When league executives, coaches, scouts, and Associated Press voting panels submit their ballots for annual positional evaluations, consensus at the very top is a rare commodity. Yet entering the 2026 NFL training camp cycle, the debate over the game's premier edge rusher has vanished. Myles Garrett captured a clean sweep of first-place votes on ESPN's survey of over 70 football personnel and claimed all 80 possible points from an AP Pro Football Writers panel, establishing an uncontested throne following a seismic offseason trade that sent him from Cleveland to the Los Angeles Rams.

The unanimity is rooted in a historic individual resume. Garrett enters 2026 on the heels of a campaign for the ages that featured an NFL-record 23 sacks and 33 tackles for loss, earning his second AP Defensive Player of the Year award and his fifth All-Pro selection. Across his first nine seasons, his 125.5 career sacks stand as the second-most in league history for that span, trailing only Reggie White. More importantly for defensive coordinators tasked with halting him, Garrett's dominance persists despite extreme defensive attention. League tracking shows he won on over 20% of his 448 pass-rushing attempts last season while facing double-teams nearly 30% of the time.

As an NFL coordinator noted of Garrett's unprecedented mix of traits, He doesn’t get enough credit for just how powerful he is and how you feel that up close. Everyone talks about Aaron Donald’s power, but Myles is just as strong.NFL Coordinator

That physical profile is matched by hyper-efficient processing at the line of scrimmage. Opposing offenses throw slide protections, tight end chips, running back chips, and run schemes away from his side of the formation, yet Garrett consistently deploys counters. An NFC executive highlighted his ability to feel and navigate at the line without much wasted movement is elite,NFC Executive while a separate coordinator remarked that his systematic dissection of slide protections and chips is really impressive from a mental standpoint.NFL Coordinator

The broader positional landscape heading into 2026 reveals shifting leverage, health complications, and massive financial investments across the top tier:

  • 1. Myles Garrett (Los Angeles Rams): Unanimous No. 1 after breaking the single-season sack record and moving to the preseason Super Bowl favorite Rams.
  • 2. Micah Parsons (Green Bay Packers): Jumped a spot despite an ACL tear in Week 15 of 2025 that threatens his availability for the start of the season. His 24.6% pass rush win rate and 37.8% double-team rate underline his terrifying efficiency.
  • 3. Will Anderson Jr. (Houston Texans): Climbed into the top tier after securing a three-year, $150 million extension following a 12-sack, 20-tackle-for-loss campaign where he led all edge rushers in edge pass-rush wins.
  • 4. Maxx Crosby (Las Vegas Raiders): The league's ultimate motor, though durability questions surfaced after the Baltimore Ravens nixed a trade in March due to a surgically repaired knee.
  • 5. Aidan Hutchinson (Detroit Lions): Bounced back from an injury-shortened 2024 campaign to rack up 14.5 sacks and a league-high 950 defensive snaps for Detroit.

The descending tier illustrates how quickly physical attrition alters positional value. Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt slipped to seventh in the wider executive survey and fourth on the AP ballot following a season interrupted by a partially collapsed lung from a dry needling incident and a career-low 11.7% pass-rush win rate across 14 games. Personnel evaluators noted a slight dip in his burst and get-off relative to younger elite rushers, though Pittsburgh plans to rotate Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig under a scheme change designed to maximize his disruptive instincts.

Similarly, San Francisco's Nick Bosa tumbled to eighth after a second torn ACL limited him to three games in 2025, though evaluators concede his speed-to-power conversion remains among the finest in the sport when healthy. Meanwhile, players like Houston's Danielle Hunter and the New York Giants' Brian Burns—who capitalized on a 16.5-sack season—cemented their status as high-impact forces entering their thirties and prime years respectively.

For the Rams, the trade price for Garrett—surrendering a package featuring a first-round pick, a conditional first, and young edge rusher Jared Verse—is steep. Yet it reflects a calculated window of contention. Garrett has played in only three career playoff games with Cleveland; his arrival in Los Angeles pairs historic regular-season disruption with the postseason ceiling demanded by a Super Bowl favorite.

Sources

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  1. tsn.ca original
  2. Josh Dubow original
  3. altoonamirror.com original
  4. limaohio.com original
  5. Kenneth Arthur Wed, July 8, 2026 at 7:18 PM UTC · 2 min read original
  6. apnews.com original
  7. The Associated Press original