DeForest Buckner ranks in the all-time elite tier for pass rushers — a career that places Buckner in the top 5% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Buckner a career score of 84, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

DTIND#99ACT

DeForest Buckner

3× Pro Bowl1× All-ProTop 4% all-time pass rushersFranchise Cornerstone🌅 Early Bloomer · 2018 Team Carrier · #289

Height

Career Value · VORP

285 career value over replacement — #160 all-time of 4,695. 28.5/season above a replacement-level DL.

Draft OutcomeSteal ↑

Pick #7 (Rd 1) · SF · 2016 · +20.7 vs expected KV-H

84actual

63.3 expected · Δ+20.7

💔+43.9 stolen VORP·1.54 szns lost

Fan Rating

Rate DeForest Buckner — All-Time

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Compare DeForest Buckner vs Player Report data error

Team Carrier Evidence

Ranked #289 of 568 by seasons where high individual production happened on low-win teams. Score aggregates only tracked StatVault categories.

Full board

Total Score

1 qualifying season

2018 SF·4 team wins#16

Sacks · 12 · score 30

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 38% of the all-time Sacks leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

38% of the all-time Sacks leader38

1 category ≥25% of the all-time leader33

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 93%.

Encyclopedia Coverage7/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Offensive, defensive, and special-teams snap counts with team-share percentages. Essential for OL and situational players. Source: nflverse snap_counts.

Where this data comes from

Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Per-Snap Impact

Interior D-Line · proprietary · 2012+

Elite

SIS

Disruption / 100 snaps:5.051See leaderboard →

Disruption/1005.051Snap share77.7%Def snaps8,147Elite · ConsistentCV 0.21

Production per snap — the box score normalized by opportunity. SIS is z-scored within interior d-line, shrinkage-regularized so small samples don't spike, over the NFL snap-count era (2012+).

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Combine · 2016

Percentiles compare each raw measurement against position peers, the full combine pool, and the same draft class where enough samples exist.

DL · 2016 class

5.05s

40-Yard

Above avg · 53th pct

Pos 53thAll 20thClass Pos 59thClass All 22th

32"

Vertical

Strong · 78th pct

Pos 78thAll 37thClass Pos 75thClass All 45th

116"

Broad Jump

Understanding These Stats

Defense

Tkl / Solo / Ast — Combined tackles (Solo + ½ Assist). Solo = unassisted. Ast = helped by a teammate.

TFL — Tackles for loss — stops made behind the line of scrimmage (run stuffs + QB contain).

QBHits — QB hits — any legal contact on the quarterback, including but beyond sacks (hurries that land).

Sk — Sacks — tackled the QB behind the line for a loss. Half-sacks shared between defenders.

Dis — Disruption plays = sacks + QB hits + TFL. The composite pass-rush / run-stop impact stat for one season. Elite pass rushers post 30+ disruption plays per season.

Int — Interceptions caught by this defender.

PD — Passes defended — deflections and breakups.

FF / FR — Forced fumbles (stripped or jarred loose). Fumble Recoveries.

TD — Defensive touchdowns — picks, fumble returns, safeties returned.

Sfty — Safeties — tackled the ball carrier in their own end zone.

Snap Counts (2012–present)

Postseason Career

4 playoff games

Defense

Tkl12Solo9Ast3TFL2QBHits5Sk2.5Dis9.5FF1

College Stats

OregonCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Oregon), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Grover StewartDT7y Luke RhodesLS7y Quenton NelsonG7y Mo Alie-CoxTE7y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

DeForest inherited the Indianapolis Colts DL room from Dwight Freeney (2002–2012), and handed it to Kwity Paye (2021–2025).

Donnell Thompson 1981–1991Jon Hand 1986–1994Ellis Johnson 1995–2001Chad Bratzke 1999–2003Dwight Freeney 2002–2012DeForest Buckner

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

2026final season
Last recorded season with IND
2020team change
Joined IND (from SF)
2016draft
Drafted by SF — Round 1, Pick 7

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'7" / 295 lb

Frame

291 lb at 5.05s

Size-speed

32" vert / 116" broad

Explosion

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 10-season peers. See all →

peak 86

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

B+2016

B2017

A+2018

B+2019

A2020

B+2021

B+2022

B+2023

B+2024

B2025

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 11 seasons.

86%

Era Translator

Sacks translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual Sacks	Sacks/G	→ 2025 Sacks	→ 2025 /G
2016	6	0.4	7+1	0.4
2017	3	0.2	3	0.2
2018	12	0.8	12	0.7
2019	7.5	0.5	8+0.5	0.5
2020	9.5	0.6	11+1.5	0.6
2021	7	0.4	7	0.4
2022	8	0.5	9+1	0.5
2023	8	0.5	8	0.5
2024	6.5	0.5	9+2.5	0.5
2025	4	0.4	7+3	0.4

Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats_def, nflverse:snap_counts, nflverse:combine, nflverse:draft_picks · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 10/15/2026

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Canton Monitor · HOF

Calibrated Hall-of-Fame probability — fit against actual enshrinement. See all →

12%

Active · Longshot

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 46.9%Longevity 20.2%All-Pro 18%Pro Bowls 13.5%All-Time Ranks 1.5%

Monitor score 66.8 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity84

Peak86

Accolades18

Consistency50

Per-Snap99

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

DeForest Buckner

Team Carrier Evidence

All-Time Standing

Where this data comes from

Per-Snap Impact

Career Aging Trajectory

Combine · 2016

Postseason Career

Defense

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator

2016 Draft Class· this player went #7