The 10 Greatest Defensive Linemen in TXHSFB History

A disclaimer before we begin: This is an extremely fun but totally impossible task. There are about 30 guys who don’t just have a case to be in the top 10, but you have every right to be actively mad that they weren’t included in the top 10. And if you are, be sure to take all complaints to the Dave Campbell’s social media pages. Tell them Carter Yates’s absurd, borderline-irresponsible list sent you.

Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Quarterbacks.
Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Running Backs
Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Wide Receivers
Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Offensive Linemen

Note: These rankings are based on high school career alone.

Honorable Mentions:

Tony Brackens (Fairfield, 1988-91): TXHSFB Hall of Fame Class of 2022, two-time All-State selection. There are no stats from his high school career, which makes him hard to place.

Mario Edwards Jr. (Prosper/Denton Ryan, 2008-11): State champion as a freshman, USA Today Defensive High School Player of the Year as a senior. Narrowly edged out by another Denton Ryan player. 

Erik Flowers (San Antonio Roosevelt, 1992-95): Four-year letterman, led Roosevelt to a state championship, 79 tackles and 20 sacks as a senior. 

Mean Joe Greene (Temple Dunbar, 1962-65): Pro Football Hall of Famer and one of most famous defensive linemen of all time. Played linebacker in high school.

Bob Lilly (Throckmorton, 1953-56): Pro Football Hall of Famer and 11x Pro Bowler dubbed 'Mr. Cowboy.' Played his senior season in Oregon.

Von Miller (DeSoto, 2003-06): Two-time Super Bowl Champion and eight-time Pro Bowler. Inducted into DeSoto ISD Hall of Honor in 2018.

Cory Redding (Galena Park North Shore, 1996-99): USA Today Defensive Player of the Year but actually played Will LB as a senior.

Gabe Rivera (San Antonio Jefferson, 1975-78):Dubbed 'Señor Sack' after an All-American career at Texas Tech. Played linebacker in high school.

DJ Sanders (Bellville, 2021-24): 304 tackles, 42.5 tackles for loss, 36.5 sacks in four years at Bellville.

10. Bubba Smith (Charlton-Pollard, 1959-62)

There are no stats from Bubba Smith’s high school career, but his legendary status as a Prairie View A&M Hall of Famer warrants his inclusion on this list. Smith learned the fundamentals under his father, the renowned Willie Ray Smith Sr., who coached at three Beaumont-area high schools. At 6-foot-7, 283 pounds, he looked like a present-day NFL defensive end playing high school football in the 1960s.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Smith wanted to play for the University of Texas, but couldn’t suit up in the burnt orange because he graduated before integration. Instead, Smith went to Michigan State, where he earned All-American honors in 1865 and 1966. He is one of three players in program history to have their number retired.

Smith was selected first overall by the Baltimore Colts in the 1967 NFL Draft and quickly established himself as one of the league’s most dominant players, earning First Team All-Pro and playing in two Super Bowls. Smith also suited up for the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers before a knee injury prematurely ended his career. 

With his playing career cut short, Smith experienced a second act in the movies. He played Moses Hightower in six Police Academy films.

9. Jerry Ball (Beaumont Hebert/Beaumont West Brook, 1979-82)

Frankly, we could’ve put Jerry Ball on a top ten list at three different positions. The ‘Ice Box’ was a fullback, defensive end, and linebacker, earning First Team All-District honors at all three positions. Ball rushed for over 1,000 yards as a senior, but we’re putting the 6-foot, 235-pound playmaker at defensive line, because that’s his listed position on the UIL’s 100 Greatest Players of All-Time list. 

Ball played for the all-Black Beaumont Hebert his first three years of high school. Ahead of his senior year, the school district consolidated Hebert with the nearly all-white Forest Park High School to form Beaumont West Brook. In the school’s first year of existence, Ball led the Bruins to an upset Class 5A State Championship victory over juggernaut L.D. Bell. He was inducted into the TXHSFB Hall of Fame in 2015.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Ball’s recruitment didn’t take off until the 1982 State Championship season. He signed with SMU and played for the Mustangs from 1983-86 in the final years before the NCAA-imposed ‘Death Penalty.’ Ball was converted to nose tackle and became a four-year starter and three-time First Team All-Southwest Conference pick. 

Ball became a three-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro with the Detroit Lions from 1989-91. In 1991, he was injured by a chop block, where one guy blocked his legs and a teammate hit him over the top. The NFL quickly created the “Jerry Ball Rule” outlawing the block. Ball played until 1999 before retiring.

8. Nikita Whitlock (Wylie, 2005-08)

Nikita Whitlock might not have the national name recognition as some of the guys on this list, but he is a TXHSFB folk tale. Forever doubted because of his 5-foot-10, 250-pound stature, Whitlock had a motor and aura worth half a foot. He started at center for Wylie’s basketball team in front of a 6-foot-6 backup. He wrestled in the heavyweight division despite weighing just 220 pounds at the time. He broke the school’s bench press record with a 405-pound lift. In a Bleacher Report article from 2015, former Wylie head coach Bill Howard said Whitlock won more awards than any other high school student they’ve had come through Wylie. 

But Whitlock is most remembered for his vicious spin move from the nose tackle position. As a senior in 2008, he won AP Texas Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year and was named the Dallas Morning News All-Area Defensive Player of the Year. Whitlock’s monster year led Wylie to its first state championship game since 1977. He posted 94 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles, and even scored two touchdowns off blocked punts.

Post TXHSFB Career:

The only thing Whitlock’s height held him back from were the college offers he deserved. Whitlock received one DI offer to Wake Forest, and even they wanted him to play linebacker. Eventually, Whitlock proved he could dominate on the defensive line in college just as he did in high school. He was a Second Team Freshman All-American before blossoming into a two-time All-ACC honoree in 2011 and 2012. 

Whitlock went undrafted but bounced around practice squads with the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys as a hybrid fullback/linebacker. Whitlock also played professionally with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League and the Tampa Bay Vipers in the XFL. In that abbreviated XFL season due to COVID-19, Whitlock was named one of the league’s top defensive tackles by Pro Football Focus.

7. Casey Hampton (Galveston Ball, 1993-96)

Hampton’s story has humble beginnings in Galveston’s Cedar Terrace housing project. One of four siblings from divorced parents, Hampton promised his mother, Ivory Anderson, that she wouldn’t have to worry about anything if he made it big because he’d take care of her. By the time he hung up the cleats, he’d made five Pro Bowls and played in three Super Bowls for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This ranking is about Hampton’s high school career. We could talk about that for days. Hampton was a two-time District Defensive Player of the Year and a Class 5A First Team All-State selection as a senior. In 2009, he became the first player in Galveston Ball history to have his No. 63 jersey retired. That’s high praise, considering no high school in Texas has produced more NFL players than Galveston Ball (27).

We don’t have an official height/weight for Hampton in high school, but he probably wasn’t far off from his professional weight of 325 pounds. In 2020, 247Sports’ Recruiting Insider Brian Perroni said Hampton ‘might be the best high school player I’ve ever seen.’

Post TXHSFB Career:

Hampton started 47 of 54 games at the University of Texas and became the first defensive lineman in school history to lead the team in tackles in back-to-back years. He had 101 stops as a junior and 78 tackles as a senior, both of which were First Team All-American seasons. Hampton was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and was inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 2014.

A First Round NFL Draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hampton more than lived up to the hype. He started 164 of 173 career NFL games and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Honor in 2024.

6. Ed Oliver (Spring Westfield, 2012-15)

By the spring of his ninth-grade year, Spring Westfield had already instituted the ‘Ed Oliver Rule.’ Oliver could play at full speed for the first half of any drill. In the second half, however, he had to let up so the offense could actually run through their plays.

But come Friday night, there was no let-up to Oliver’s game. He was District Defensive Newcomer of the Year as a sophomore, District Overall MVP as a junior, and First Team All-District as a senior. That final season, he had 83 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, nine sacks, two forced fumbles, and an interception. 

Oliver was a five-star prospect and the No.4-overall recruit in the nation by ESPN. He was named Defensive MVP in the Under Armour All-American Game and earned national recognition on USA Today’s All-USA Texas Football First Team.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Oliver shocked the college football world when he committed to Houston, becoming the first five star in the ESPN 300 era to sign with a non Power 5 team. The Cougars were a rising power under then-coach Tom Herman, but Oliver decided to stay home because his older brother, Marcus, and high school coach Corby Meekins were both there. 

He more than lived up to the five-star billing at Houston. Oliver became the first player in program history to be named a three-time First Team All-American. He then became the highest-selected Spring ISD alum of all-time when the Buffalo Bills took him ninth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft. Oliver has played seven seasons with the Bills.

5. DeMarcus Granger (Dallas Kimball, 2001-04)

Granger, a consensus recruit out of Dallas Kimball, was so sought after that his younger brother used to play and make snow angels in the large number of college letters he received. Once, a coaching staff even showed up to Pancho’s Mexican Buffet, where Granger’s mother worked, trying to lock in his commitment.

Such is the life for a two-time Dallas Morning News Defensive Player of the Year. Granger’s final two seasons stack up with the best of all-time. As a senior, he had 79 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, 17 sacks, and 11 forced fumbles. That was actually the second year in a row he had 17 sacks, an encore from his junior season. Granger was named the Texas Gatorade Player of the Year in 2004.

Post TXHSFB Career:

As a sophomore at Oklahoma, Granger posted 8.5 tackles for loss in a Second Team All-Big 12 season. Unfortunately, that was the peak of his career instead of the beginning. Injuries sidelined him from the BCS National Championship Game in 2008 and forced him to miss the entirety of the 2009 regular season. He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent but never played in a regular season game.

4. Tommie Harris (Killeen Ellison, 1997-00)

The legend of Tommie Harris’ football career began in fifth grade when he was kicked out of his Pop Warner league. By this point, he already weighed 200 pounds, and the coaches made a blanket rule that he was only allowed to run the ball twice a game. But that wasn’t enough for the parents who took home crying kids every Saturday. They all supported different teams, but they agreed on one thing: Harris couldn’t play anymore. He was too dangerous.

This was his origin story, the first building block in making one of the scariest defensive linemen Texas high school football had ever seen. Because after he learned the news, Harris put on a sauna suit and sprinted, trying to lose 50 pounds in one day so he could play again. By the time his mother found him, he’d nearly passed out. He was out of breath, but he was full of a newfound drive. Those Pop Warner parents had created a monster.

A military child, Harris was born in Germany and moved to Fort Hood, Texas, when he was 10 years old. Living on a military base, Harris had a private airport in his backyard. After the University of Texas offered him in the 10th grade, that airport became a runway for the top college coaches in America: Nick Saban at LSU, Bobby Bowden at Florida State, and Miami’s Larry Coker.

Those coaches weren’t disappointed when they met Harris in person. Harris was a four-year starter at Killeen Ellison. As a junior, he was the only non-senior named to the First Team All-State squad after posting 139 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, six sacks, and two forced fumbles. By his senior year, he was a Texas Football Super Team honoree and the top-ranked defensive line recruit in the state. Harris was inducted into the TXHSFB Hall of Fame in 2012.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Harris, committed to Texas since the 10th grade, flipped on National Signing Day to archrival Oklahoma. It turned out to be an excellent decision. Harris was an All-American in both his sophomore and junior seasons, winning the Lombardi Trophy for the nation’s top lineman. In 2009, Sports Illustrated named him to the All-Decade College Football Team.

Harris was selected in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears and quickly emerged as one of the league’s top defensive linemen, making three straight Pro Bowls from 2005-07. Injuries hampered his career, which ended after eight seasons, but he was still named one of the 100 greatest Chicago Bears of all-time.

3. Myles Garrett (Arlington Martin, 2010-13)

Myles Garrett at Arlington Martin was basically a Create-A-Player for EA Sports College Football come to life. At 17 years old, he was 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds of pure muscle. Garrett also jumped higher than most wide receivers with a 36-inch vertical and ran faster than most running backs with a 4.5-second 40-yard dash. Alabama’s Nick Sabana, LSU’s Les Miles, Texas’s Mack Brown, and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly all flocked to Arlington Martin to visit Garrett … on the same day!

Garrett was a consensus All-American, the Texas Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year, and the Landry Award winner for the top high school player in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as a senior. He posted 81 tackles and 19.5 sacks that year, including a legendary performance with 8.5 sacks in one game. Garrett wasn’t just a one-hit wonder, either. He earned First Team All-District honors as a junior with 66 tackles and nine sacks.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Garrett is arguably the greatest defensive player in Texas A&M history. In three years with the Aggies, he earned the team’s Defensive MVP every season and posted career totals of 145 tackles and 48.5 tackles for loss. Garrett was a consensus First Team All-American his final two seasons in College Station and became the first Aggie taken No.1 overall in the NFL Draft. He was inducted into Texas A&M’s Hall of Fame this year.

Last fall, Garrett set the NFL’s single-season sack record with 23, the latest accomplishment in a sure-fire Hall of Fame career. Garrett is a five-time First Team All-Pro and has twice won the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award. This summer, Garrett was traded from the Cleveland Browns to the Los Angeles Rams in the offseason’s blockbuster deal.

2. Jarvis Moss (Denton Ryan, 1999-02)

Jarvis Moss was a nomad growing up in Denton, Texas. He and his older brother, Chris, bounced around from relative to relative. But in high school, Jarvis’s grandfather, Bill, took him in and made him into the man he is today. He was strict about the difference between right and wrong. Bill was a custodian in Denton ISD for over 30 years, a man whom former head coach Joey Florence said was very well thought of in the community. He might’ve been raised by a custodian, but Jarvis Moss created a mess in opposing backfields.

The 6-foot-7 defensive end was the first star player at Denton Ryan. After a 1-9 campaign during his freshman year, Denton Ryan hired head coach Joey Florence and immediately made three consecutive state championship games. 

Moss’s stat line from his junior season is mind-boggling. As a junior, he had 122 tackles, 52 tackles for loss, 28 sacks, and seven pass deflections. He was injured for seven games in his senior year but still racked up 81 tackles, 29 tackles for loss, and 12 sacks. He was named a First Team All-American by USA Today and the No.1-rated strong-side defensive end in the nation.

Post TXHSFB Career:

After playing in two games in his first two years at Florida under Ron Zook, Moss became a star with head coach Urban Meyer. As a junior, he led the Gators with 7.5 sacks. He then blossomed into a First Team All-American in 2006. Moss blocked two kicks against South Carolina that sealed the win, and a BCS National Championship berth. After winning the national championship, Moss was drafted in the First Round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. He played five seasons in the league with the Broncos and Oakland Raiders. He’s now a defensive line coach at Cherry Creek High School in Colorado.

1. David Warren (Tyler John Tyler, 1993-96)

David Warren is second only to Earl Campbell as the most iconic player in Tyler Lions history. But can I say something crazy? Warren had a more impressive resume in high school than Campbell did. 

Warren was a First Team All-East Texas performer as a freshman, then made First-Team All-State every season from his sophomore year on. Warren racked up over 100 tackles three years in a row, finishing his career with 356 tackles and 31 sacks. He was just as much of a menace on special teams, blocking 19 kicks in his career. Warren earned USA Today National Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and was a Two-time AP Texas Defensive Player of the Year. He was inducted into the TXHSFB Hall of Fame in 2020.

Post TXHSFB Career:

Considered the No.2 overall recruit in the state by SuperPrep Magazine, Warren signed with Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles in the midst of their most decorated run in program history. Warren played in three straight BCS National Championship Games, winning in 1999 against Virginia Tech. Warren was a Second Team All-ACC selection in 2000, but his injury history prevented him from being drafted. He signed contracts with the Indianapolis Colts and Oakland Raiders, but never played in a regular-season game.

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