Leonard Williams Tops ESPN's 2026 DT Rankings
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- Leonard Williams (Seahawks) earned the No. 1 ranking after never previously cracking the top five, posting 7.0 sacks and a 38.0% run stop win rate in 2025 to earn second-team All-Pro honors in coach Mike Macdonald's defense.
- Jeffery Simmons (Titans) came in second after shedding 20 pounds entering 2025, leading all interior linemen with 17 tackles for loss and 11 sacks en route to a three-year, $105.8 million extension.
- Chris Jones (Chiefs) dropped from No. 2 for the second straight year, though he still led all defensive tackles with an 18.9% pass rush win rate and 45 pressures in 2025.
- Dexter Lawrence fell six spots to No. 7 after a career-low 0.5 sacks in 2025, despite facing double-teams on a league-high 71.3% of pass-rush opportunities among players with 300+ pass-rush snaps; he was traded to the Bengals from the Giants this offseason.
- Quinnen Williams ranked No. 6 in his first year with the Cowboys after a midseason trade from the Jets, recording 19 pressures in seven Dallas games — more than double his eight pressures in eight games with New York.
- Derrick Brown (Panthers) surged from honorable mention to No. 5 with a career-high 5.0 sacks, returning to form after recovering from a 2024 ACL tear.
- Zach Allen (Broncos) cracked the top 10 for the first time at No. 8, with 131 quarterback hits since 2022 — eight more than any other player league-wide.
Why it matters: The rankings reveal a clear shifting of the guard at defensive tackle: established stars like Chris Jones and Dexter Lawrence are declining, two top-10 DTs (Lawrence, Quinnen Williams) were traded this offseason, and a late-career breakout (Leonard Williams at 32) now dictates how opponents allocate double-teams and game plans up front heading into 2026.
