A good pass rush can tilt a season. A great pair can wreck one.
That’s the lens for this look at the NFL’s five best pass-rushing duos heading into 2026, a list built around proven production, rising stars and a few bets on what comes next. There are other pairs with real cases - George Karlaftis and Jones in Kansas City, Tuli Tuipulotu and Khalil Mack of the Chargers, Trey Hendrickson and Nnamdi Madubuike in Baltimore, Jeffery Simmons and John Franklin-Myers of the Titans, and Aidan Hutchinson and Alim McNeill in Detroit, among others - but these are the five that rise to the top entering training camp.
The group starts with the Jets’ tandem of Quinnen Williams and Brian Burns, a combination that has both a ceiling and a track record. Carter’s rookie year brought only four sacks, but he was consistently getting home on the quarterback, finishing with 23 hits and tying for 13th in the league.
He also finished stronger than he started, with more than one quarterback hit in only one of his first 11 games before doing it three times over the final six. In that stretch, 14 of his 23 QB hits came together.
Burns arrives with a much longer resume. When New York traded for him from the Panthers, the price was second- and fifth-round picks, followed by a five-year, $141 million extension that included $87.5 million guaranteed.
Last season, Burns delivered a career-best 16.5 sacks, along with 22 tackles for loss and 31 quarterback hits, numbers that ranked second, third and fourth league-wide. He also picked up second-team All-Pro honors.
Next comes the 49ers’ pairing of Nick Bosa and Osa Odighizuwa, a duo that carries some obvious health-related uncertainty but also a lot of upside. Bosa’s career has been defined by dominance when he’s on the field, though staying there has been the issue.
In seven seasons, he has played at least 14 games only five times. In those years, he piled up 62.5 sacks and 87 tackles for loss, while making five Pro Bowls, winning Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, and earning first-team All-Pro recognition once.
He’s now coming off a torn ACL that ended his 2025 season in Week 3, and he turned 29 in October.
Odighizuwa was brought in from the Cowboys this offseason as Dallas keeps reshaping a defense that finished 32nd in points allowed. Even with that backdrop, he has become one of the better interior rushers in the league.
He has recorded 23 quarterback hits in each of the past two seasons, a total topped only by Chris Jones among defensive tackles. With Bosa and 2025 first-round pick Mykel Williams attacking off the edge, Odighizuwa may be set up for his best year yet.
Denver’s duo of Zach Allen and Nik Bonitto checks in next, and Allen might be the most underrated player in the league. That sounds almost impossible for someone on a 14-3, top-seeded team, but that’s where things stand. Over the last two seasons, he has led the NFL in quarterback hits with 47 and 40, respectively.
Bonitto has made his own leap. He landed a four-year, $106 million extension beginning this year after turning into one of the sport’s elite pass rushers.
Last season, he helped Denver finish with a league-high 68 sacks, leading the team with 14 of them while posting his second straight season with at least 13.5. At 26 and surrounded by other rush talent, including Allen and Jonathan Cooper, there’s a real sense that his best football is still ahead.
Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter come in at No. 2, and the numbers tell you why. No defense was scarier late in the 2025 season than the Texans, and while the secondary features corners Derek Stingley Jr., Kamari Lassiter and safety Jalen Pitre, the pass rush is the engine. Anderson and Hunter were the league’s top tandem a year ago, combining for 27 sacks, with both finishing in double digits.
That front drove Houston to the divisional round for a third straight season, and over the final 10 regular-season games the Texans allowed more than 21 points only once, not counting a Week 18 reserve-fest. Anderson, entering his fourth season and age-25 year, already has a case as the best edge rusher in the league behind Garrett. He finished last season with 12 sacks, 20 tackles for loss and 85 quarterback pressures, second only to Aidan Hutchinson.
At No. 1 sits the Rams’ pairing of Myles Garrett and Jared Verse, a duo that combines an established wrecking ball with a rising force. Garrett’s résumé hardly needs selling.
He’s a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, he set the single-season sacks record last season with 23 for the Browns, and in the offseason he was traded to the Rams for Verse plus first-, second- and third-round picks. Even at 30, he was considered worth every bit of that price.
Garrett has been a five-time first-team All-Pro over the last six years, with 95 sacks in 97 games and a reputation for drawing double- and triple-teams in Cleveland. He’s also a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, and now he finally gets a real shot at a ring.
Verse is the younger half of the equation, but he’s already pushing toward star status. The 28-year-old Pro Bowler is coming off a career-high 12 sacks, and in three seasons he has never missed a game. Durable, disruptive and now lined up next to Garrett, he might be the biggest beneficiary of any duo on this list.
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