Rankings
Top 20 Defensive Linemen: Dynasty Value Score
Garrett stays No. 1 either way you rank this position. Past him, a healthy 2025 matters more than a strong 2026 line — and a rookie who hasn't played a snap already cracks this board.
By Kenny Flermoen · August 19, 2026
This is the companion to our Top 40 DL season projections — re-ranked by Dynasty Value Score (DVS) instead of next year's point total. Same Engine board that feeds the trade calculator, the IDP player hub, and the overall IDP DVS twenty. How the score is built is in What Is Dynasty Value Score?.
Top 20 DL by Dynasty Value Score
| Rank | Player | Team | Age | Value | 2026 Proj | 2025 Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myles Garrett | LA | 30 | 6,953 | 192.0 | 244.3 |
| 2 | Maxx Crosby | LV | 29 | 6,502 | 187.5 | 202.0 |
| 3 | Will Anderson Jr. | HOU | 24 | 5,391 | 150.2 | 173.3 |
| 4 | Jeffery Simmons | TEN | 29 | 5,209 | 158.9 | 173.0 |
| 5 | Danielle Hunter | HOU | 31 | 5,118 | 164.8 | 172.0 |
| 6 | Aidan Hutchinson | DET | 26 | 4,229 | 137.2 | 181.5 |
| 7 | Laiatu Latu | IND | 25 | 4,050 | 127.4 | 135.5 |
| 8 | Montez Sweat | CHI | 29 | 3,812 | 131.9 | 148.8 |
| 9 | Greg Rousseau | BUF | 26 | 3,798 | 123.8 | 98.0 |
| 10 | Josh Hines-Allen | JAX | 29 | 3,698 | 129.7 | 117.3 |
| 11 | Rueben Bain Jr. | TB | 22 | 3,534 | — | — |
| 12 | DeForest Buckner | IND | 32 | 3,526 | 145.9 | 91.8 |
| 13 | Kobie Turner | LA | 27 | 3,524 | 120.6 | 112.0 |
| 14 | Zach Sieler | MIA | 30 | 3,460 | 131.4 | 103.0 |
| 15 | Leonard Williams | SEA | 32 | 3,448 | 137.3 | 117.3 |
| 16 | Travon Walker | JAX | 25 | 3,382 | 118.5 | 74.3 |
| 17 | Rashan Gary | DAL | 28 | 3,339 | 118.4 | 106.0 |
| 18 | George Karlaftis | KC | 25 | 3,288 | 116.1 | 102.8 |
| 19 | Dorance Armstrong | WAS | 29 | 3,227 | 87.5 | 64.5 |
| 20 | Quinnen Williams | DAL | 28 | 3,196 | 116.0 | 106.2 |
Base IDP dynasty format. DVS is a trade-value score built on age, past production, and the 2026 projection — not a raw scoring ranking. 2026 Proj is the live Engine overlay that feeds this score; a dash means there is no overlay row yet.
Garrett and Crosby, then a real gap
Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby sit well clear of the field — both healthy, both elite in 2025, both still inside their prime pass-rush years. Anderson is third, and the drop from Crosby to everyone else is the size of a tier, not a rounding error. The rest of this board is clustered. Those two are not.
A torn ACL is worth more than a strong projection
Nick Bosa still projects for 150.9 points in 2026 — a top-10 line at the position on the points board, and still next to Will Anderson Jr.on the live overlay. He does not crack this top 20. A torn ACL held him to 47.5 points in three games in 2025, and DVS prices that season the same as anyone else's. Trey Hendrickson is the other published top-10 name who misses: 47.8 points in seven games, 25th here. If either bounces back healthy in 2026, this board will look conservative in hindsight — but that is a bet the trade-value score is not making for you.
Cameron Heyward misses too, and not for the same reason. He played 17 games. He is 37. Age compounds a veteran interior line the way an ACL compounds a pass rusher — two different taxes, same result off this twenty.
A rookie who hasn't played a snap is already inside the board
Rueben Bain Jr. ranks 11th here with no 2025 production on file — the same mechanism we have flagged at every offensive skill position. A player with zero accrued NFL seasons gets no production weight at all, so the score leans on draft capital, age, and the rookie projection path instead. Watch this one move once he has real snaps to show for it.
The thinnest non-rookie line is still in the 20
Dorance Armstrongranks 19th off 64.5 points in six games, the lowest scored total in this twenty besides Bain. That six-game rate was starter-level (5.5 sacks). The live 2026 line is 87.5, which matches his 2022–24 seasons, not a spike. He is still listed as Washington's SLB2. DVS kept him in the 20 on the rate he actually posted, not on a projected leap.
Model any of these players against your own roster on the Dynasty Trade Calculator.
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FAQ
- How is Dynasty Value Score different from the DL season-projection rankings?
- Season projections rank who scores the most points in 2026. DVS ranks who's worth the most in a trade — it weighs age and actual 2025 production alongside next year's projection, so an injury-shortened season carries real weight even when the 2026 outlook is strong.
- Why do some top-10 projected pass rushers miss this board entirely?
- A strong 2026 projection can't fully offset a thin or injury-limited 2025. DVS treats last season's actual output as real information about risk, not just noise to project past.
- Why does a rookie with no NFL production rank inside the top 20?
- A player with zero accrued seasons gets no production weight from DVS — the score leans on the 2026 projection and draft profile instead. That's a deliberate design choice for unproven players, not a claim he's already outplayed the veterans around him.