Von Miller
Miller’s first season demonstrated that he would go on to become one of the league’s top defenders. Miller, the No. 2 overall pick in a stacked 2011 NFL Draft, was voted Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Second-Team All-Pro in his first season with the Broncos. He was frequently mentioned as one of the best edge rushers, but he solidified himself as an all-time great in Super Bowl 50 by winning MVP honors. Miller would almost certainly have been a Hall of Famer if he had retired after that game. Since then, he’s played six more seasons (racking up 63.5 more sacks) and won another Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams. Miller has a one-way ticket to Canton, Ohio, if he decides to hang up his cleats.
Von Miller
Derrick Thomas
While evaluating the best defenders in league history, Derrick Thomas cannot be disregarded. Thomas, who spent his entire career with the Kansas City Chiefs, was the league’s most productive pass rusher. Thomas had 20.0 sacks in his first year as a pro, only two shy of the all-time record. And he accomplished it while missing a game in which the Chiefs (without Thomas) sacked the opposition quarterback six times. Thomas set the record for the most sacks in a single game in Week 10 of the 1990 season, with 7.0 – a record that still holds to this day. After his career was unfortunately cut short by a deadly car accident in 2000, Thomas was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously.
Derrick Thomas