Is Will Anderson Jr. be the best defensive player in the NFL?

Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice is joined by Diante Lee of The Ringer to draft the top defensive players for 2026 and explain why Texans’ edge rusher checks all the boxes. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

I think I’m going to go in a little bit of a, a, an unconventional, you know, in comparison to the other guy I’m leaving off here, and I’m gonna take Will Anderson Jr. was my first- I knew it overall pick.

Like, and I’ll say, you know me, I mean, we were working together when, you know- He’s your Drake Maye draft was coming up 100%.

Like, I was going to bat, I was willing to fight with anybody when he was coming out of Bama.

Like, you guys don’t see it, you don’t get it, you haven’t watched closely enough.

You need to go back and evaluate X, Y, or Z thing.

And this is not to say that right now he is better than Myles Garrett, or right now his resume is better than Michael Parsons or, you know, some of the other edge rushers that we probably would consider within the top three picks.

But if you’re asking me what kind of impact he’s going to have in 2026, specifically coming off the year he just had, where I think you can make an argument that he was the best run defender at his position in the league, you s- you’re really starting to see the explosion in sack production.

you know, since he’s been in the league, he’s been pretty consistent, but you’re really starting to see that leap coming forward.

12 sacks last year, set a new career high mark, right?

2% sacks per drop back, which if you go back the last three seasons looking at True Media, that’s a 97th percentile, figure for him.

You look at the QB hit rate every year it’s been in the 90th percentile or better.

Like, he checks every box.

And then if you want to talk about, like, me as a football coach, former football player, like from a culture setter, you know, the style of play is totally indicative in Houston of how he approaches the game.

From the moment that pick was made, you knew that not only was DeMeco Ryans gonna run a good defense, but that that defense would look exactly like how Will Anderson plays.

That’s what you see from him on a week-to-week basis, and I’d have a hard time believing he’s gonna be any worse than the third-best player on the defensive side of the ball, basically irrespective of position, in my opinion, in 2026.

So to me, and this might be a little tipping my hand a little bit, but I think you’re gonna look at the same way, same way.

I feel like there’s a top three to me and, and this is just- Yep also how I rank positions with, I’m gonna include Micah and I include Myles- Mm-hmm Garrett as well.

Yep.

That’s me.

Those are my top three.

You know how I just– Okay, that’s my top three, and that’s- Yep Micah coming off an AS- ACL just gets the ding.

That’s how I, that’s- Yep the tiebreaker, whether it’s fair or not.

He’s one of the craz- best defenders I’ve ever seen in my life.

My number two pick will be- Yep Myles Garrett.

I’ll just spoil it so I know who your number three- Yep pick’s gonna be.

but- For sure I had Will Anderson’s stats ’cause I was, was gonna take him second if you didn’t take him first.

So I’m right there with you.

A- if you just, we have, I feel like I’ve talked about with Will Anderson with you more than most other people.

We both had- Mm-hmm the comparison coming out of college was Khalil Mack.

I- Yep.

He’s kind of become his own thing, and he has the same- Yeah impact against the run, the pass, but he’s even a bit more dynamic as a pass rusher than Khalil was.

and, and just, yeah, they’re not, it’s not all, no players are one-to-one, but man, how he impacts the run and the pass, how hard he plays, you talk about culture, just personality, all that stuff, playing reps, not missing time.

But I was looking this up- Yes just prepping ’cause I was, I was gonna throw heat on Will Anderson too.

I looked at all defenders on True Media with 300 or more pass rush snaps since 2019.

Okay, there’s 704 players.

Will Anderson last year in 2025 had the second highest pressure rate according to True Media.

And then also finished with a 97th percentile run stuff rate, which is tackles for loss- Yeah or tackles for zero yards, that went for, gained zero yards.

It’s, so that’s just what he was in college.

He racked up TFLs playing in a role that wasn’t conducive to racking up stats.

Right.

And just- Right still, yeah, and then now he gets to the NFL and plays in a defense that lets him pin his ears back, and not only pin his ears back, you get to see where all that stunting he did in college really gets to get highlighted ’cause of all the, you know, the games and twists that they’ll do in Houston.

So it’s just- Yeah he’s a phenomenal player, and to me, one of the elite, elite non-quarterbacks, however you wanna put it, in the NFL.

Tags: