NFL's best: Julius Peppers and the top 10 DE's of 2011

Decades after Deacon Jones' retirement, mere mention of the irrepressible force of nature conjures up images of uncommon aggression and hostility. The dominant Hall of Fame defensive end with the white horns on his helmet (Jones spent 11 of his 14 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams) made quarterbacks dizzy while he epitomized and revolutionized his position during the 1960s.

Back in the day, the "Secretary of Defense" put his big, taped mitts in the dirt and forever changed the lexicon of pro football, giving birth to the term "sack" and recording 26 of them in 1967, which would stand as a record if the NFL hadn't waited to make it an official statistic until 1982.

But the five-time first-team all-pro also was stout against the run, crushing ballcarriers alongside the other members of the Rams' famous "Fearsome Foursome" defensive line. Not too shabby for a fellow selected in the 14th round of the NFL draft out of Mississippi Vocational College (now Mississippi Valley State) in 1961.

But Jones played defensive end in your father's NFL, not the current version.

"They are more specialized now," says Atlanta Falcons defensive line coach Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton, a dominating defensive tackle who started out playing end during his nine-year career with the New England Patriots (1973-81). "You do not have as many guys who can do it all. You have pass-rush specialists and run stoppers."

That development leaves Jones with a loud snort of disapproval. A member of the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, Jones, 72, thinks the position, like many in modern football, has had too many layers peeled away for the sake of defensive sophistication.

"Specialize? Run stoppers?" Jones says. "I hate to hear that. If you don't know how to play the run game, you ain't going to be no pass rusher. The guys who do that are not full-fledged football players."

Yet last season Julius Peppers demonstrated he was fully capable of embodying Jones' notion of a complete defensive end during a career rebirth after signing with the Chicago Bears. Peppers was ranked as the game's best defensive end by USA TODAY Sports Weekly's panel of NFL writers and editors. Regarded primarily as a sack master during his first eight seasons with the Carolina Panthers, Peppers also was a force in shutting down opposing backfields in the Bears' 4-3 defensive alignment in 2010.

When Chicago raced to a 4-1 start in October, Pro Football Weekly splashed the powerful end on its cover and proclaimed him, "The Newest Monster of the Midway." Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, Peppers' highly decorated teammate, called him the best defensive player in the NFL.

He even pleased at least one tough critic.

"Julius Peppers impresses me as much as anyone," Jones says. "He has it all."

But even in an era that features fewer multidimensional players, Peppers has impressive company among his peer group. Joining him in Sports Weekly's top five are Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts, Justin Tuck of the New York Giants, John Abraham of the Atlanta Falcons and Jared Allen of the Minnesota Vikings.

"All those guys have defensive attitudes; I like that," says Jones, who still follows the game.

Yet the list of impact defensive ends extends well beyond that elite quintet.

"There is a long list of 'em," says New York Jets right guard Brandon Moore, who regularly watched D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Damien Woody, the Jets' starting tackles since 2008, prepare for perpetual two-pronged onslaughts. "Every week they are concentrating on how to neutralize ends, getting extra coaching and (prepping) on game plans on how to stop them."

Schemes value speed on edge or inside

It certainly is not getting any easier. Defensive ends are becoming quicker and faster, like missiles complete with radar detection set on locating — and detonating — quarterbacks. They have continued to evolve into their modern roles even as defensive coordinators try to play catch-up with the proliferation of increasingly complex passing attacks. That makes applying pressure to the quarterback, along with disrupting the rhythm between passer and pass catchers, of paramount importance.

That is particularly true for ends lining up out of the 4-3 front, which features four down linemen and three linebackers.

These days, some teams line up as many as four nominal defensive ends in specific third-down passing situations. Offensive lines are not constructed to deal with that kind of speed.

"You can create more mismatches against perhaps inferior players on the inside," Moore says of the struggles guards and centers face in handling elite speed rushers in such packages.

Tuck is a good, tough run stopper, according to Hamilton. Playing mostly outside while occasionally sliding in — as he did while harassing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLII — Tuck (6-5, 274 pounds) earned a Pro Bowl nod last year after compiling 11½ sacks, forcing six fumbles and amassing 76 tackles, second best among conventional defensive ends.

Freeney is cut from a different cloth. His hallmark is speed, and he lives on the edge while trying to outflank pass protectors. Last season, he produced 10 sacks as he started all 16 games for the Colts for the first time since 2006. The six-time Pro Bowler is only 6-1, 268 pounds, so he relies on his quickness and a wide variety of moves to create mayhem. His spin move has become legendary.

Robert Mathis, who bookends Freeney on the Colts' line and ranks sixth on Sports Weekly's list, is even sleeker at 6-2, 245 pounds. With 168 total sacks in 17 combined seasons, the duo have long forced offensive coordinators to pick their poison.

"Their element of speed is mind-boggling," raves Baltimore Ravens defensive line coach Clarence Brooks. "They can get out of their stance and get around an offensive lineman so fast that it is remarkable. It is a thing of beauty to watch those two guys."

Falcons coach Mike Smith loves what he sees when he watches Abraham, who last season became the 25th NFL player to record 100 career sacks, line up in his one-gap scheme. The 6-4, 263-pounder was selected to his fourth Pro Bowl after a 13-sack, 40-tackle effort in 2010.

Allen continues to be a player for which offensive coaching staffs must account on every snap. The three-time Pro Bowler and first-team all-pro performer has averaged nearly a dozen sacks over his first seven NFL seasons.

"He is the prototypical right defensive end coming off the edge," Brooks says. "He is extremely quick and extremely competitive — great motor. He can make an offensive lineman look really stupid."

Allen's sack total dipped from 14½ in 2009 to 11 last year, but the 6-6, 270-pounder maintains a well-rounded skill set. While he is more routinely celebrated for getting after the quarterback, his speed enables him to play the run effectively as teams often try to chip him with a tight end.

"Jared can play the run and rush the passer," Vikings defensive line coach Karl Dunbar insists. "Teams are always worried about him slipping a block and getting into the backfield."

Peppers follows in footsteps of White, other greats

While pursuit and disruption of the quarterback are of paramount importance, often leading to splashy highlight-reel sacks and costly turnovers, defensive ends must also be capable of holding the point of attack against the run. That often means banging against offensive tackles who can outweigh them by 50 pounds or more. Sledgehammer running teams can exploit lighter ends, who inevitably evolve into pass-rush specialists if they're constantly steamrolled by run blocks. But they can survive in that role because, as Hamilton notes, "Sacks are what get you all the attention."

Jones was the original sack master. At 6-5, 272 pounds, he regularly rearranged face masks as a member of the Rams' front four that included Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy and fellow Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen. At that time, Jones' power and speed made him a lethal seek-and-destroy package.

"We came at you every down," Jones recalls of the Rams' front. "We didn't acknowledge the run; we stopped it. Penetration kills it every day. We rushed the passer every down."

In later years, Reggie White, known as the "Minister of Defense," would come to embody that same philosophy while masterfully combining many of the attributes of his predecessors: Jones, Gino Marchetti, Carl Eller, Lee Roy Selmon, Richard Dent, Howie Long and others.

Many NFL coaches and experts think White was the best defensive linemen ever and perhaps the premier defensive player of all time. His sheer dominance makes that a difficult premise to debate: White lined up at left end for most of his 15 seasons, primarily split between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He retired as the game's all-time sack leader with 198, a figure subsequently surpassed by Bruce Smith (who finished with two more sacks in 19 years).

White, who was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006, played in the 4-3 defense, the alignment of choice throughout the NFL until recent years (about half the league's teams now employ the 3-4 front). In the 4-3, the strong-side defensive end, who lines up opposite the tight end, must be strong enough at the point of attack to contain the run; providing pressure is often a bonus. White did both with unique aplomb.

Now Peppers is proving he can be effective in both roles, as well, even if he doesn't quite measure up to White's unique blend of power and speed.

The Bears signed the free agent before the 2010 season, giving him more than $40million in guaranteed money. Peppers repaid the Bears with an all-pro effort — teammates consistently said his eight sacks last year hardly quantified his value to the defense — that helped catapult Chicago to the NFC North title.

"You never really know when they're going to come," Peppers, 30, said in November of sacks after the eighth three-sack game of his career against the Miami Dolphins. "You just keep doing your thing and working hard, and they will come."

But he applied the same sort of diligence toward stopping running backs in 2010 after weathering criticism that he too often disappeared in games while in Carolina.

It wasn't that Peppers didn't produce with the Panthers. It was that he wasn't consistent enough, said critics who questioned why he appeared to vanish into a Carolina-blue sky in some games.

3-4 ends tend to clog gaps rather than hit edge

Conversely, ends in the 3-4 usually are bigger and far more physical because they primarily are relied upon to halt the run and tie up blockers for their teammates. In that scheme, quarterback pressure largely comes from the outside linebackers or blitzing defensive backs. In the 3-4, two standing edge rushers are typically stationed on the outside shoulders of the ends to apply heat to the quarterback.

"It's really hard to compare defensive ends in the 4-3 against guys in the 3-4," Houston Texans defensive line coach Bill Kollar says. "Guys in the 4-3 are playing outside everybody; they are more pass-rush guys. Your ends in a 3-4 are a different story. They really are more run-down players than pass rushers. It is totally opposite, really."

That's exactly why Texans Pro Bowl defensive end Mario Williams will convert to outside linebacker in Houston's newly adopted 3-4 to better take advantage of the skill set he employed as a 4-3 end.

The shift toward the three-man front — the Bears were the only one of last year's four conference finalists to use a 4-3 base — is largely a matter of supply and demand.

Coaches and scouts think there are more players emerging from college who fit the mold of a boilerplate pass rusher, players whose physical characteristics — typically a 6-2, 250-pound frame — enable them to perform better standing up. Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebackers LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison pulverize quarterbacks while underrated defensive end Aaron Smith concentrates on halting the run in Pittsburgh's 3-4 alignment.

Smith, 35, has quietly crafted a career as the prototype 3-4 end but has been slowed in recent years because of injuries, starting a combined 11 games the last two seasons. When healthy, he clogs the gaps while Harrison and Woodley roar around them. Smith's 44 career sacks don't display his value.

"He's all over the field," says Dunbar, who hypothesizes that many teams have gone to the 3-4 because "you get more 'athletes' — linebackers — on the field."

Dunbar should know: He played on the defensive line in the 3-4 at LSU and then in the same scheme professionally with the Steelers and New Orleans Saints. He later played in Buddy Ryan's blitz-happy 4-3 for the Arizona Cardinals in the 1990s.

"I always thought the 3-4 was better because (offenses) didn't know where the fourth rusher was coming from," he says. "If you look at Peyton Manning, he always has problems against the 3-4."

Among the top-rated ends operating from the 3-4 are the Steelers' Smith, teammate Brett Keisel and the Cardinals' Darnell Dockett, a 30-year-old, 6-4, 290-pound beast who tied White's record for sacks in a Super Bowl (three) against the Steelers in 2009.

From the younger generation, Peppers' potential heirs atop the positional heap include the St.Louis Rams' Chris Long, 26, and the Panthers' Charles Johnson, 24.

Long, the son of Hall of Famer Howie Long, was the second overall pick in the 2008 draft and displayed dramatic improvement in his third campaign. A highly active player in the Rams' 4-3 defense, Long notched 8½ sacks and forced three fumbles in 2010.

Johnson, meanwhile, started 16 games for the first time for the Panthers and finished with 11½ sacks to salve Peppers' departure. His emergence could lead to a lucrative offseason when free agency officially opens.

But while youngsters claw their way to the top, veterans still produce at high levels. Richard Seymour, who is adept inside and out in 4-3 and 3-4 schemes, showed last season he is far from long in the tooth. After he was named to the Pro Bowl for the sixth time last season, the Oakland Raiders made the 31-year-old the highest-paid defensive player in the league with a two-year, $30million extension, including $22.5million guaranteed.

"The guy is a beast," Brooks says. "He is up there in age, but he can still really bring it."

Relentlessness, excellence and versatility earn respect from Jones, who lost his fire at age 36 during his final season with the Washington Redskins in 1974. Being anything other than a full-spectrum force leaves the old man guffawing as he assesses his legacy and those who have followed the trail he blazed.

"When you start thinking, 'I am a specialist, man.' … Well, yeah, I was a specialist, I guess," he says.

"I specialized in breakin' necks."