Ernest Jones, Divine Deablo headline top underrated NFL defensive players

Every team has those players whose performances outstrip their name recognition for whatever reason. Maybe the team itself is so unspectacular, that getting attention from the nation is a fool’s errand. Maybe it’s someone who was buried on the depth chart until the coaches could really see the potential. It could be that the player in question has been below average before, and it takes a second for people to catch up with the fact that the light really did come on. Or, perhaps someone was disregarded in the draft, and had to bully his way up the ladder against all odds.

Regardless, at SB Nation, we like to recognize these players in our weekly “Secret Superstars” series. We also like to assemble the best of the relative unknowns for All-Star teams at midseason, and when the season is over. So, here’s our mid-season All-Secret Superstars defense, filled with guys whose games are far better than the recognition they actually receive.

IDL: Moro Ojomo, Philadelphia Eagles

Last season, Moro Ojomo, a seventh-round pick for the Eagles in 2022, upped his snaps pretty seriously and became a hidden gem in Vic Fangio’s defense. In 342 pass-rush snaps, he had a sack, five quarterback hits, and 33 quarterback hurries, ranking fifth on the team with 39 total pressures. Now in 2025, Ojomo has done even more to realize his NFL potential with a team-high four sacks, and 28 total pressures. That ties him with Jalyx Hunt (another Philly Secret Superstar right now) in terms of pressures.

The 6’3, 292-pound Ojomo can also get it done on the outside — he’s been there on 18% of his snaps in 2025 — but the quarterback disruption has come mostly from inside. Ojomo can win one-on-ones as a three-tech tackle just as well as he can flip game and exploit blocking openings. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis are obviously the Eagles’ IDL stars, but this season on the field, Ojomo’s been the guy to watch.

IDL: John Franklin-Myers, Denver Broncos

The Broncos currently lead the NFL in sacks (36) and pressure rate (30.0%), so it could be argued that all the primary guys in that quarterback crucible — edge-rushers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper, as well as do-it-all QB Killa Zach Allen — are Secret Superstars, because national analysts aren’t talking about how good they are all the time. But in this particular iteration of Vance Joseph’s defense, it may be that veteran John Franklin-Myers, who’s on the second year of a two-year, $15 million contract with $8 million guaranteed, is the guy holding all that explosive material together.

This season, in 182 pass-rushing snaps, Franklin-Myers has four sacks, three quarterback hits, and 11 quarterback hurries, and he’s the guy who can just physically overwhelm people in one-on-ones while everybody else in creating chaos. The Broncos have a great line rotation from top to bottom, and it’s the man in the middle who might be making the quietest big difference overall.

Edge Defender: Tuli Tuipulotu, Los Angeles Chargers

Tuli Tuipulotu, the Chargers’ second-round pick in 2023 out of USC, has enjoyed spurts of great quarterback distress creation previously in his career. In Weeks 8-11 of the 2024 season, he led the league by far with eight sacks (Jared Verse of the Los Angeles Rams and Trey Hendrickson of the Cincinnati Bengals tied for second with five), and his 22 total pressures tied with Verse for the league lead.

Through the first three games of the 2025 season, Tuipulotu didn’t have a sack, but everybody in the building knew they were coming. Four of them (along with seven total pressures) came in Week 4 against the the New York Giants, and Tuipulotu has kept it up since then. Overall on 243 pass-rushing snaps, he has six sacks, seven quarterback hits, and 29 quarterback hurries. Only Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions (49) has more total pressures than Tuipulotu’s 42, which ties him for second in the NFL with Will Anderson Jr. of the Houston Texans, and that Micah Parsons guy. Tuipulotu has become a top-tier edge-rusher, and this didn’t come out of nowhere.

Edge Defender: Byron Young, Los Angeles Rams

While the aforementioned Broncos have the NFL’s most disruptive defensive line, the Rams might rank second. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula and his staff have a bunch of crazed dogs on that line ready to attack at all times, and the Rams rank second in the league with 26 sacks (behind the Broncos, of course), and their 24.1% pressure rate is right up there with the league’s best.

The Rams don’t need to blitz a lot (just 19.4% of the time), because of all that talent, and the guy we really need to be talking about more often is edge-rusher Byron Young. The 2023 third-round pick out of Tennessee currently has 10 sacks on the season — only Myles Garrett (11) has more, and it took Garrett a five-sack game against the New England Patriots in Week 8 to get there.

Young usually lines up on the left side of the line opposite Jared Verse, and between those two guys, offensive tackles tend to hate their days when the Rams come calling on the calendar.

Linebacker: Ernest Jones, Seattle Seahawks

On October 23, 2024, the Tennessee Titans traded Jones to the Seattle Seahawks for linebacker Jerome Baker and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick that was ultimately spent on Texas tight end Gunnar Helm.

In his 667 snaps with the Seahawks in 2024, Jones had a sack, nine pressures, 61 solo tackles, 29 stops, a forced fumble, and in coverage, he allowed 31 catches on 39 targets for 296 yards, 171 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 96.2.

That poked the Seahawks, who had been looking for such a linebacker since Bobby Wagner’s salad days to give Jones a new three-year, $28.5 million contract with $15 million guaranteed. Based on Jones’ performance so far in 2025, that’s a serious bargain. Through Seattle’s first seven games of the new season, Jones has a sack, five pressures, 41 solo tackles, 18 stops. and he’s allowed 25 catches on 34 targets for 310 yards, 15 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 73.3.

Now, Jones has become that ultimate multi-faceted ‘backer the Seahawks haven’t had since Bobby Wagner — and he’s the absolute heart of one of the NFL’s best defenses.

Linebacker: Divine Deablo, Atlanta Falcons

Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who coached Atlanta’s defense in 2020 when Dan Quinn was fired after an 0-5 start and now-head coach Raheem Morris was elevated to head coach from his former DC position, had a bit of a rocky start in his return in 2025, but things had been sailing along quite nicely since then. Ulbrich picked up some ideas during his time with the New York Jets in the interim, and this led to the signing of former Las Vegas Raiders defensive back Divine Deablo — and Deablo’s subsequent switch to linebacker. Deablo was a decent box safety/linebacker hybrid and occasional blitzer in four years with the Raiders, but the changes of scenery and position did wonders. Deablo became the true epicenter of this underground, underrated defense. While fellow linebacker Kaden Elliss raised all kinds of hell as more of a pass-rusher, Deablo held things down in the middle.

This season, Deablo had 21 solo tackles, 13 stops, six quarterback hurries, and in coverage, he’s allowed five catches on eight targets for 46 yards, 30 yards after the catch, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 78.1.

Sadly, we are talking about Deablo in the past tense at the present moment due to the fractured forearm he suffered against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7. That will put him out for at least four weeks, and since Deablo’s injury, that formerly great Falcons defense has fallen apart.

Cornerback: Nohl Williams. Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs have led the NFL in absolute balls-out press coverage — i.e., no cornerbacks in off coverage on a play — every season since Steve Spagnuolo became the team’s defensive coordinator in 2019. This season, the Chiefs have lined up with no cornerbacks in off coverage on 88% of their snaps; the Chicago Bears rank second with a 75% rate.

So, this is very much a Spags thing, and it’s why I believed that Cal’s Nohl Williams would be a perfect fit in Kansas City once the Chiefs took him in the third round of the 2025 draft. Williams may have been the NCAA’s best press cornerback in 2024, and when given the chance with the Chiefs, he’s been just as lockdown. Williams has been targeted 13 times in press coverage this season, and he’s allowed seven catches for 41 yards and an opponent passer rating of 60.1.

Nohl Williams is a name Chiefs fans should remember sooner than later, if they haven’t already.

Cornerback: Jamel Dean, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

For a lot of cornerbacks, the age 29 year is one you don’t want to face. You’re right around the corner from your thirties, and that’s generally when you want to start thinking about broadcasting. Cornerbacks who have been above average to great earlier in their careers can really fall off once the big two-nine happens. Xavier Rhodes, Rasul Douglas, Darius Slay, Marlon Humphrey, Patrick Peterson, and Xavien Howard are among those formerly great defenders who unfortunately tripped all over themselves at 29. Since 2000, and there are far more who have done so than those who have avoided the age-curve curse.

So then, what is there to say about cornerback Jamel Dean of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who is not only having his best season at age 29, but is on the way to making a bit of history? Dean hit that dangerous age on October 15, and he won his first NFC Defensive Player of the Week award on his birthday after his bravura performance against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 6.

In that 30-19 Bucs win, Dean had a sack, a forced fumble, and he gave up three catches on five targets for 104 yards, 51 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, an interception, and an opponent passer rating of 64.6. Dean became the first player with the sack/forced fumble/interception trio in the 2025 season, and the first Bucs player to win NFC Defensive Player of the Week since Ronde Barber won it in Week 1 of the 2012 season.

Safety: Jalen Pitre, Houston Texans

DeMeco Ryans’ Houston Texans defense is one of the NFL’s best, because they’re so fundamentally sound from front to back. It’s not always easy to hold it all together when you’re mixing fronts and coverages as much as the Texans do, but they keep it under control. Houston currently ranks fourth in Defensive DVOA — first against the pass, and 18th against the run — and no defense has allowed fewer points per game than Houston’s 14.7.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but it’s important to not dismiss the contributions of safety/slot defender Jalen Pitre. The 2022 second-round pick out of Baylor is having his best NFL season in coverage, allowing 22 catches on 28 targets for 232 yards, 90 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, three interceptions, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 61.6. Pitre can get lost occasionally when in deep-third coverage, but with most passes underneath, he’s going to see them as more his than yours.

Safety: Talanoa Hufanga, Denver Broncos

Hufanga, the San Francisco 49ers’ fifth-round pick in 2021, has a breakneck style that occasionally brings Troy Polamalu Lite to mind, but that play determination isn’t always great for one’s health. He made First-Team All-Pro in 2022, the one season he was able to survive all the way through, but since then, it’s been a bit of an injury festival. Hufanga played in just 30 games in his final three seasons with San Francisco (including the postseason), but the Broncos still signed him to a three-year, $39 million deal with $20 million guaranteed this past offense because they wanted his intensity, and his ability to read everything in front of him.

So far, it’s worked like a charm. Hufanga (a cousin of Tuli Tuipulotu’s, by the way) has played in every Broncos game, and he’s been flying around the field per usual. He has a sack, four total pressures, 42 solo tackles, 17 stops, and he’s allowed eight catches on 14 targets for 56 yards, four yards after the catch, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 66.4 — his best to date over five NFL seasons.

Like Pitre, Hufanga is at his best when he’s working from the top down and diagnosing everything in front of him. The Broncos (who rank fifth in Defensive DVOA) set him up to play that way, and as a result, Hufanga just keeps the bombs coming.