ESPN had its eight NFL divisional bloggers vote on the top 10 defensive players in the league. Each put together a top 10, and the votes were combined together for a poll that includes 16 total players.
Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is the first player outside of the top 10. He came in at No. 11 because he was two votes short of No. 10 Ed Reed. Five of the bloggers voted for Suh and only three voted for Reed, but one blogger put Reed second overall. That gave him enough points to pass Suh, who had three people put him eighth, one ninth and another tenth.
The top 10 looks like this:
- Troy Polamalu (80)
- DeMarcus Ware (56)
- Darrelle Revis (51)
- Patrick Willis (49)
- Clay Matthews (47)
- James Harrison (42)
- Nnamdi Asomugha (34)
- Julius Peppers (21)
- Haloti Ngata (20)
- Ed Reed (14)
The players on the list who are behind Suh are Charles Woodson, Terrell Suggs, Justin Smith, Tamba Hali and Dwight Freeney.