Ranking the top 2019 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year candidates

The 2019 NFL Draft may have been headlined by Kyler Murray, but the cream of the rookie crop was dominated by defenders. Four of the top five picks and seven of the top 10 were defensive linemen or linebackers. That set up a stacked field for this year’s NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.

Some of those candidates have come from expected places. Nick Bosa and Josh Allen have each lived up to their top-10 pedigrees with their dynamic edge rushing. Others, like Maxx Crosby and Cole Holcomb, rallied all the way from Day 3 of the draft to become impact players in their debut seasons.

Who has stood tallest above the rest of the field? Five players have improved throughout the season to put their stamp on 2019 and set lofty expectations for their futures. Let’s talk about them.

(Interested in this year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunners? We’ve got you covered.)

The 2019 draft class didn’t produce many great rookie defensive backs, though Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill deserves consideration. Murphy-Bunting may turn out to be the best of the group. The second-round pick out of Central Michigan barely played to begin the season (14 total defensive snaps through Week 4), but since became a valuable starter for the Buccaneers.

His 32 points saved leads all rookies in the secondary, per SIS. He’s got his flaws as an occasional boom-or-bust, overplays-his-hand corner, but he’s shown the discipline necessary to put these rookie mistakes behind him and become a stabilizing force in a Tampa secondary that was among the league’s worst in 2018.

Murphy-Bunting’s emergence helped offset the loss of an ineffective Vernon Hargreaves, who was waived after Week 10. That was a statement on Hargreaves’ general lack of success in Tampa, certainly; it was also a message that the secondary belongs to Murphy-Bunting and second-year corner Carlton Davis now.

And while Murphy-Bunting doesn’t have a prayer at winning rookie of the year, his late-season surge could make him one of NFL’s top young cornerbacks.

Key stat: Murphy-Bunting allowed an 88.4 passer rating in coverage this fall — a mark that doesn’t seem too impressive until you consider the passers he’s seen since jumping into the starting lineup (including Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Deshaun Watson). That’s an above-average rate for a still-developing player, and it’s better than the 90.0 mark the rest of the Tampa D allowed.

You could make the case here for Panthers defensive end Brian Burns, but Crosby has been the more effective pass rusher in a greater amount of playing time. That’s been a godsend for Oakland, which had a league-low 13 sacks in 2018.

The former Eastern Michigan star needed some time to adjust to the NFL, but his move to the starting lineup in Week 5 set off a string of strong performances. He had 10 sacks in the 12 games that followed. While concerns about his athleticism followed him to the league, he’s shown he’s capable of working along the edge or cutting back inside to shrink pockets and create havoc.

Crosby’s still got a ways to go — he’s still an inconsistent tackler and can struggle to contain ballcarriers — but his promising rookie campaign suggests he should be a Jon Gruden favorite in the immediate future.

Key stat: Crosby’s 12.4 percent pressure rate was better than Jadeveon Clowney, Arik Armsead, or Chandler Jones. His 52 total pressures ranked 11th among all NFL defensive linemen.

Bush inherited the undesirable job of replacing Ryan Shazier’s presence in the middle of the field in Pittsburgh. The 10th overall pick isn’t yet able to hold a defense together like a peak Shazier could, but he’s been an upgrade over Mark Barron. Even though it’s early, Bush looks like the missing piece in the Steelers’ never-ending quest to rebuild the Steel Curtain defense.

He was called upon to be a sideline-to-sideline player in the linebacking corps alongside Vince Williams. That meant handling coverage over the middle of the field as well as shooting gaps to bring down tailbacks near the line of scrimmage. He was solid in both phases, showcasing not just the awareness to track the ball through traffic but the explosive burst to make plays in the open field. Bush has also been effective when it comes to erasing pass-catching backs in the flat or in wheel routs.

That was vital in a season where Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury stripped the Steelers’ offense down to quad-A levels. Pittsburgh remained in position to make a run to the postseason late in 2019 despite a 1-4 start and an offense that ranks 29th in the league in yards per play. The Steelers overcame that deficiency behind a defense that ranked first in the league in takeaways created. Bush, with two interceptions, one forced fumble, and four fumbles recovered, was a big part of that.

Key stat: Bush’s nine tackles for loss were fourth-most among his rookie class (behind three other guys on this list). More impressively, he was able to do that despite being a non-factor in pass rushing; he’s only been tasked with bringing pressure on roughly 6 percent of his snaps.

Being overlooked is kind of Allen’s thing. The former two-star recruit only had scholarship offers from two Power 5 football programs — Kentucky and Kansas. He barely played for the Wildcats as a freshman before emerging as a good pass rusher (14 sacks as a sophomore and junior) and then an unstoppable one (17 sacks as a senior).

Even with that growth and production, he slipped to the Jaguars with the seventh overall pick as four other defenders (and quarterbacks Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones) were selected ahead of him. Now his stellar rookie season has failed to earn its proper due because of the proud tradition of dysfunction surrounding him in Jacksonville.

Allen led the team in sacks — a team that also features veteran pass-rushing stars like Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue — despite sliding out of the starting lineup and playing only 60 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. He did so despite transitioning from a standup linebacker at Kentucky to defensive end. Nothing about Allen suggests he’d ever be this good, and he just keeps trashing expectations and delivering monster performances.

Key stat: Allen’s 10.5 sacks were most among first-year players and a franchise rookie record. His 3.1 percent sack rate was better than veterans like Za’Darius Smith, Cameron Jordan, Joey Bosa, and Danielle Hunter.

Bosa has lived up to the family name (and his No. 2 draft slot) in his first season in the NFL. The former Ohio State star overcame an early injury to become a dominant force in San Francisco’s pass rush, which finished among the league’s top three in sack rate.

He’s also petty as hell, and it’s delightful.

Bosa got his revenge for Baker Mayfield’s collegiate flag-planting by harassing the Browns quarterback without reprieve. The rookie had two sacks, five quarterback hits, two hurries, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery while playing just 37 snaps in his signature game of 2019. He’s had others that have been nearly as great, including:

And while postseason games won’t be counted in the rookie of the year vote, he had three sacks in the 49ers’ easy playoff wins over the Vikings and Packers this winter.

He’s been a massive cog in San Francisco’s defensive machine. The Niners rank first in the NFL in passing defense, second in total yards allowed, and have held opponents to eight points or fewer four times this season.

That made him an early choice for top defensive rookie honors the evening before he made his Super Bowl debut.

Key stat: 8.5 percent. That’s how often San Francisco’s opponents got sacked each time they dropped back to pass in 2019. Bosa, with nine sacks, 25 QB hits, and 68 pressures, has been the most productive member of that elite group.

Allen has the better numbers in fewer snaps, while Bosa’s been the more relied-upon defender for the better team. It’s a tough call, but the 49er likely took the edge when it came to rookie of the year votes compared to his perpetually overlooked counterpart. Especially after helping propel San Francisco to the Super Bowl.