2025 Pre-Season Rank #44, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #57, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #87, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #102 2021 Pre-Season Rank #102, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #90.  Peak Period: 2018-19/2023-25

Danielle Hunter may not have been even a Pro Bowl Selection (though he was a Second Team All-Pro), but the current Houston Texan has evolved into one of the most effective and consistent pass rushers in the game.

Hunter broke the 100 Sack mark last year, and on the loaded Texans defense, he is poised to get his fifth double-digit year in that stat.  While he might be on the north side of 30, he still owns that sick blend of finesse and ferocity, and though he is revered in football circles, he often gets left behind in general football conversation.

A monster season puts him in the conversation, as would five more great ones; he is capable of both scenarios despite being 31.  This could be the year that gets him in.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #9, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #17, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #34, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #53, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #99, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #144.  Peak Period: 2021-25

It feels like nobody deserves a change of scenery more than Myles Garrett.

After nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, where he won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, earned five First Team All-Pros, seven Pro Bowls, recorded 125 Sacks and 149 Tackles for Loss, Garrett arrives in Los Angeles, joining the already loaded Rams, where he has his first legitimate chance for a Super Bowl.

Over the past four seasons, Garrett’s numbers have been staggering.  In addition to his two DPOYs, he was fifth in 2022,  third in 2024, and has compiled 67 Sacks and 90 Tackles for Loss…and now he has Aaron Donald on the same line!  Although he is now 30, there is no reason to think that he can not extend his prime in Los Angeles.

Regardless of what happens in SoFi, no player who won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards has failed to make it to Canton. 

2025 Pre-Season Rank #19, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #33, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #38, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #75, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #87.  Peak Period: 2017-21

In the first six seasons of Cameron Heyward's career, there was no mention of him ever sniffing the Hall of Fame. The next six years would change everything, as Heyward’s production increased, and he strung together a six-year Pro Bowl streak (2017-22) that included three First Team All-Pros.  Heyward was not just a consummate disruptor; he was an all-around role model who won the 2023 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

In 2024, at the age of 35, Heyward added his seventh Pro Bowl, but because his role is not purely as a pass-rusher, his 92 Sacks and 142 Tackles for Loss do not jump off the page, though, of course, we suspect the Hall of Fame voters know this.   Astoundingly, closer to 40 than he is 30, Heyward appears to have so much more left to give the game.