Seahawks boast the best defensive tackle duo in the NFL with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II

It’s no secret that the Seattle Seahawks have the deadliest one-two punch in the NFL at interior tackle, and that it forms the foundation of their elite defense.

31-year-old veteran Leonard Williams and 23-year-old sophomore Byron Murphy II are in two different phases of their football careers, but they are crossing paths this year with matching excellent seasons. With three games left to go in the season, both players have over 50 tackles, 7 sacks, and 40 pressures per Pro Football Focus.

They anchor the league’s top run defense by EPA per play. The pressure they provide up the middle has enabled Seattle to currently sit at 4th in the league in sacks despite not having an elite edge rusher on the outside. Indeed, Williams and Murphy actually share the team lead for sacks, a rare feat in a league where outside rushers typically are the ones racking them up.

And the combined dominance of these two is public knowledge, as is revealed by the NFL Pro Bowl fan voting results to this point.

Per the most recent results of the Pro Bowl fan voting, Byron Murphy leads all defensive tackles in votes, with Leonard Williams coming in at 4th, or 2nd in the conference. While fan voting is only part of the equation, if this holds, both will almost certainly make it.

It’s quite rare for one team to produce two pro bowl defensive tackles in one season. The most recent occurrence I can find of it happening is 2006-2008, when the Minnesota Vikings sent Kevin Williams and Pat Williams to the honored game three straight seasons. Before then, I had to go all the way back to 1971 when the Kansas City Chiefs had Buck Buchanan and Curley Culp.

Whether the Pro Bowl is an accolade worth celebrating is a source of constant debate among football fans, so consider the next possible accomplishment: The All-Pro team. Voted on by the AP and NFLPA, the results are more likely to be based on merit rather than popularity.

With only four defensive tackle slots available, it will be a tight fit. Other high-profile defensive tackles across the league include Denver’s Zach Allen, Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons, Cleveland’s Maliek Collins, and Carolina’s Derrick Brown.

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams (99) celebrates after a sack against the Minnesota Vikings. — Seattle Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams (99) celebrates after a sack against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Seattle. | AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson

Simmons and Collins play for two of the worst teams in the league, and Simmons in particular leads a defense ranking near the bottom in most categories despite his own performance. Brown’s defense is approximately average, and his Panthers are sitting on playoff odds of sub-25 percent.

While it’s far from a foregone conclusion, it would not surprise me at all if the Seahawks get both of their interior linemen onto the team. It would be only the second time this century this has happened, the first coming in 2007 with the Williams Wall in Minnesota making First Team for Kevin and Second Team for Pat.

We saw it once in the 90s, again in Minnesota, when John Randle and Henry Thomas combined for 21.5 sacks, making first and second team respectively. But the gold standard remains the Chicago Bears of the 1980s, who boasted the best defense in football and got to send both Steve McMichael and Dan Hampton to the All-Pro team in 1985 and 1986.

You can count the number of times these things have been done on one hand. And the Seahawks have a chance to do both. I would even go so far as to say that they should do both.

And if you’re more into on-field statistics, consider the possibility that both players end the season with double digit sacks. This would be something that, according to my research, has not happened once in the super bowl era for a defensive tackle duo. Sixty tackles each is also likely, another rare feat for interior linemen.

Forget best in the NFL, or best in franchise history. This is among the greatest defensive tackle tandems ever, and if they close strong, should be in the conversation with any legendary tackle duo. And with a starting point like that, is it any wonder that the defense has been so good?

Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Byron Murphy II gestures during an NFL football game against the Houston Texans. — Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Byron Murphy II gestures during an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, in Seattle. | AP Photo/Stephen Brashear

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