FSU football: Top 15 most important defensive players for 2024 season

FSU football had an excellent defense last season that peaked toward the end of the season as the FSU offense navigated the season-ending injury to Jordan Travis. FSU had good injury luck, aside from an Akeem Dent hamstring injury, which cost him a few games. That injury, facing several top dual-threat quarterbacks, and the Orange Bowl skewed some numbers. However, the defense finished No. 10 in FEI advanced metrics and was among the leaders in several important categories.

As media outlets have released their top 40 players lists over the last few weeks, I wanted to wait and take a more realistic approach by separating the offense and defense into separate groups. My colleague posted his top 15 most important offensive players here.

I think separating provides a more accurate gauge of the importance of each guy. After all, only 11 guys can play on one side at a time, and including guys that will likely only play when you’re winning big, losing big, or you have major injuries means one of three things.

If it’s either of the latter two, FSU isn’t going to meet expectations going into the 2023 season. Without further ado, here are my top 15 defensive players going into the season.