Offensive coordinators spend their weeks building game plans. Defensive players like these spend their weeks making those game plans irrelevant.
The five
4. T.J. Watt, EDGE, Pittsburgh Steelers
Parsons recorded 12.5 sacks in just 14 games for the Packers in 2025 before tearing his ACL in Week 15, and is expected to miss the first three to four games of 2026 on the PUP list before returning. What makes him uniquely terrifying is his versatility — he can rush from any alignment, drop into coverage, or blitz from places offenses have no pre-snap answer for. When he returns healthy mid-season, he will immediately be the most disruptive defensive player on the field, and every opposing offensive coordinator in the NFC will have spent weeks dreading that moment.