In recent years, the comparisons of current players have been made to former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
Most recently, Aaron Donald has been getting the comparisons to Taylor as Donald has consistently been the best defensive player in the league for a few years now.
Following Donald’s new contract with the Los Angeles Rams where they made him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, NFL.com asked 10 insiders to rank their top-3 defensive players ever.
To nobody’s surprise, Taylor was the top player on everyone’s list with the sole exception of retired running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
Jones-Drew has been with NFL Network for a few years now and somehow thinks that Taylor is only the third-greatest defensive player of all time behind Deion Sanders and the aforementioned Donald.
The most difficult position on defense is cornerback, and no one played it better than Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, whose swag and big-play ability at the position is unrivaled. Having to play on an island and shut down an entire half of the field every Sunday, and doing it successfully, makes him the best defensive player in my opinion. His six first-team All-Pro and eight Pro Bowl nods and one Defensive Player of the Year honor only add to his greatness. Donald falls in line behind him after putting up gaudy numbers in every season of his career while facing double and triple teams. It’s incredible watching that man work firsthand every Sunday. Taylor rounds out my top three as a guy who completely changed how offenses game-planned for pass rushers, introducing a new era in the process.
All of the other members had Taylor as their No. 1 defensive player of all-time.
Recently, Giants Wire asked one of Taylor’s former teammates, Ottis Anderson, if there is anyone who comes close to the talent level of Taylor and the answer was a pretty clear cut “no.”
As the game changes and new players continue to come into the league there will always be talk about who is the greatest defensive player of all-time. Although, some, like MJD, will attempt to go against the grain and pick someone other than Taylor as the best defensive player, L.T. certainly seems as though he is the consensus.