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2015 Fantasy Football Rankings: Defenses

Walt6 mins

These 2015 Fantasy Football Defense Rankings will be updated often throughout the summer, so make sure you check back from time to time. Also, be sure to check out my other 2015 Fantasy Football articles, including sleepers, busts, tons of 2015 Fantasy Football mock drafts and other material. Follow me @walterfootball for updates.

Updated 8/31


I don’t believe in drafting fantasy defenses until the final couple of rounds. Someone always reaches for a defense way too early in every fantasy draft. I prefer to grab as many running backs and receivers as possible, and then wait on a defense in the final round. I then play matchups with my defenses. I’ll explain this later, but here are my brief 2015 fantasy defense rankings, which will be much different than most publications because of my matchup strategy:

  1. Seattle Seahawks. Bye: 9.
  2. Miami Dolphins. Bye: 5. (Redskins Week 1)
  3. Houston Texans. Bye: 9. (Chiefs Week 1)
  4. Kansas City Chiefs. Bye: 9. (Texans Week 1)
  5. Denver Broncos. Bye: 7.
  6. Cleveland Browns. Bye: 11. (Jets Week 1)
  7. New York Jets. Bye: 5. (Browns Week 1)
  8. Cincinnati Bengals. Bye: 7. (Raiders Week 1)
  9. Arizona Cardinals. Bye: 9.
  10. Buffalo Bills. Bye: 8.



  11. Oakland Raiders. Bye: 6. (Bengals Week 1)
  12. Minnesota Vikings. Bye: 5. (49ers Week 1)
  13. St. Louis Rams. Bye: 6.
  14. Carolina Panthers. Bye: 5.
  15. Jacksonville Jaguars. Bye: 8.
  16. Indianapolis Colts. Bye: 10.
  17. Pittsburgh Steelers. Bye: 11.
  18. Baltimore Ravens. Bye: 9.
  19. New England Patriots. Bye: 4.
  20. Dallas Cowboys. Bye: 6.
  21. Detroit Lions. Bye: 9.



  22. Green Bay Packers. Bye: 7.
  23. New York Giants. Bye: 11.
  24. Philadelphia Eagles. Bye: 8.
  25. Tennessee Titans. Bye: 4.
  26. San Francisco 49ers. Bye: 10.
  27. San Diego Chargers. Bye: 10.
  28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bye: 6.
  29. Atlanta Falcons. Bye: 10.
  30. New Orleans Saints. Bye: 11.
  31. Chicago Bears. Bye: 7.
  32. Washington Redskins. Bye: 8.


Rotating Fantasy Football Defenses:

As I said, I love to rotate fantasy defenses based on matchups. I’ve identified several teams as having probable crappy offenses that you can go against (note that this list will change after the 2015 NFL Draft:


Terrible Offenses:

  • Cleveland Browns – The Browns will be an automatic play-against if Johnny Manziel starts again. Josh McCown isn’t much better. New York is No. 2 because it plays Cleveland in Week 1.

  • New York Jets – Ryan Fitzpatrick will be worse without Bill O’Brien’s help. He’s good for a couple of interceptions per game.

  • Washington Redskins – Robert Griffin doesn’t care enough to watch film, and he has regressed as a consequence. Roy Helu’s absence will hurt in terms of pass protection, and the offensive line sucks.




    Bad Offenses:

  • Chicago Bears – Jay Cutler is a turnover machine, and his offensive line can’t block very well.

  • Kansas City Chiefs – The Chiefs have some major problems on their offensive line, and it seems as though teams have figured out that Alex Smith is very mediocre without Jim Harbaugh.

  • San Francisco 49ers – Jim Harbaugh is gone, so Colin Kaepernick will likely fail, especially without Frank Gore helping him in the backfield.

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Jameis Winston is an obvious upgrade at quarterback for the Buccaneers, but his affinity for interceptions will make the Buccaneers a nice play-against.

    That’s just a preliminary list. If a quarterback goes down and his backup sucks, that team will obviously be added. I’ll rank all the fantasy defenses each week during the regular season, so make sure you check back for that.

    It’s also worth noting that you can luck into landing a great defense using this strategy. Four years ago in one league, I picked up the 49ers early because they had a matchup versus rookie quarterback Andy Dalton. They were doing so well that I just decided to keep them, but always signed another defense if San Francisco matched up against a potent offense.





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