Who do you guys think is the greatest NFL defense ever?

[JGfromtheNW]

Hawks. They shut down maybe the best offense in history. They had to do it with all the rule changes. Could you imagine if Kam and Earl could have been taking WRs and TEs heads off like the old Raiders or Sherm could have mauled WRs like Blount from the Steelers did.

I really think this point has to be considered. The Bears, Ravens, and Steelers Defenses of old would have really struggled in today's NFL. If Kam and Sherman were allowed to be as physical as those Defenses were, I know 100% the Seahawks would have put up even better numbers. In the era of today's rules, I don't think there would be a better Defense than the 2013 Seahawks. They were built to have the perfect combo of intimidation, power, speed, physicality, and still stay within the rules that favor Offenses.

Agreed with this. Call me a homer, call it recency bias, call it whatever -- the 2013 (really 2012-2016) was the best defense I have ever seen. I can't imagine what they would've done if they were allowed to play as physical as those historical defenses.

 

[94Smith]

Tough to truly compare teams/units across decades. Fun to do, but you can't really compare modern day NFL play to play in the 80s. So many rule changes and the athletes are so much bigger and faster overall it seems.

 

[ivotuk]

Best Scoring Defense 4 years in a Row in the modern Pass Happy, offensively favored rules.

4 years in a row...

 

[Maulbert]

Best Scoring Defense 4 years in a Row in the modern Pass Happy, offensively favored rules.

4 years in a row...

Only one team equaled or bettered that, and they played when the NFL had only 12 teams.

 

[knownone]

The best defense of all-time is the 91' Eagles and it's really not even close. We're talking about a defense that held QBs to under 45% completions. They had 55 sacks, 43 forced fumbles. 26 Ints, and gave up less than 3 YPC rushing. Keeping in mind they played 6 divisional games against the 1st, 4th, and 6th offenses in the league. Those stats are impressive on their own but considering they had the 4th worst offense in the league it becomes significantly more impressive.

 

[Threedee]

Purple People Eaters should be on the list.

 

[kobebryant]

I'm partial to the 2000 Ravens. I think having a defense good enough to win a Super Bowl with Dilfer is remarkable.

 

[chris98251]

Steelers, I don't care if they were not chiseled athletes, todays players could not play a game in that era without being on the IR after the first half, completely different mentality and toughness with those players. The rules were less constricting on both offense and defense. Give those players the same training and diet and support to build their bodies todays have with their old school mentality and you would have a hell of a Monster.

 

[sdog1981]

If you go by the rules the defenses were forced to play with then the list looks like this.

2013 Seahawks
2015 Broncos
2000 Ravens
2002 Buccaneers
2008 Steelers

The teams from the '60s and '70s were cool, but they got to play with easy rules, they could kill WR at the line and over the middle. They could also throw QB's around like rag dolls.

If we go by the results of their era without regard to the rules.


1976 Steelers
2013 Seahawks
1969 Vikings
1985 Bears
2000 Ravens


The best defenses that no one knows about because the offense they had were god awful.

1991 Eagles
1992 Seahawks
2004 Bills
1988 Vikings
2012 Bears

 

[Shanegotyou11]

2013 hawks

 

[IndyHawk]

Steelers, I don't care if they were not chiseled athletes, todays players could not play a game in that era without being on the IR after the first half, completely different mentality and toughness with those players. The rules were less constricting on both offense and defense. Give those players the same training and diet and support to build their bodies todays have with their old school mentality and you would have a hell of a Monster.

Agree ..Young generation just does not get it.
Football was a bloodbath..I really do miss those days.