In every season, there are those players who, for whatever reason, do not receive the recognition their talents deserve. Perhaps they’re languishing on bad teams, or they’re doing their best in less than optimal situations, or it’s just that their positions aren’t the ones that get noticed.

But these players — Touchdown Wire’s All-Underrated team in the first half of the 2021 NFL season — have all earned notice as among the best at what they do, and it’s our job to help bridge the talent/recognition gap.

Here are the most underrated defensive players in the first half of the 2021 season.

You can see the All-Underrated offense here:

The NFL’s All-Underrated offense in the first half of the 2021 season

Jeffery Simmons, DI, Tennessee Titans

(George Walker IV / Tennessean.com-USA TODAY NETWORK)

No offense to Jacksonville’s Josh Allen, but if Jeffery Simmons would like a word, he should be allowed to have all the words he wants. In the Titans’ 28-16 Sunday night walloping of the Rams’ formerly inescapable offense, Tennessee’s defensive tackle went off at an Aaron Donald level with three sacks (he had three sacks in the entire 2020 season), a quarterback hit, five quarterback hurries, and five stops.

Actually, Simmons did have some words after that game.

He’s not wrong. The fulcrum of a Titans defense that has shown massive improvement over the last month, Simmons leads all interior defensive linemen this season so far with 42 total pressures — one more than Mr. Donald. Only Miami’s Christian Wilkins has more stops among interior defensive linemen this season than Simmons’ 24, per Pro Football Focus. In combination with two more players we’re about to mention, Simmons has become every bit the force the Titans hoped he’d be when they selected him with the 19th pick in the 2019 draft.

Javon Hargrave, DI, Philadelphia Eagles

(John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)

Several Eagles defenders have come right out and expressed their displeasure with the concepts first-year defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon brings to the field, but that agita hasn’t affected Hargrave’s ability to upend enemy offenses. This despite the fact that Hargrave appears to be one of the dissatisfied.

No, but you could argue that Hargrave, in his second season with the Eagles after signing a three-year, $39 million free-agent contract in March, 2020, has taken Fletcher Cox’s place as the true force multiplier on Philly’s defensive line.

The former Steeler already has six sacks this season (his career high is 6.5 in 2018), and he leads that Eagles front with 25 total pressures and 22 stops.

Denico Autry, EDGE, Indianapolis Colts

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The Titans had a desperate need to upgrade their pass rush this offseason, and while the big news was about Bud Dupree’s five year, $82.5 million contract with $35 million guaranteed, the most important decision general manager Jon Robinson made in free agency this year was the signing of former Colts defensive lineman Denico Autry to a three-year, $21.5 million contract with $9 million guaranteed that will unquestionably go down as one of the best bargains in the NFL this season.

The Titans have used Autry a lot like he was deployed in Indianapolis — as an inside/outside rusher who can line up all over the front. He’s the guy who ties edge pressure and interior pressure together — the guy who makes things easier for the aforementioned Jeffery Simmons, as well as edge-rushers Dupree and Harold Landry III (more on him in a minute). Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen knows to use Autry in stunts and games across the line, because he’s so very good at creating disruption everywhere.

Among defenders classified as edge players by Pro Football Focus, Autry’s 42 total pressures ties him for fifth in the league with Green Bay’s Rashan Gary and Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson. Both of those players have also done very well under the radar, but Autry makes the cut here because his overall effect on a Titans defense line that has learned to get consistent pressure with four is so transformational.

Harold Landry III, EDGE, Tennessee Titans

(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)

So… with the Titans and their improved defense, there are the players they brought in via free agency, and there are homegrown players who have just made the leap this season. Jeffery Simmons is obviously one, and Landry, who Tennessee selected in the second round of the 2018 draft out of Boston College, is another.

Only Maxx Crosby of the Raiders has more total pressures this season than Landry’s 48, which ties him with Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, and with Landry, it’s not just the 10 quarterback hits and 28 quarterback hurries — he’s also getting home to the quarterback at a fantastic rate. He has nine sacks this season, which matches his 2019 career high, and he’s playing in a more disciplined fashion against the run. No other edge defender can match Landry’s 29 stops.

Matthew Judon, EDGE, New England Patriots

(Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)

Bill Belichick loves defensive players who can succeed in multiple roles, but he also has a knack for putting those types of players in the best positions to succeed. In March, New England signed the former Ravens star, who lined up all over the place in Wink Martindale’s blitz-happy defenses, to a four-year, $56 million contract, and Judon has done a lot to redefine the Patriots’ defense ever since. It started in the preseason, when Judon single-handedly put spike strips all over Washington’s offense, and it’s been the case ever since.

Matthew Judon showed do-it-all versatility early in Patriots’ defense

Judon ranks third in the NFL among edge defenders with 44 total pressures, and he’s done so as more of a defined edge-rusher than his previous, more multi-faceted roles.

De'Vondre Campbell, LB, Green Bay Packers

(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

As well as the Packers have put their rosters together in recent years, the inside linebacker spot has been an issue for a long time. It was less an issue when Green Bay led the league in dime snaps under former defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, but when Pettine was replaced this offseason by Joe Barry, things changed in a big way. The Packers played a league-high 360 dime snaps in 2020; they’ve played 89 dime snaps this season, which ranks eighth in the league, per Sports Info Solutions.

One reason it’s worked pretty well so far is the offseason signing of former Falcons linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, who was just named the NFC Defensive Player of the Month for October. Campbell was a good-to-average player in Atlanta from 2016 through 2020, but he’s been an absolute revelation in Barry’s defense. With 54 solo tackles, 28 stops, and excellent coverage (35 catches allowed on 47 targets for 149 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 74.5), Campbell has proven to be every bit the top-tier modern linebacker in his ability to make plays everywhere from the line to the box to the slot.

He can also bring pressure when that’s dialed up.

Chidobe Awuzie, CB, Cincinnati Bengals

(Sam Greene-USA TODAY Sports)

It’s not often that you see free agents getting obviously better when they sign with the Bengals (sorry, Bengals), but in a defense that has made a nice turnaround this season, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has overseen the improved efforts of two players — the aforementioned Trey Hendrickson, and Awuzie, who seemed betwixt and between in four years with the Cowboys in a variety of less effective concepts. Awuzie has allowed the occasional big play in his new home, but that generally happens when he’s asked to play off the line of scrimmage. When he’s pressed up against a receiver from the snap, even when that receiver is as great as Green Bay’s Davante Adams, Awuzie generally wins the day.

I spoke with another NFL defensive back about this play, and here’s what he said: “Beautiful. Soft-shoed to the angle of the fade, but kept his hip towards the slant so he could defend both. Almost funneled him into the slant. Not many can mirror step with [Adams].”

That’s who Awuzie can be. On the season, he’s allowed 32 catches on 59 targets for 306 yards, 101 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, one interception, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 78.8. Awuzie’s low interception numbers may have you thinking that he shouldn’t be on anyone’s All-Underrated team, but there’s a lot more to cornerback play than interceptions.

Our next two cornerbacks are living proof of that.

A.J. Terrell, CB, Atlanta Falcons

(BILL INGRAM /THE PALM BEACH POST-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Terrell is primarily known as the Clemson cornerback who gave up five catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the 2019 College Football Championship, getting burned over and over by LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase. But if you take out that disaster, per PFF, Terrell allowed just 18 catches for 249 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the rest of the season.

The Falcons were undeterred by that one-game slide against one of the best collegiate receivers in recent memory, selecting Terrell with the 16th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Without a real preseason to go on, Terrell looked at times in 2020 as if the NFL would provide a stern and long-developing learning curve. But he’s made up the difference in 2021, allowing just 13 catches on 28 targets for 74 yards, 54 yards after the catch, one touchdown, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 65.2.

Should we debit Terrell because he doesn’t have any interceptions? Watch the tape, and ask his opponents whether they’d rather face a cornerback who allowed more big plays and had a few picks. My guess is, they’d prefer to go that route.

Casey Hayward Jr., CB, Las Vegas Raiders

(Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports)

As is the case with Terrell, you could ask Casey Hayward’s coaches and teammates whether it’s worth having a cornerback with no interceptions if he’s shutting down most everything that hits his area. And as is the case with Terrell, Heyward has played at an extremely high level all season. The Chargers released Hayward in March after some disappointing, injury-plagued seasons, but this season, he’s looked like the shutdown guy he was in Green Bay from 2012 through 2015, and earlier in his Chargers career. Whether he’s playing press or off-coverage, Hayward merges his athleticism with outstanding diagnostic skills through the play to present serious issues for opposing quarterbacks and receivers.

This season, in 298 coverage snaps, Hayward has allowed just 11 catches on 23 targets for 122 yards, 25 yards, no touchdowns, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating 64.0.

Again, there’s more — a lot more — to great defensive back play than just interceptions.

Kevin Byard, S, Tennessee Titans

(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Three safeties? Yes, this All-Underrated team has a big nickel/dime defense, as opposed to an obvious slot defender. Let’s start with Byard, one of many Titans defenders who has seen an extreme uptick in efficiency and effectiveness this season over last. The AFC’s Defensive Player of the Month for October started November hot with this pick-six of Matthew Stafford in Tennessee’s Sunday night win over the Rams.

Byard had just one interception and an opponent passer rating of 107.4 last season, but like a lot of the Titans’ defenders, he was negatively affected by a coaching staff that wasn’t as well-defined as it should have been. Now, with Shane Bowen established as the defensive coordinator, and longtime coach Jim Schwartz on board as a consultant, things are very different for this defense from the line to the deep third. This season, Byard has allowed 12 catches on 25 targets for 129 yards, 82 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, five interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 50.7.

As ESPN’s Ryan Clark and Dan Orlovsky pointed out in this excellent presentation this week, Byard’s athleticism and diagnostic skills are still among the league’s best.

Jordan Poyer, S, Buffalo Bills

(Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports)

However you want to slice it, the Bills have the NFL’s best defense so far this season. They’ve allowed the fewest points per game (14.8), they rank first in Defensive DVOA, and they’ve been especially ridiculous in man-based pass coverage. Per Sports Info Solutions, when opposing quarterbacks test Buffalo’s man coverage, they have completed 31 of 64 passes for 368 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, and a QBR of 46.9. The Packers rank second in opposing QBR in man coverage at 61.0, if you want to know how definitive the Bills are in that department.

A key component of this is that the Bills have the NFL’s best safety duo in Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, and while Hyde does get some praise for his work, Poyer has been the most constricting safety in the league this season when tested — which hasn’t been often. He’s been targeted 11 times this season, allowing five catches for 39 yards, 17 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, three interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 15.2.

*checks to make sure that isn’t a typo*

Nope. 15.6, Enemy quarterbacks are almost as likely to give the ball to Poyer as they are to their own receivers.

Adrian Phillips, S, New England Patriots

(Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

Speaking of Defensive DVOA, there’s the matter of the Patriots, who have jumped from 26th in an injury- and opt-out-marred 2020 season to fifth in 2021. Phillips has been a big difference-maker this year in ways he wasn’t in 2020, his first year with the Patriots after six seasons with the Chargers. Not that Phillips was awful last season; like a lot of Patriots defenders, he just didn’t perform up to his potential.

That’s out the window now, to great effect and impact. There was the pick-six he had against Justin Herbert in Week 8 against the Chargers, and the second Herbert ball he took away for good measure.

Far from a one-game wonder, Phillips has allowed just 12 receptions on 21 targets this season for 93 yards, 48 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 44.4. Moreover, he’s played excellent, meaningful snaps at the defensive line, in the box and slot, at deep safety, and even at outside cornerback.