All roads lead back to Pittsburgh, including the three best defensive players in the NFL.
Two Steelers — defensive tackle Cam Heyward and linebacker T.J. Watt — as well as Rams defensive tackle and Pittsburgh native Aaron Donald topped Pro Football Focus’ list of the NFL’s best defenders released Tuesday.
Aaron Donald: best defensive player in the NFL pic.twitter.com/lGv0nEYYHm
— PFF (@PFF) January 21, 2020
Donald, who went to Penn Hills and later Pitt, came in at No. 1 on PFF’s ranking with a 93.7 rating. Heyward was in second place with a 91.5 score and Watt rounded out the top three with a 91.3 rating.
At this point, Donald is used to racking up accolades like this. He was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, and he finished this year with 48 combined tackles, 12.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.
Watt and Heyward wreaked havoc in opposing backfields all season as the leaders of a dominant Steelers pass rush. They helped Pittsburgh go from a porous defense the previous few years to the fifth-best unit in football this season.
Pro Football Focus has been very complimentary of the Steelers this week. They had a lot of nice things to say earlier this week about defensive tackle Tyson Alualu and his increased production in 2019.
It’s been a while since the Steelers’ defense was this universally praised by the football community. Hopefully they keep up that quality of play going forward.
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxel222
First Published: January 22, 2020, 12:45 a.m.
