The NY Giants have been home to the plethora of talent on both sides of the ball. However, the phrase “defense wins championships” comes to mind often when thinking about all four of the team’s Super Bowl victories.
While the offenses of those teams were very solid, the most noteworthy part was often the defense and defensive line. Throughout the team’s history, the Giants have seen a remarkable amount of talent for the defensive line come and go. The choice for No. 1 on this list is obvious, but there’s still some other greats people can’t forget about.
This list was somewhat difficult to put together confidently, as the statistical keeping of sacks, tackles for loss, and even tackles in general are not very consistent with some of the older players on this list. With that in mind, some of the factors used in judging these players will be team success, player talent, statistical achievements and accolades. Here are the 10 best defensive linemen in NY Giants history:
10. Arnold Weinmeister
Accolades: four-time Pro Bowler, five-time All Pro First Team, Pro Football Hall of Fame member
Arnold Weinmeister is a player who made it very difficult to judge. While he made five All Pro teams and four Pro Bowls during his short six-year career, he has literally zero stats recorded to his name outside of fumbles recovered.
The combination of Weinmesiter’s lack of stats, limited team success, and era played in, made it difficult for us to justify putting him higher on the list. In addition to all of this, Weinmeister had a relatively short career, only playing six years in the league.
That being said, from what we gathered during research, Weinmeister was one of the first big names on the defensive side of the ball, becoming a fan favorite during his short time on the field. He turned plenty of heads at multiple spots on the field during his playing days, no doubt about that.