Ranking the Big Ten: Defensive Line
As the 2022 college football season quickly approaches, it is time to look at the top players in the Big Ten Conference.
We continue our Ranking the Big Ten series by ranking the top five returning interior defensive linemen in the conference.
Related: QB | RB | WR | TE | OT | OG | C | Edge |
1. PJ Mustipher, Penn State
Penn State defensive tackle PJ Mustipher is on track to return for the Nittany Lions’ 2022 season opener. Mustipher went down with a season-ending injury during its week six matchup with Iowa.
In six games, he had 22 tackles, 16 stops, one sack and two quarterback hurries in 228 snaps. During the 2020 season, the 6-foot-4, 329-pound tackle played 436 snaps and had 24 tackles and nine quarterback pressures. He clearly leveled up in 2021.
Even though he played half the season, Mustipher was an Associated Press All-Big Ten first-team selection, a second-team All-Big Ten selection by the league’s coaches and an honorable mention pick by the media.
The fifth-year senior is slated to have a huge season for the Nittany Lions as he is a Lindy’s preseason First-Team All-Big Ten selection and ranked as the Nation’s No. 8 defensive tackle.
2. Mazi Smith, Michigan
Michigan tackle Mazi Smith had a big junior season in 2021 and is expected to break out as a senior as Lindy’s selected him on its All-Big Ten First Team.
In his first season of playing over 50 snaps, Smith led the Big Ten with a 73.7 Pro Football Focus (PFF) coverage grade. Ohio State’s Ty Hamilton was the next closest with a 71.5 grade. Smith’s coverage grade ranked seventh in the Power Five.
The 6-foot-3, 326-pound lineman’s PFF grades jumped 10-14 points from 2020 to 2021. His overall defense grade went from 61.4 to 75.6. Smith’s regular overall defense grade of 77.8 and his run defense grade of 74.5 ranked him fourth in the conference.
Smith has a career-high five tackles and a career-tying four stops against Nebraska in 2021 and recorded three of his highest PFF grades of the season. He was named a 2021 Big Ten Honorable Mention by the league’s coaches and media and has a bright future ahead of him.
3. Jacob Slade, Michigan State
Michigan State’s Jacob Slade is one of the top returning defensive linemen in the country. Slade had 30 stops in 2021, the most by a returning Power Five defensive tackle.
The 6-foot-4, 315-pound lineman ranked third in the Power Five with an 87.8 run defense grade and an 86.1 overall defense grade. The 2021 Third-Team All-Big Ten media selection ranked third in total quarterback pressures with 40 and tied to led the Power Five with 33 QB hurries.
In the Big Ten, no one came close to Slade’s 2021 QB pressure numbers. Rutger’s Julius Turner had 32 total QB pressures and Nebraska’s Ben Stille had 21 hurries.
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Lindy’s projects that Slade will continue traumatizing quarterbacks around the Big Ten and the country and selected him on the 2022 preseason All-Big Ten second team.
4. Noah Shannon, Iowa
Iowa defensive tackle Noah Shannon started all 14 games in 2021 after starting one and playing in seven during the previous season. He was a 2021 Big Ten honorable mention by the league’s coaches and media.
The 6-foot-0, 289-pounder scored in the mid-60s and 70s in all four of the most important D-line PFF grades (defense, run defense, tackle and pass rush). His highest score was a 75.9 tackle grade, ranking him 10th in the Big Ten.
The fifth-year senior tied for fifth in the Big Ten with 28 tackles last season. The other two players he tied with, Maryland’s Mosiah Nasili-Kite and Northwestern’s Jeremy Meister, each played more snaps than Shannon. Meister played nearly 175 more snaps than Shannon and recorded the same amount of tackles. That’s efficiency on Shannon’s end.
Shannon, a 2022 preseason Third-Team All-Big Ten selection by Lindy’s, is showing all the signs of becoming one of the most dominant interior defensive linemen in the Big Ten.
5. Ty Robinson, Nebraska
Husker defensive lineman Ty Robinson has been a key part of Nebraska’s defense over the last two seasons but will need to step up in 2022 with the departure of Stille and several other linemen.
Robinson has the lowest PFF scores on this list as his run defense score dipped to 43.6 during the 2021 season. He actually ranked No. 58 in the Big Ten in run defense.
So why in the world is he on this list? There are several reasons. After all, Grades can’t tell you everything.
Robinson, a former four-star prospect, has potential. He had a career game against No. 9 Michigan with four tackles, a 13-yard sack and a pass breakup against an offensive line that received the Joe Moore Award, given to the best offensive line in the country.
The Huskers’ defensive line has a new coach in Mike Dawson, who was on head coach Scott Frost’s staff in 2018 during his first season at Nebraska. Lindy’s seems to think that Dawson, Frost and Robinson himself can develop the defensive lineman as they named him on the preseason All-Big Ten third-team.
