 tackles in 2008—his first year with the team. He has recorded over 100 tackles in all but one of his five previous seasons, the lone exception being 2007 when he missed nine games.
Vilma is a playmaker with a nose for the ball. He has seven interceptions and seven forced fumbles in his career.

New safety Darren Sharper, formerly of the Vikings and Packers, already has three interceptions, including a pick-six, and linebacker Scott Shanle leads the team with 16 tackles so far, but Vilma is the most valuable defensive player in New Orleans.

John Henderson, Rashean Mathis and Reggie Nelson are all pretty much household names on the Jacksonville defense.

But the player that's least talked about may be their best.

All linebacker Justin Durant has done to begin his third year in the NFL is rack up 20 tackles. He went from 49 in 13 games as a rookie to 70 in 14 games last year. The 24-year-old has a sack and a forced fumble in two games this season, and has been a bright spot for the 0-2 Jaguars.

The team's two leading tacklers from last year, Mike Peterson and Brian Williams, are both in Atlanta uniforms. Durant's 70 stops ranked third on the team and it would appear that his time has come to be a more vocal presence on and off the field while letting his play speak for itself.

Cortland Finnegan's 70 tackles, five interceptions and three tackles for a loss earned him a spot in the Pro Bowl last year. It was the first Pro Bowl selection for Finnegan, a fourth-year player from Samford who doubles as a kick returner.

Finnegan does so much for an already good defense that his value is nearly immeasurable. The Titans lost defensive end Albert Haynesworth to Washington via free agency and Finnegan was arguably the team's next most productive, and disruptive, player. He had a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown last year against the Texans. He's already got an 80-yard interception return this year to go along with 14 tackles.

Tennessee's pass rush took a hit with Haynesworth's departure. Should anything happen to Finnegan, the pass defense would suffer another huge blow.

In order to improve a fledgling defense that ranked next to last in the NFL in 2008, the Chiefs sought veteran leadership.

They traded with New England for linebacker Mike Vrabel and they lured safety Mike Brown from Chicago.

Brown has always been a disruptive force for opposing offenses. He can close on a pass and come up to snuff the run. And Heaven help any receiver coming over the middle on Brown.

What he also provides is 10 years of experience as a ball-hawking safety on aggressive defenses. His impact has been immediate.

Brown has 15 tackles to lead the Chiefs, who currently sit 18th in the NFL in total defense—an improvement thus far from 31st. The Chiefs are 0-2 and looked bad in the season-opening loss to Baltimore, but the defense shined in the 13-10 loss to Oakland last week.

Coming off a 2-14 season, moral victories will be more plentiful than actual ones. Without Brown on the field, even moral victories could be few and far between.

When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released longtime veteran Derrick Brooks in the offseason, they essentially told cornerback Ronde Barber that this was now his team.

It's not been a good start for the Buccaneers, who once boasted the NFL's best defensive unit year in and year out.

Instead, Tampa, under new head coach Raheem Morris, is 0-2 and has a defense that ranks 31st overall and in scoring.

Making matters worse is news that starting safety Jermaine Phillips has now been lost for the year with a broken thumb.

As Brooks was, Barber is the vocal heart-and-soul of, not only the defense, but the entire team. Barber is older than his 33-year-old head coach and is the captain of a pirate ship that, unfortunately, appears rudderless. The captain goes down with his ship, right? Should anything happen to Barber, the ship might sink even faster for Morris.

When defensive end Mario Williams was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft, there were plenty of naysayers (myself included, and I saw Williams play in high school).

Following a lackluster rookie season, it appeared those naysayers may have been correct in assuming the Texans screwed up by passing on Reggie Bush as the top pick.

Williams heard the criticism and improved from a 4.5-sack rookie year to a 14-sack man in 2007. He added 12 last year with four forced fumbles.

Together with rookie linebacker Brian Cushing and fellow fourth-year player Demeco Ryans, the Texans have a solid young defense with Williams as its centerpiece.

Linebacker Mike Peterson has adopted the Dirty Bird as his own.

He's taken the ATL by storm, and he's just getting warm (Thank you, LL Cool J).

Peterson earned all-Pro accolades in 2005, when he had 131 tackles to go with three interceptions and six sacks. He played in only 15 games combined in 2006 and 2007 before bouncing back last year to earn himself a new free agent deal with the Falcons.

Atlanta's defense, 24th overall in 2008, is 22nd so far this year. But the biggest improvement is scoring defense. Atlanta ranks fifth so far this season, as opposed to 21st a season ago.

Peterson is a big reason why. He's got 16 tackles, good for second on the team behind Curtis Lofton, with two forced fumbles and an interception. The Falcons forced just 18 turnovers all of last year, but already have six this season in two games. Peterson has half of those.

It's hard to measure one man's impact on a team, but Peterson's is definitely being felt.

With 13 solo tackles already this season, Miami's Yeremiah Bell has a proven nose for the ball.

The Dolphins safety has just one interception in his six-year career, coming in 2005, but he's coming off a year where he was the best defensive player Miami had.

Bell led the team with 120 tackles in 2008, 100 of them solo, with three forced fumbles, two tackles for a loss and a sack. Like Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu, Bell has incredible closing speed and basically serves as an extra linebacker when playing the run. The scary part is that Bell is getting better, and should be a force for years to come.

Having him on the field makes Miami a better team. Without him, who knows? He played in just one game in 2007—you know, that one-win season.

Shawne Merriman is constantly making headlines in San Diego, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

Thought of as the team's go-to guy following the retirement, then un-retirement and exodus to New England of Junior Seau, things haven't worked out for the oft-troubled Merriman.

But buried in the Merriman drama is a productive player who keeps his nose clean off the field and is a force to be reckoned with on it.

Linebacker Stephen Cooper was a steady, under-the-radar player until he broke out with a 100-tackle season in 2007. He's missed just four games in his seven-year career, all coming last year. Despite playing in just 12 games, Cooper still managed 98 tackles and four interceptions. Merriman played in just one game.

Despite missing Merriman for most of the season, San Diego still managed to win the AFC West and a playoff game. Cooper led the team with eight tackles in the 23-17 overtime win over Indianapolis.

Merriman is the sack artist while Quentin Jammer and Antonio Cromartie get a lot of interceptions. Cooper is just the solid, steady, lunch-pail player whom the Chargers could not be without.

Darelle Revis burst onto the scene as a rookie cornerback in 2007 for the New York Jets.

The young man from Pitt was second on the team in both tackles (87, behind David Harris' 127) and interceptions (3, behind Kerry Rhodes' 5).

He followed that up with five picks last year and recorded his first sack.

This season, Revis (24) has seven takedowns and a pick through two games—both New York wins.

He has quickly become a fan favorite and is feared among NFL quarterbacks as a lockdown corner to avoid. His numbers may decrease over the next few years, but only because teams will throw away from him.

Without Revis in the lineup, the Jets' pass defense would suffer and wins might be hard to come by.

The Washington Redskins made the big free agency splash in the offseason by signing defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth away from Tennessee. The big 350-pounder had two tackles for a loss in a Week 1 loss to the Giants, but when St. Louis came in week two, its game plan centered around containing London Fletcher.

Since 2000, Fletcher has recorded at least 116 tackles every season, averaging 137 in that span. He has 14 interceptions with 28 sacks and 11 forced fumbles.

It's no doubt that Fletcher will benefit from Haynesworth's presence on the line. The big tackle will take up blockers, allowing the 12-year linebacker to roam freely toward the ball carrier. What's also without question is that, without Fletcher, the Redskins have no shot at the playoffs.

Through two games this season, the Seattle Seahawks are led statistically by safety Jordan Babineaux's 13 tackles. Defensive end Lawrence Jackson has three sacks.

But should something happen to Babineaux or Jackson, the Seahawks could probably still contend for the NFC West title.

Whom the Seahawks cannot be without is middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu. It was evident last Sunday when the fifth-year vet out of USC left the game early with a hamstring injury. The Seahawks floundered without him, surrendering 379 yards of total offense, including touchdown runs of 79 and 80 yards from Frank Gore.

Tatupu has missed just one game in his entire career and his passion is contagious. Veterans Ken Lucas and Patrick Kerney are good players, and strong leaders, but Tatupu's throwback attitude is a toss back to yesteryear and a time of tougher players. He is the heart and soul of the defense and is a player that has to be on the field.

Sure, Osi Umenyiora missed the entire 2008 season and the New York Giants still went 12-4.

They did so one year after a Super Bowl championship season and without their best receiver in Plaxico Burress.

That was a loaded team. And it still is on the defensive side of the ball. But if you want to undervalue Umenyiora's impact on the Giants defense, I give you Exhibit A.

In his first game back since a knee injury wiped out his entire 2008 season, the defensive end played like a man on a mission, like somebody who knows how fragile an NFL career really is, like a man living for the now.

Umenyiora had four tackles in the game, including a sack and strip of Washington quarterback Jason Campbell. Umenyiora then returned the fumble he caused 37 yards for a touchdown in his team's 23-17 win.

Umenyiora had 13 sacks in 2007 to lead the team and also registered three tackles for a loss and five forced fumbles. Week 1 of the 2009 season proved that he's returned to form.

Justin Tuck and Antonio Pierce are also fine players, and strong presences in the locker room, but neither can provide that inspirational kind of leadership that Umenyiora can. The Giants got through one season without him. It's doubtful if they'd be able to survive another.

He may be the most feared pass rusher in all of the NFL. His 20 sacks in 2008 rank among the league's all-time best.

Simply put, Demarcus Ware can play some ball.

Ware is not arguably the best defensive player for the Dallas Cowboys, he is hands down the best defensive player for the Dallas Cowboys.

Surprisingly Ware has yet to record a sack this year, but he's got 53.5 the previous four seasons. He does have a tackle for a loss this year, adding to his career total of 31.

Linebacker Bradie James has led the Cowboys in tackles each of the previous three years, but he's not a guy you game-plan around like Ware.

At 6-foot-4, 262 pounds, the former Troy Trojan linebacker combines size with great speed and strength and long arms capable of batting down passes left and right. Ware has yet to miss a game in his five-year career and Cowboys fans are hoping that's a streak that continues for a long time.

There are few cornerbacks in the league who have built a reputation like Nnamdi Asomugha.

Playing for a bad team for most of his seven-year NFL career, he shined like a diamond in the rough in 2006 with eight interceptions to earn his first Pro Bowl berth. He returned to Hawaii following the 2008 season, despite his team winning just five games. In 2006, the win total was only two.

The Raiders have made strides in their defense and the acquisition of Richard Seymour will help. But even Seymour is not more valuable to this defense than Asomugha.

It's hard to believe that a player from the St. Louis Rams could be this high on the list. The Rams have been terrible the last few years, winning five of the last 34 games.
Oshiomogho Atogwe has been the lone bright spot on a defense that has been abysmal. The Rams may have gone winless last year, had it not been for Atogwe's five interceptions and six forced fumbles. He recovered a fumble in the win over Washington, and had two picks in the Dallas victory.
Atogwe's 2008 season was not just a flash in the pan. The fifth-year player from Stanford had eight interceptions in 2007, and was responsible for eight turnovers in 2006.
Atogwe has a nose for the ball. Period.
If he were on a good team, he'd be a perennial Pro Bowler. Instead, he's an often-overlooked Pro Bowl-caliber player, and the team's undisputed defensive MVP.

The Minnesota Vikings have boasted one of the NFL's best rush defenses over the last four years, and there's a pretty good reason why.
Well, two reasons.
Weighing in at a combined listed weight of 628 pounds, Pat and Kevin Williams are two of the best run-stuffers in the league.
Think Sam Adams and Gilbert Brown side-by-side.
There were questions whether the corpulent couple would miss Minnesota's first four games. Thanks to a court appeal, the Vikings rush defense has not suffered. Without them anchoring the defensive line, and even the average back might look more like Adrian Peterson.

It's hard to single out on player on the Arizona Cardinals defense, so I found two whom I believe to be the most valuable.
While Karlos Dansby has been the team's steady leader for the last six years, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie burst on the scene to provide a catalyst for the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance.
Dansby led the team last year with 119 tackles, and is just one tackle behind Gerald Hayes for the team lead this year. Dansby has one of the team's eight sacks, after recording four a season ago. Dansby has forced 12 fumbles in his career, including one this season, and has nine interceptions to go with 25.5 sacks. He had 31 tackles in Arizona's four playoff games, along with a pick in the Super Bowl.
In his rookie season, Rodgers-Cromartie tracked down four interceptions. He added 16 tackles and two more picks in the playoffs. So far this year, he's got seven tackles with a forced fumble and interception. In the 50-plus years between the Cardinals' 1947 NFL title and last year, they won just two playoff games. In 2008, with Rodgers-Cromartie, they won three. Coincidence?

The Green Bay Packers had the NFL's 11th-best defense in 2007 - the year they went 13-3 and hosted the NFC championship game. They were also sixth in scoring defense with a healthy group of playmakers.
That health took a hit in 2008 when cornerback Al Harris went down. Also missing time were linebacker Nick Barnett, safety Atari Bigby, defensive end Michael Montgomery, safety Aaron Rouse and defensive tackle Ryan Pickett.
All of the injuries hurt the defense, but none was felt more than the season-ending torn pectoral muscle of defensive end Cullen Jenkins.
When Jenkins went down, the Packers were 2-2. Without him, they won just four more times, losing five in a row between November and December - normally the franchise's strongest months.
The Packers defense slipped from 11th to 20th without Jenkins, and the points per game went from 18 to 24, or from sixth to 22nd.
Cullen's older brother Kris made a name for himself in Carolina before moving to the Jets. Right now, it seems that Cullen may be the better player of the two.

In case you missed it, Antwan Odom is pretty good.
He's already got seven sacks this year, thanks to five against Green Bay in week two.
Not to anoint this guy as a Hall of Famer quite yet, Odom has become the best, and most valuable player on the Cincinnati Bengals defense.
Offseason acquisition Roy Williams has played well, and the safety leads the team in tackles after two games. Linebacker Dhani Jones and Keith Rivers have played well thus far, as has rookie linebacker Rey Maualuga. Johnathan Joseph is a solid cover corner.
But Odom has now become a guy for whom offensive coordinators are going to have to account. The six-year veteran had just 15.5 career sacks prior to this season, but has been like a demon possessed this year.
He made Green Bay linemen Allen Barbre and Daryn Colledge look like kindergartners trying to stop a high school senior.
As long as teams are going to have to gameplan around Odom, he will remain Cincinnati's most valuable defensive player.

When the San Francisco 49ers selected Mississippi Patrick Willis in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft, they were pretty sure they were getting a good player.
What they might not have known for certain at the time is that Willis would become their best player.
He racked up 174 tackles as a rookie. Who does that? That's more than 10 per game. A good player, a Pro Bowl caliber player, averages about seven a game. Willis followed that up with 141 tackles during his sophomore campaign, and leads the team again this year with 18 stops. He's also got five sacks, a pair of interceptions, and three forced fumbles just for good measure.
Willis is the perfect kind of player for head coach Mike Singletary - a hard-nosed, tenacious linebacker who plays the game with the same intensity Singletary did.
Players like Patrick Willis don't come around very often, and if he keeps it up, he'll finish his playing career where Singletary did - in Canton, Ohio.

He may not be quite as fast as he was when he came into the league 14 years ago, but Ray Lewis still has "it."
What is "it"? It's that intangible that makes a good player a great player. Ray Lewis has always had it and still does.
If you have any doubts, just watch the hit he laid on Darren Sproles to secure Baltimore's win over San Diego last week.
Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs are very good players, but even they recognize Lewis as the unquestioned leader of the Ravens defense.
Even now, in his 14th season, Lewis leads the team in tackles. He's had at least 103 tackles, including 183 in 1997, in all but two of his seasons. The lone exceptions were 2002, when he missed 11 games, and 2005, when he played in just six games.
Two years removed from a Super Bowl title, the Ravens stumbled to a 7-9 mark without Lewis in the lineup. In 2005, it was a 6-10 campaign.
Lewis means that much. Not only does he lead by example on the field, but it's his boisterous barking, and contagious passion for the game that permeates every inch of the locker room.

It's hard to imagine that a little 5-foot-8 safety from Iowa could mean so much to an NFL team.
But Bob Sanders is that good, and is the pulse of the Indianapolis Colts defense.
Dwight Freeney gets a lot of the glory, thanks to the 72.5 sacks he's collected over the last eight years, but Sanders is the cog that makes the machine go.
In 2006, Sanders missed 12 games with a knee injury. While he was out, the Colts had the worst rush defense in the NFL. But thanks to Peyton Manning and a high-powered offense, the Colts made the playoffs.
Sanders returned for the playoffs, and lifted the play of his teammates, and the Colts allowed just 73 rushing yards per game on their way to a Super Bowl title. In that win over Chicago, Sanders forced a fumble, and had a game-sealing interception.
Sanders had two interceptions and 96 tackles in 2007, and has earned the nicknames, "Hulk," "Hitman," "Eraser," and the "Sandman" because of his tenacious play.
Sanders missed 10 games last year, and has yet to play this season with another knee injury. The Colts are 2-0 so far without him, and are still a good team. With him, they become a great team.