Best Interior Defensive Linemen Every Year in NFL History

Jeffery Simmons is the SOG Sports choice as the NFL’s best interior defensive lineman for the 2025 season, while the 2026 spot remains open until the upcoming season is played. This year-by-year list covers every season from 1997 through 2025 and includes a provisional entry for 2026.

Aaron Donald owns the longest run on the list with seven straight selections from 2015 through 2021. Chris Jones followed with three straight from 2022 through 2024, giving those two players every completed selection across a 10-season stretch.

How the Best Interior Defensive Lineman Is Chosen

This is a season-by-season ranking, not a career ranking. Each selection is based primarily on that player’s performance during the named regular season. Postseason play matters as additional evidence and can break a close call, but one great playoff game does not erase a clearly better 17-game body of work.

Pass-rush production, run defense, down-to-down disruption, availability, All-Pro recognition and the player’s importance to his defensive structure all matter. Sacks carry weight because pressure through the middle changes an offense, but they cannot be the only measure. A nose tackle controlling two gaps and a 3-technique attacking one gap are doing different jobs.

The eligible pool includes defensive tackles, nose tackles and hybrid defensive linemen whose work came primarily from interior alignments. That is why players such as Richard Seymour and Justin Smith qualify despite often being listed as 3-4 defensive ends. Full team names in the table refer to the team each player represented during that season.

Best Interior Defensive Linemen by Year: 2026-2012

2026: To Be Decided

The 2026 regular season has not started, so there is no honest winner yet. Jeffery Simmons enters with the strongest immediate claim after his career-best 2025 season, but Leonard Williams, Zach Allen, Jalen Carter, Chris Jones, Derrick Brown, Quinnen Williams and Dexter Lawrence all have paths to the top spot. Aaron Donald would also re-enter the discussion if his contemplated comeback becomes official.

The race is covered more fully in the current SOG Sports interior defensive line rankings. This entry will be settled after the full 2026 season rather than awarded on reputation or preseason projection.

2025: Jeffery Simmons

Simmons produced the best season of his career with 11 sacks and 17 tackles for loss, then earned first-team Associated Press All-Pro honors for the first time. He generated that disruption for a Tennessee defense that rarely played with comfortable leads, which limited the obvious passing situations that normally help a defensive lineman hunt sacks.

Zach Allen had a legitimate case after joining Simmons on the first team, but Simmons offered the stronger combination of finishing production, backfield disruption and run-game power. This was not a lifetime-achievement pick. It was the year his complete skill set finally came with the top-end numbers.

2024: Chris Jones

Jones recorded only five sacks, but that total undersold how difficult he remained to account for. Kansas City moved him across the front, and he earned first-team AP All-Pro honors while helping the Chiefs reach 15-2 and another Super Bowl.

Cameron Heyward was every bit as deserving of the other first-team All-Pro position and was sturdier against the run. Jones gets the narrow SOG Sports edge because his ability to threaten from an interior alignment or widen outside created more protection problems on high-leverage passing downs.

2023: Chris Jones

Jones missed the opener during a contract holdout and still finished with 10.5 sacks, 29 quarterback hits and 13 tackles for loss. He earned first-team AP All-Pro honors for the second straight season and remained the matchup Kansas City’s pressure packages were built around.

The postseason separates this from an extremely close regular-season comparison with Aaron Donald. Jones generated a team-high six pressures in Super Bowl LVIII, including the third-down rush in overtime that forced San Francisco to settle for a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown.

2022: Chris Jones

Jones tied his career high with 15.5 sacks, added 29 quarterback hits and set a personal best with 44 tackles. He received 49 of 50 first-team All-Pro votes at interior line and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Aaron Donald still created pressure at a remarkable rate, but an ankle injury limited him to 11 games. Jones combined comparable disruption with a full regular season and then helped Kansas City win the Super Bowl. This was the clearest transfer of the position’s top spot from Donald to Jones.

2021: Aaron Donald

Donald finished with 12.5 sacks and 64 pressures while carrying an enormous snap load from the interior. He again made first-team All-Pro and remained just as dangerous against the run, where his first step routinely beat blocking angles before they could develop.

His postseason gave the season a defining finish. Donald made critical late plays against San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game and pressured Joe Burrow into an incompletion on Cincinnati’s final offensive snap of Super Bowl LVI. Chris Jones and Jeffery Simmons had excellent seasons, but neither matched Donald’s complete regular-season and playoff case.

2020: Aaron Donald

Donald posted 13.5 sacks and generated an NFL-high 76 pressures including the postseason. He won his third AP Defensive Player of the Year award in four seasons, edging T.J. Watt in the voting.

The pressure total matters because it shows why his value extended beyond sacks. Donald forced quarterbacks off their spot while attacking the shortest path to the pocket, and he did it while offenses routinely committed extra help to the middle.

2019: Aaron Donald

Donald followed his record-setting 2018 campaign with 12.5 sacks and another first-team All-Pro selection. The statistical drop was real, but it was a decline from one of the greatest defensive seasons ever to a season that still led the interior position.

Grady Jarrett, Cameron Heyward and Chris Jones made the field deeper than the original numbers suggested. Donald remained the choice because he paired the strongest interior pressure profile with more consistent snap-to-snap disruption than any of them.

2018: Aaron Donald

Donald’s 2018 season is the standard for modern interior dominance. He led the NFL with 20.5 sacks, 25 tackles for loss and 41 quarterback hits, winning Defensive Player of the Year unanimously.

The remarkable part was not simply that a defensive tackle produced edge-rusher numbers. Donald led the entire league in all three categories while facing the shorter reaction time and heavier traffic that come with rushing through guards and centers. No other season on this list reaches the same peak.

2017: Aaron Donald

Donald missed two games after a preseason contract holdout, yet recorded 11 sacks, five forced fumbles and 65 pressures in 14 appearances. He won his first Defensive Player of the Year award and produced at a rate no other interior defender could match.

His acceleration after the snap was the separator. Guards could not consistently square him before he crossed their face, while his leverage prevented bigger blockers from recovering once he gained position.

2016: Aaron Donald

Eight sacks did not fully describe Donald’s season. He also produced 27 quarterback hits and 16 tackles for loss, leading a Rams defense that received little support from one of the league’s lowest-scoring offenses.

Donald earned first-team All-Pro recognition because he affected far more plays than his sack total captured. His ability to win immediately against single blocks and remain productive through extra attention made him the clear choice over a strong group led by Ndamukong Suh and Geno Atkins.

2015: Aaron Donald

Donald reached 11 sacks, 37 quarterback hits and 22 tackles for loss in his second NFL season. He led or tied all defensive tackles in each of those categories and established that his outstanding rookie year had only been the beginning.

This was the first season in which Donald combined top-of-the-position production against the pass and run. He was already too quick for power-based guards and too strong for blockers athletic enough to match his first move.

2014: Ndamukong Suh

Suh recorded 8.5 sacks and earned first-team All-Pro honors as the centerpiece of a Detroit defense that finished first against the run and second in total defense. His power held the point of attack, while his explosiveness prevented offenses from treating him as a run-only defender.

Aaron Donald won Defensive Rookie of the Year and had nine sacks in only 12 starts, making this one of the list’s hardest decisions. Suh gets the edge for sustaining his performance across a full season and anchoring the league’s best run defense.

2013: Gerald McCoy

McCoy set a career high with 9.5 sacks and earned the only first-team AP All-Pro selection of his career. His get-off and ability to cross a guard’s face made him one of the league’s most dangerous one-gap penetrators.

That style could create volatility against the run, but McCoy’s 2013 balance was excellent. He consistently forced offenses to account for immediate penetration without needing Tampa Bay to manufacture pressure around him.

2012: Geno Atkins

Atkins produced 12.5 sacks and four forced fumbles from defensive tackle, earning first-team All-Pro honors. He lacked the length of many interior stars, but his low center of gravity and hand speed made it extremely difficult for guards to establish first contact.

His sack total was not empty production. Atkins could split a double team, flatten down the line against the run and finish once he reached the backfield. He was the most complete interior disruptor of the season and one of the best 3-technique defenders of his generation.

Best Interior Defensive Linemen by Year: 2011-1997

2011: Justin Smith

Smith recorded 7.5 sacks and became a rare All-Pro at two positions, making the first team at defensive tackle and the second team at defensive end. That split recognition accurately reflected a player whose value did not fit one box.

As a 3-4 end, Smith absorbed and separated from blockers to keep San Francisco’s linebackers clean, but he could also reduce inside and collapse the pocket himself. His power, alignment flexibility and role in the league’s second-ranked scoring defense give him the slight edge over Haloti Ngata.

2010: Haloti Ngata

Ngata earned first-team All-Pro honors and even received a Defensive Player of the Year vote, a rare level of recognition for a defender whose primary job was controlling the run. Baltimore could align him over the center, shade him into a gap or move him farther outside without weakening the front.

Ndamukong Suh had the flashier rookie numbers and also made first-team All-Pro. Ngata gets the narrow nod because he offered greater assignment flexibility while serving as the central piece of a veteran Ravens defense.

2009: Kevin Williams

Williams earned his fifth first-team All-Pro selection in six seasons and his fourth in a row. Playing beside Pat Williams in the Williams Wall, he supplied the interior pass rush that balanced Minnesota’s massive run-stopping front.

He could attack a gap without surrendering his ability to reset against power. That complete profile mattered more than one splash statistic, especially on a Vikings team that reached the NFC Championship Game.

2008: Albert Haynesworth

Haynesworth posted a career-high 8.5 sacks in 14 games and earned first-team All-Pro honors for the second consecutive season. Tennessee credited him with 19 quarterback pressures and four forced fumbles, and he finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

At his best, Haynesworth combined nose-tackle mass with the burst of a much lighter penetrator. Offenses could not move him with one blocker in the run game, but sending two bodies created space for the rest of a Titans defense that went 13-3.

2007: Albert Haynesworth

Haynesworth recorded six sacks in 13 games, made first-team All-Pro and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Tennessee ranked fifth against the run with him anchoring the front.

His value became especially obvious when he was unavailable. The Titans’ ability to control the middle changed dramatically without him, while his return restored the structure that allowed the rest of the defense to play faster.

2006: Kevin Williams

Williams returned to first-team All-Pro status as Minnesota allowed only 985 rushing yards and 2.8 yards per carry across the entire season. Pat Williams supplied the classic nose-tackle bulk, while Kevin added the movement skills and range that made the pairing difficult to scheme around.

The Vikings’ pass defense was vulnerable, but opponents could not solve the interior on the ground. Kevin Williams gets the selection because he was the more versatile half of the league’s most overwhelming run-defense combination.

2005: Richard Seymour

Seymour earned his third consecutive first-team All-Pro selection despite being limited to 12 games. New England asked him to play head-up, control two gaps and shift between end and tackle, responsibilities that naturally suppressed his box-score production.

Kevin Williams and Jamal Williams had strong cases at traditional defensive tackle. Seymour’s ability to preserve the Patriots’ front structure while still creating his own pressure made him the more valuable all-around interior lineman.

2004: Kevin Williams

Williams recorded 11.5 sacks in his second season and earned first-team All-Pro honors. He had entered the NFL as a versatile lineman with unusual movement skills, and by 2004 he had developed into one of the league’s premier interior pass rushers.

The 11.5 sacks did not come from abandoning the run. Williams maintained the length and strength to control his gap, giving Minnesota high-end production without turning the position into a passing-down specialty.

2003: Richard Seymour

Seymour set career highs with eight sacks and 80 team-credited tackles, earned first-team All-Pro honors and helped New England win Super Bowl XXXVIII. He could win from defensive end in the Patriots’ base front, then move inside when the defense needed a direct route to the quarterback.

That flexibility was central to New England’s week-to-week adaptability. Seymour did not merely survive different assignments. He allowed the Patriots to change fronts without substituting or giving away the call.

2002: Warren Sapp

Sapp finished with 7.5 sacks, 78 team-credited tackles and a career-high two interceptions. He earned first-team All-Pro honors and led a Tampa Bay defense that ranked first in both total defense and pass defense before winning Super Bowl XXXVII.

Derrick Brooks was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, but Sapp’s upfield pressure made the Tampa 2 work from front to back. He forced quarterbacks to move before the coverage structure had to break.

2001: Warren Sapp

Sapp earned his third consecutive first-team All-Pro selection and remained the defining 3-technique in football. His assignment was to attack rather than wait, using his first step to disrupt the mesh point or force a quarterback to climb away from the middle.

La’Roi Glover and John Randle remained dangerous pass rushers, but Sapp offered the strongest mix of burst, leverage and structural value. Tampa Bay’s entire front functioned differently because offenses could not leave a guard isolated against him.

2000: La’Roi Glover

Glover led the NFL with 17 sacks, the highest total ever by a New Orleans Saints player at the time, and was named NFC Defensive Player of the Year. His quickness and change of direction made him difficult to square up even when blockers knew he was attacking the pocket.

Warren Sapp finished only half a sack behind him, so this is not a case of blindly choosing the league leader. Glover matched rare interior production with first-team All-Pro recognition and gave New Orleans the decisive pass-rush advantage in its first playoff-winning season.

1999: Warren Sapp

Sapp recorded 12.5 sacks, 54 tackles and three forced fumbles while winning Defensive Player of the Year. Tampa Bay also won its first division title in 18 years.

This was the season in which Sapp’s aggressive style produced both overwhelming numbers and team-level results. His ability to beat a guard before help arrived gave the Buccaneers a four-man rush that could pressure quarterbacks without compromising coverage.

1998: John Randle

Randle recorded 10.5 sacks and earned first-team All-Pro honors for the sixth consecutive season. He remained the interior pressure source for a Minnesota team that went 15-1 and reached the NFC Championship Game.

His sack total declined from the league-leading 15.5 he produced in 1997, but the way he won remained exceptional. Randle threatened both gaps with his first step and kept attacking late in games when many interior linemen were reduced to occupying space.

1997: Dana Stubblefield

Stubblefield recorded 15 sacks and won Defensive Player of the Year as the interior finisher on San Francisco’s 13-3 defense. His ability to convert power into pocket collapse made single blocking a bad answer.

John Randle actually led the league with 15.5 sacks, so the decision cannot be reduced to the raw total. Stubblefield’s award-winning season, balance against the run and role beside Bryant Young give him the smallest of edges in the opening year of this list.

What the Year-by-Year List Reveals

Only 15 players account for the 29 completed seasons from 1997 through 2025. Donald leads with seven selections, while Jones, Kevin Williams and Sapp have three each. Haynesworth and Seymour are the only other players to appear more than once.

The sharpest dividing line arrives in 2015. Twelve different players split the first 18 seasons, but Donald and Jones combined to claim every year from 2015 through 2024. The best interior defensive linemen since 2020 can be debated as a full-period ranking, but this annual view shows how tightly those two controlled the top spot.

The list also shows why interior line play cannot be ranked with one universal statistic. Donald, Jones, Glover and Sapp created edge-rusher sack totals from the middle. Ngata, Seymour and Justin Smith earned their selections while handling more block-control responsibility. The job changed by scheme, but each winner forced the offense to alter how it protected the middle.

The Closest Decisions

2025: Jeffery Simmons over Zach Allen

Both made first-team All-Pro, and Allen’s pressure production made this a real debate. Simmons gets the nod for pairing 11 sacks with 17 tackles for loss while remaining a stronger point-of-attack run defender.

2024: Chris Jones over Cameron Heyward

Heyward had the better traditional run-defense case, while Jones offered more value as a movable pass-rush threat. The margin is small enough that choosing Heyward would be defensible, but Jones’ effect on protection wins the tiebreaker.

2023: Chris Jones over Aaron Donald

Donald received more All-Pro voting points and remained outstanding in his final season. Jones was close enough during the regular season for the postseason to matter, and his six-pressure Super Bowl performance provided the decisive separation.

2014: Ndamukong Suh over Aaron Donald

Donald had more sacks despite starting only 12 games, but Suh was the established centerpiece of the NFL’s best run defense. Availability and complete-season value keep the rookie just short.

2011: Justin Smith over Haloti Ngata

Ngata was the more natural interior classification. Smith’s first-team All-Pro recognition at defensive tackle, second-team recognition at defensive end and importance to San Francisco’s front justify treating his hybrid role as a strength rather than an eligibility problem.

2000: La’Roi Glover over Warren Sapp

Glover finished with 17 sacks and Sapp had 16.5. Sapp was the better career player, but Glover’s league-leading season and NFC Defensive Player of the Year award give him the one-year edge.

1997: Dana Stubblefield over John Randle

Randle led the NFL with 15.5 sacks, half a sack more than Stubblefield. The AP Defensive Player of the Year award and Stubblefield’s all-around role on a 13-win San Francisco defense break the tie in his favor.

Complete Best Interior Defensive Linemen by Year Table

Frequently Asked Questions

Who has the most selections as the best interior defensive lineman?

Aaron Donald leads with seven selections, taking every season from 2015 through 2021. Chris Jones, Kevin Williams and Warren Sapp are tied for second with three selections each.

Which team has the most selections on the list?

The Los Angeles Rams lead with seven selections, all belonging to Aaron Donald. The Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are tied for second with four each.

What is the highest sack total by a player selected on this list?

Aaron Donald’s 20.5 sacks in 2018 are the highest total by any selection. La’Roi Glover is second with 17 sacks in 2000, while Chris Jones recorded 15.5 in 2022 and Dana Stubblefield had 15 in 1997.

Does playoff performance count?

Yes, but the regular season remains the primary body of work. Postseason performance is most useful as a tiebreaker when two players had comparably strong regular seasons, as it was for Chris Jones in 2023.

Last Reviewed: August 27, 2026

Final Verdict

Jeffery Simmons owns the latest completed season, while the 2026 race remains open. The larger story is the decade-long handoff from Aaron Donald to Chris Jones: Donald claimed seven straight seasons, Jones took the next three, and Simmons finally broke their combined run in 2025.

Related NFL Rankings

• Best Defensive Tackles in NFL History
• Best Interior Defensive Linemen in the NFL Today
• Best Interior Defensive Linemen in the NFL Since 2020
• Best Defensive Players Every Year Since 1967

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