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For decades, identifying the best defensive draft class in NFL history has been easy. The vaunted Class of 1981 sent six players to the Hall of Fame, with legendary second overall pick Lawrence Taylor leading the way. Fellow top-10 picks Kenny Easley and Ronnie Lott patrolled secondaries throughout the 1980s. Legendary Bears linebacker Mike Singletary was the leader on what might be the best defense of all time. And beyond Taylor, the 1981 class enshrined two more edge rushers with Howie Long and Rickey Jackson.
That’s six Hall of Famers before the end of the second round, a list which doesn’t even include undrafted linebacker Sam Mills, who would join the group posthumously after being inducted in 2022. No other draft class since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 has sent more than three defenders to Canton, let alone challenge the 1981 class by producing six.
Over the past 15 years, though, I’ve been tracking another draft year that seemed poised to compete with the greatest defensive class of all time. I wrote about the Class of 2011 in August 2013 and then again in 2016, as many of its players hit stardom and reached their peaks.
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Now, a decade later, the class is down to two or potentially three players still on the field. Cameron Heyward continues to excel with the Steelers. Cameron Jordan has re-signed with the Saints. And while Von Miller remains a free agent, the eight-time Pro Bowler is coming off a nine-sack season and could continue his career somewhere in 2026. But everybody else from a banner crop of star defenders has retired.
Heyward and Jordan might play a key role in determining where their draft class lands in the annals of NFL history. I would expect the Class of 2011 to start getting fitted for gold jackets in 2027. Their chances of landing as the best defensive class in NFL history could come down to whether Heyward and Jordan join them one day.
Let’s talk about the Class of 2011 — the players who did make it, the ones who sadly didn’t live up to early expectations and whether this group could end up accomplishing the unthinkable in competing with that legendary Class of 1981 once everyone officially brings their career to an end.
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The unique 2011 class
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The 2011 draft was particularly consequential and atypical. With the league’s collective bargaining agreement expiring, organizations weren’t able to make moves involving veterans. While teams typically draft after seeing how things shake out in free agency, this was the rare draft that took place before the free agent window, which ended up playing out in mid-July after the lockout was averted.
The new CBA that was signed as a result capped rookie salaries, eliminating the trend of highly drafted players quickly becoming the highest-paid players at their positions without ever having played an NFL snap. The first overall pick in 2010, Sam Bradford, signed a six-year, $78 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. A year later, 2011 first overall pick Cam Newton’s deal was for four years and $22 million. In the process, the entire calculus of the NFL changed, as the league’s highest draft picks grew dramatically in value and became more desirable.
As the 2011 draft took place, though, teams had to basically operate in the dark. Newton was a relatively controversial top pick, as many scouts preferred Missouri product Blaine Gabbert. The Falcons made a dramatic (and ultimately successful) move up to No. 6 to take Julio Jones. The Alabama wideout is a surefire Hall of Famer on the offensive side of the ball. Longtime Cowboys tackle Tyron Smith and sixth-round center Jason Kelce might complete the Hall of Fame proceedings from the offensive Class of 2011, though, with players such as A.J. Green, DeMarco Murray and Newton landing just short. That’s a solid group.
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The defensive class of 1981 had a hidden factor working in its favors: The prior classes hadn’t been very good. From 1970 to 1977, the average defensive draft class produced just under 10 first-team All-Pro seasons. The Class of 1978, though, managed only two first-team All-Pro seasons. Sure, 1979 bumped that to five, and 1980 might it seven, but that was a three-year span where the defensive classes averaged a shade under five first-team All-Pro appearances. Just two defenders from that three-year window made it to the Hall of Fame, and ironically, they lined up next to each other: Bears defensive tackles Dan Hampton and Steve “Mongo” McMichael, the latter making it in 2024, 30 years after his initial retirement. And unsurprisingly, the class of 1982 that followed that loaded 1981 group did little as pros, combining for just three first-team All-Pro spots.
This wasn’t really the case for the Class of 2011. The 2009 class did little on defense, collectively earning a single first-team All-Pro nod for Clay Matthews. But from 2010, eight different players earned first-team All-Pro appearances, eventually combining for 18 appearances. That class might struggle to produce a Hall of Famer, although the likes of Ndamukong Suh, Earl Thomas, Eric Berry and Devin McCourty had impactful and successful pro careers. And then 2012 managed 20 first-team All-Pro nods and has already sent Luke Kuechly to the Hall (fellow linebacker Bobby Wagner will follow once eligible).
So in other words, 2011 wasn’t a case of fortuitous timing, where the vast majority of the great players from a multiyear span happened to squeeze into one draft class. Ten different defenders made at least one first-team All-Pro appearance, which actually tops the Class of 1981 (although one subsequent class has managed to push the record to 11 — more on that group later). The average draft from 1970-2014 produced 11 first-team All-Pro appearances from just under six players, putting 2011 on the high end of great defensive classes.
Where 2011 really stood out and continues to impress, though, is at the very top end of talent. There are deeper classes. In fact, 2012 produced more cumulative approximate value than 2011 on the defensive side of the ball, even if we limit our look to the top 30 defenders in each class (per Pro Football Reference). In terms of Hall of Famers, though, 2011 has a much better shot of unseating (or at least competing) with the Class of 1981. Running through the class’s top players should make that clear.
J.J. Watt, Edge, Texans/Cardinals
Let’s start with the most dominant player in the class. I’ve been covering the league for nearly two decades now, and I’m not sure I’ve seen any defensive player take over games quite the way Watt did at his peak. Between 2012-2015, Watt racked up 69 sacks, 190 quarterback hits and 119 tackles for loss. His average season would have been a Defensive Player of the Year-caliber campaign. And while injuries brought Watt’s career to a halt, the 11th overall pick still managed 16- and 12.5-sack seasons later on before retiring.
Watt was on track to become one of the greatest defenders in NFL history when I wrote about this class in 2016. And while he didn’t get all the way there, he’s an easy Hall of Fame selection.
Von Miller, Edge, Broncos/Rams/Bills/Commanders
Even if Miller doesn’t return to the league for a 15th pro season, he has done enough on the field to earn his gold jacket. Miller was Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2011 and finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year balloting twice. He’s ninth on the league’s official list in career sacks (138.5) and played a key role in two Super Bowl wins (one for the Broncos, one for the Rams), including a Super Bowl MVP award for a 2.5-sack performance against the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
Richard Sherman, CB, Seahawks/49ers/Buccaneers
No, I don’t remember that Buccaneers stint, either. While Sherman had an impressive second run with the 49ers, most will remember him in Seahawks colors. Sherman was a fifth-round pick, but he quickly proved to be a perfect fit for Pete Carroll, who used the cornerback’s size and length to disrupt receivers at the line of scrimmage in Seattle’s single-high defense. Sherman quickly emerged as a star, racking up eight interceptions in both the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Teams started throwing the other way from that point forward.
While it’s tough to prove this with data, I would certainly argue that there’s a bump for players who were members of legendary, notable units. Sherman gets that for his work with the Legion of Boom, and with Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor unlikely to earn their own enshrinements, Sherman won’t suffer from having the vote split among his fellow teammates. The current color analyst currently ranks 27th all time among defensive backs by Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor. Every other defensive back ahead of him is currently in the Hall of Fame … expect one.
Patrick Peterson, CB, Cardinals/Vikings/Steelers
That one defensive back ahead of Sherman is Peterson, who won’t be eligible until 2029. As Sherman’s contemporary in the NFC West, I’m not sure Peterson ever got the credit he was due for his work with the Cardinals. After being drafted with the first overall pick in 2011, he quickly unveiled himself to the league with one of the greatest return seasons in league history, taking four punts to the house for an Arizona team that managed to win eight games with Kevin Kolb and John Skelton at quarterback.
If Peterson doesn’t feel like he’s a lock, consider this fact. The LSU product made it to the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons. He’s one of just 16 players to start their career going 8-for-8 in the Pro Bowl; 12 of those players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, and all of them are in. The three others who aren’t yet eligible for enshrinement are Aaron Donald, Tyreek Hill and Quenton Nelson — each of whom are likely to walk in as first-ballot entrants. Peterson might have had a relatively muted end to his career after that eight-year start, but it would be a surprise if he had much trouble getting in the Hall.
With those four, the Class of 2011 would be the second-most-decorated group of defenders in modern draft history, with no other single draft class producing more than three Hall of Famers to this point. If things stop there, this would already be a legendary crop of defenders. What makes this even more impressive is that there are a handful of players who seemed to be on track to join them, only for their careers to be disrupted along the way.
This was also a weirdly lopsided class. There are two surefire Hall of Famers at cornerback in Peterson and Sherman, but the next-best corner from the 2011 draft was probably Prince Amukamara, Byron Maxwell or Jimmy Smith. Chris Harris, who made four Pro Bowls as a standout with the Broncos, went undrafted out of Kansas that year before quickly becoming a key player in Denver.
Things were even more barren at safety, where the only players who ended up becoming multiyear starters in the NFL are Marcus Gilchrist, Chris Conte, Da’Norris Searcy and Rahim Moore. There was a significant drop-off from the top two drafted defensive backs and everybody else in this class.
Up front, though, this might be the most stacked defensive line class of all time. Beyond Watt and Miller, there were a number of edge rushers who were absolutely devastating on their best day.
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Through the first two years of this class’ time in the NFL, the most dominant player might have been Aldon Smith, who was a revelation for the 49ers’ defense. Teaming with (unrelated) defensive lineman Justin Smith to form an unblockable duo, Aldon Smith simply overwhelmed opposing offensive lines for coordinator Vic Fangio. Despite playing in a situational role as a rookie, he managed 33.5 sacks across his first two seasons, which was more than the likes of Reggie White (31) and Derrick Thomas (30). Al Baker was the only defender in league history to rack up more sacks over his first two years than Smith, who appeared to be in position to excel as the best pass rusher of his draft class.
Smith’s career was subsequently derailed by off-field brushes with the law and suspensions, with the seventh overall pick managing 19 sacks over the subsequent 43 games he played as a pro. He spent four years out of football before returning during the 2020 season for a final year with the Cowboys. Sadly, Smith died earlier this summer at the age of 36.
Robert Quinn was the next to look like a potential superstar edge rusher. Teaming with Chris Long in St. Louis, Quinn jumped from five sacks as a rookie to 10 in Year 2 and 19.5 in Year 3, with the latter campaign earning him a first-team All-Pro nod. Quinn would later produce an 18.5-sack season, becoming one of just eight players with two 18-plus sack campaigns during their careers. Six of the seven others are Hall of Famers or locks to get there.
Of course, seven years passed between Quinn’s two huge pass-rush seasons, and the 12-year pro averaged seven sacks per year across that span. Quinn underwent back surgery in 2015, which cost him nearly a half-season’s worth of games and might have limited him during his potential peak years. He had spectacular highs, but Quinn wasn’t consistent enough to earn serious Hall of Fame consideration.
The Chiefs landed a standout in Justin Houston, who earned a first-team All-Pro nod with a 22-sack season in his fourth campaign. The third-round pick racked up 43 sacks over a three-year span, but a 2015 knee injury slowed his progress. Houston settled in as something closer to a very good rusher over the rest of his career, with five seasons of eight or more sacks but none with more than 11. With 112 career sacks, Houston didn’t do enough to make it to the Hall of Fame but his peak was impressive.
Behind them were impactful players such as Ryan Kerrigan, Corey Liuget and Jabaal Sheard, each of whom enjoyed a lengthy career. And this doesn’t even include Jordan, who we’ll get to in a moment.
Defensive tackle wasn’t too bad, either. The best DT in the class after Heyward might have been Titans 3-technique Jurrell Casey, who made five consecutive Pro Bowls in his 20s before a biceps injury ended his career at age 31. Muhammad Wilkerson produced 10.5- and 12-sack seasons with the Jets; likewise, an ankle injury brought Wilkerson’s career to a halt before he turned 30. Marcell Dareus was a first-team All-Pro for the Bills in 2014, but he also retired after his age-29 season.
If any of these guys had been able to play deep into their 30s, they might have had a shot at pushing toward the Hall.
Even if Miller doesn’t return to the league in 2026, he has already done enough to make it to the Hall of Fame. The two class of 2011 defensive draftees still playing aren’t locks, which makes their 2026 seasons even more important. I’m not sure their teams have much hope of competing for a Super Bowl, but a big year from either of these guys might be what it takes to get them over the Hall of Fame line.
Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward has had an unconventional career. He’s entering a 16th season with the same team, which is rare in the modern NFL. The only defenders from this class to spend at least 10 seasons with the same team are the two remaining players and Jimmy Smith, who lasted 11 years with the Ravens. The 31st overall pick was an effective player early in his career, but after suffering a pectoral injury during his age-27 season, Heyward looked like he was in the middle of a solid-but-underappreciated career, having failed to earn a Pro Bowl or any sort of All-Pro nod.
But since turning 28, Heyward has made seven Pro Bowls and been a first-team All-Pro four times. Just 20 players have made seven or more Pro Bowls after turning 28. Since 1990, the only players to pull that off are Derrick Brooks, Brian Dawkins, Ray Lewis, John Lynch, Ed Reed, Bruce Smith and Rod Woodson. They’re all in the Hall of Fame. There’s a certain advantage to ending your career playing at a high level. It’s easier for voters to forget what someone did earlier in their career, although we tend to consider a player’s entire career more holistically as we get further removed from their tenure.
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Heyward has also been remarkably healthy, which has helped him rack up cumulatively impressive seasons. Since that pectoral injury cost him most of the 2016 season, Heyward has missed a grand total of six games due to injuries, all due to a 2023 groin injury. He immediately responded with an eight-sack, 20-knockdown season in 2024, earning his fourth first-team All-Pro nod.
In a different era, playing 15 years of excellent football for the Steelers would have almost surely come with at least one Super Bowl victory. The only blemish on Heyward’s record might be his modest performance in the postseason. He has won just one of the 10 playoff games he has played, and that took a penalty-driven meltdown by the Bengals in the final minute to score the Steelers a victory. Heyward had just one sack in those 10 games. I don’t pin much of the blame for Pittsburgh’s postseason failures on Heyward, of course, but that’s the one place where skeptics could poke holes in his résumé.
Heyward ranks 16th in Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor for defensive tackles, just ahead of Chris Jones, whose impact across multiple playoff runs for the Chiefs should make for an easy Hall case. Several players ahead of Heyward aren’t yet in, including Kevin Williams, Fletcher Cox and Ndamukong Suh. The latter two aren’t currently eligible, but I’m not sure either is a lock. My sense is that Heyward is probably already on the borderline of getting in but that one more Pro Bowl-caliber season would be enough to cinch it for the Steelers standout.
Saints edge rusher Cameron Jordan was trending for the Hall of Very Good before things turned around in 2025. The Saints had reduced Jordan’s playing time into a situational role, with the first-round pick racking up six sacks between 2023 and 2024 … but Jordan produced 10.5 sacks and 15 tackles for loss while playing 54% of the defensive snaps in 2025.
Was Jordan great last season? Probably not. Two of those sacks were unblocked. A quarterback fell down on a half-sack. He had four coverage sacks.
Will any of that matter in a few years when people are considering Jordan’s Hall of Fame chances? Of course not. And while Jordan might have fallen into a couple of sacks at the end of his career, there were plenty of times he created sacks for teammates and didn’t get credit on the stat sheet earlier in his run with the Saints.
That 2025 season might end up being particularly helpful for Jordan’s candidacy. He’s now one of just 28 players to produce seven or more seasons with double-digit sacks. Of the 25 who are eligible for the Hall of Fame, 18 are enshrined.
The guys who aren’t there might be considered as Jordan’s equals. Players such as John Abraham, Leslie O’Neal, Chandler Jones and Simeon Rice were impactful pass rushers for the majority of their careers, but Rice and Jones were mostly done by their age-31 seasons. Abraham held on for longer, but Jordan has managed to increase his Hall of Fame chances by producing a 10.5-sack age-36 season. The only game that Jordan has missed to injury during his pro career was in 2020, when he was sidelined by COVID protocols. Simply being available for a very long time has helped him, even if he wasn’t quite as dominant as someone like Jones at their respective best.
Like Heyward, Jordan currently ranks 16th at his position in Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor. Unlike Heyward at defensive tackle, though, everybody ahead of Jordan is either already in or a lock to get in, with J.J. Watt and Myles Garrett as the only ineligibles ahead of the Saints standout. Jordan has been a first-team All-Pro only once, which would be a relatively low number for a Hall of Fame edge rusher, but he has made eight Pro Bowls and ranks 17th on the league’s official register of career sacks (132).
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The best comparable for Jordan might be Terrell Suggs, who racked up 139 sacks across a 17-year career. Suggs had seven double-digit sack campaigns, but he topped 12 only once, with a 14-sack season earning him a Defensive Player of the Year award in 2011. Jordan was fourth in Defensive Player of the Year balloting in 2017, the only year that he won votes for the award. I think Suggs should be in, but after retiring in 2019, he hasn’t yet commanded the votes required.
If Jordan can manage six sacks in 2026, he’ll jump from 17th in all-time sacks to 11th. The only player ahead of him in career sacks who wouldn’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame and enshrined in Canton would be Suggs. My instinct is that both Suggs and Jordan would eventually get in, but just as Suggs is still waiting, it might take Jordan a few years to earn his trip to Ohio. If Jordan makes it to eight sacks and passes Suggs, he’s likely to get in.
If Jordan and Heyward both miss out, this is still pretty clearly the second-best defensive class since the merger. If they both get in, then the 2011 class will tie 1981 with six Hall of Fame defenders.
I’d still lean toward the 1981 class being better, though. As dominant as Watt was at his best, Taylor is one of the few players in NFL history who could claim to be more of a game-wrecker than the former Texans star. Lott is one of the best defensive backs in league history. Singletary had a case as the best linebacker in football for nearly a decade. Long and Jackson had narrower cases, but the top of the 1981 class was better than its 2011 counterparts. Even if we settle on 2011 being the second-best class in league history, well, that’s still impressive.
Does any draft class have a chance of challenging 1981 or 2011 anytime soon? I’m not sure. The 2012 group has already sent one player to the Hall in Luke Kuechly, and Bobby Wagner is a lock, but the most plausible candidates after the two linebackers are Fletcher Cox and Stephon Gilmore, who might not have been productive enough to make it in.
Tyrann Mathieu is the only defender from 2013 with even a faint shot of making it to the Hall of Fame, and though Aaron Donald is a sure thing from 2014, the only other player who could join him from that year is Khalil Mack, who might fall into the same boat as Suggs and Jordan. The 2015 class won’t send anybody on defense to Canton, and the only candidates from 2016 are Chris Jones, Jalen Ramsey and perhaps Kevin Byard.
As we get closer to the present, there’s still time for later classes to take major strides toward the Hall. Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt are on their way from 2017, but defensive backs Budda Baker and Marlon Humphrey have work to do if they want to follow in kind. Then 2018 has four players who have earned at least three first-team All-Pro honors. Three are linebackers in Roquan Smith, Fred Warner and Shaquille Leonard, the latter of whom was sadly finished as a player after four seasons due to back troubles. Minkah Fitzpatrick probably needs another big season to get in.
The 2019 class has plenty of stars, but guys such as Nick Bosa, Quinnen Williams and Jeffery Simmons aren’t yet close to being sure things. The class of 2020 isn’t pacing to send anyone. And 2021 has two young stars on Hall of Fame tracks in Micah Parsons and Pat Surtain II, but the only other defender to earn a first-team All-Pro nod so far is Talanoa Hufanga.
If there’s a recent class that might have a shot, I’d call out the defensive players taken in the 2022 draft. They can piece together a wildly impressive secondary, with Sauce Gardner, Derek Stingley Jr. and Trent McDuffie at cornerback, and Kyle Hamilton starring at safety. Aidan Hutchinson has been consistently productive since entering the league in Detroit, and teammate Kerby Joseph emerged as a star before suffering what might be a career-altering knee injury. Nik Bonitto has racked up 27.5 sacks over the past two years and made consecutive Pro Bowls.
There’s still so long for those players to go, which makes projecting future Hall of Fame chances little more than a guessing game. With the class of 2011, though, a group that quickly looked like it could be historically great has mostly lived up to expectations.
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