(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
ESPN surveyed more than 50 league executives, coaches, scouts, and players to help compile the top 10 players at 11 different positions. Today they revealed their interior defensive line rankings and Stephon Tuitt came in at No. 8, and one NFL executive even had him ranked as the best interior defensive lineman in the league over three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.
While Tuitt is a highly talented player, having him ranked ahead of Donald is a major stretch. Donald is just in a class of his own. Nevertheless, Tuitt is coming off a career-best season last year, in which he recorded 11 sacks, two forced fumbles and 25 quarterback hits.
"Incredibly gifted player," an NFC Scout said of Tuitt. "Comes and goes, but when he's on, he's a massive problem."
An AFC executive also had high remarks for Tuitt in the ESPN article.
"Take away the injuries and inconsistencies from past years and he's top-five easily," the AFC executive said. "[Heyward] has been that guy on the [Steelers] D-line for a while, but it kind of started to flip this year where Tuitt got some attention."
Tuitt is definitely a top 10 interior defensive lineman in the NFL, but I'm not sure what the one executive was thinking to have him ranked ahead of Donald. It's certainly a head-scratcher, as many consider Donald as arguably the best player overall in the league.