• Devin Lloyd leads the way: Lloyd finished off his season with three pressures on five blitzing snaps against Josh Allen in the wild-card round, improving his already-strong pressure rate up to 27.2% for the season.
• Nick Emmanwori not far behind: The Super Bowl champion had the second-most pass-rush snaps of any safety this season (76), and his 20 pressures were the most of any defensive back.
• 2026 NFL Draft season is here: Try the best-in-class PFF Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2026’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

One of the best areas to evaluate for linebackers and defensive backs is how effective they are at getting after the passer when called upon.  

Ohio State linebacker duo Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles displayed their tantalizing traits for getting after the quarterback at the NFL combine last week. It should come as no surprise that elite athletic traits are a staple of this list. 

Possessing a creative defensive coach capable of scheming their blitzers free is also a huge advantage in this area. So too are elite teammates on the defensive line who attract the majority of attention. 

The league-wide pass blitz rate has remained steady at around 33% for a few years now. Defensive coordinators may be dialing up pressure at a similar frequency, but the creativity on display with pre-snap variations means blitzing is causing as many problems as ever. The league-wide pressure rate on blitzes this past season (42.3%) was the highest it has been since 2017.

Lloyd finished the season with the third-most pressures of any linebacker, but the two players listed ahead of him moonlighted as edge defenders and rushed the passer almost twice as often.  

Lloyd finished off his season with three pressures on five blitzing snaps against Josh Allen in the wild-card round, improving his already-strong pressure rate up to 27.2% for the season.

If you were to make a case against Lloyd being the best blitzer in football, you could point to the fact that he registered just one sack on his 103 pass-rushing snaps. However, Lloyd still impacted the psyche of his opposition, scoring nine quarterback hits — the most of any NFL player not on the defensive line. 

As good as Lloyd was as a pass -usher, he graded out even better as a run defender, and his coverage grade remained pretty impressive, thanks to five total interceptions. Lloyd closed out the season with PFF’s second-highest overall grade among eligible linebackers behind Detroit Lions’ Jack Campbell. 

After being arguably snubbed from our list of the five most versatile defensive players of the 2025 season, Emmanwori unsurprisingly finds his way onto this list after becoming one of football’s most feared defensive backs almost immediately. 

The Super Bowl champion had the second-most pass-rush snaps of any safety this season (76), and his 20 pressures were the most of any defensive back.

Mike Macdonald utilized nickel corner blitzes to great effect all season long. There may not be a slot cornerback in NFL history with Emmanwori’s size-speed profile. 

Emmanwori will serve as the prototype for what these kinds of athletes can become as NFL players, and he has consequently boosted the draft stock for many hybrid defensive athletes in the coming drafts. However, Emmanwori is much more than just an impressive athlete. His instincts and relentless nature cannot be taught. 

Witherspoon rushed the passer only 28 times this season, but given the numbers he produced and the manner in which it was executed, he absolutely deserves a place on this list. Witherspoon plays with a tenacity rarely seen at the cornerback position in modern times. 

Off the back of his outstanding performance in Super Bowl 60, Witherspoon finished the season with PFF’s second-highest pass-rushing grade (among players with 25-plus pass-rushing snaps) behind the history-making Myles Garrett.

The numbers back it up. On 28 pass rushing snaps, the young cornerback came away with 13 pressures and six total quarterback hits, including the one that sealed Drake Maye’s fate in Super Bowl 60 when Uchenna Nwosu ran the loose ball back for a pick-six. 

Mike Macdonald kept Witherspoon’s blitzing ability somewhat secret entering Super Bowl 60. After blitzing at least once in every game Witherspoon played up until Week 16, he sat back in coverage for four straight games before a surprise attack on the New England Patriots’ overwhelmed offensive line with seven total blitzes in the biggest game of his career. 

Just one spot behind Witherspoon in PFF’s pass rushing grades, Wagner is still one of the most feared blitzers in the sport. The 35-year-old’s blitz rate dropped from 9.1% last year to 6.8% this year, but his efficiency went in the opposite direction. 

Wagner registered 20 pressures and 4.5 sacks on 77 pass-rush snaps. His 92.4 PFF pass-rush grade is the highest of his 14-year career and his sixth season with a PFF pass-rush grade above 85.0. 

Wagner once profiled as a slightly undersized, incredibly explosive ball of muscle, but as the NFL has evolved over the course of his career, smaller linebackers have become more common. Instead of getting aged out of the league, the sport shaped itself around Wagner’s image. 

While he has undoubtedly lost a step, Wagner remains an incredibly useful veteran piece for any NFL team. He logged his 15,000th professional snap this past year, and his seventh straight season with a snap count in the quadruple digits. 

Dean missed the first half of the season due to injury but returned to tie with Wagner in PFF pass-rush grade by season’s end. While some woes defending the run offset Dean’s blitzing ability in his overall grade, he was a major asset when tasked with getting after the quarterback. 

Dean finished the season with an outstanding 34.3% pressure rate and four sacks — doubling the output of his previous three seasons in Philadelphia. The Eagles also led the league in simulated pressures, showing just how much they trust their linebackers to shed blocks even when their traditional pass rushers are dropping into coverage. 

Unlike the other names on this list, Dean isn’t considered a phenomenal athlete for NFL standards. It’s partly why he fell to Howie Roseman in the third round despite captaining the great 2021 Georgia Bulldogs defense to a national championship. 

However, Dean does possess outstanding instincts and a rabid demeanor when the time comes to get after the quarterback, just like every other candidate here. The 25-year-old must focus on staying healthy for the foreseeable future, as he missed considerable time during his rookie contract. 

Currently set to hit free agency, Dean’s undesirable injury history won’t hold teams back from benefiting from his true difference-making ability as a major blitzing asset for any defense in search of more aggression.