Banks effectively shut down running games almost single-handedly with his exceptional instincts and play recognition skills, and with his remarkable ability to overpower an opposing tight end to close off a running back's wide runs to his side of the field. Go back and look at the tapes from that season -- especially the team's dominant defensive performances and the three post-season games in which they outscored their opposition by a combined 105-23 score. The best linebacker in a blue jersey in those games wore #58, not #56.
Except for LT who won the NFL's MVP, the first time a defensive player had won the award since 1971. I am not taking anything away from Banks or any of the other Giant linebackers. As I said, when you have a force like LT on the field, it makes the jobs of the other players easier. It is like having Shaq in the middle. When people collapse on him, someone else is open.
"LT is not one of the greatest all time players because for one year Carl Banks was a better linebacker." There's no logic in that. Two different things - best season by a linebacker, best players in history.
I loved Banks, but defensive coordinators didnt gameplan around him. QBs didnt look to see where he was. But they had different games - Banks was the trenchman, LT the freelancer.
The "Taylor was only a rush linebacker (one dimensional)" has been tried before too. It falls short because you can apply it everybody else - Butkus was a run-stuffer only, Singletary needed protection from a big DL, etc.