2022 Fantasy Football Rankings: Defenses


These 2022 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 2022 Fantasy Football articles, including sleepers, busts, tons of 2022 Fantasy Football mock drafts and other material. Follow me @walterfootball for updates.

Updated May 2022


I don’t believe in drafting fantasy defenses until the final couple of rounds. In fact, I usually don’t even draft a defense, opting instead to select as many sleepers as possible and then eventually adding a defense the Saturday of Week 1.

Someone always reaches for a defense way too early in every fantasy draft. Don’t be an idiot like that. There’s a new top defense every year. Plus, you can play matchups with defenses. I’ll explain this later, but here are my brief 2022 fantasy defense rankings, which will be much different than most publications because of my matchup strategy:

  1. Buffalo Bills. Bye: 0.
  2. Los Angeles Rams. Bye: 0.
  3. Dallas Cowboys. Bye: 0.
  4. New England Patriots. Bye: 0.
  5. Green Bay Packers. Bye: 0.
  6. San Angeles Chargers. Bye: 0.
  7. San Francisco 49ers. Bye: 0.
  8. Denver Broncos. Bye: 0.
  9. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bye: 0.
  10. New Orleans Saints. Bye: 0.



  11. Kansas City Chiefs. Bye: 0.
  12. Miami Dolphins. Bye: 0.
  13. Cincinnati Bengals. Bye: 0.
  14. Baltimore Ravens. Bye: 0.
  15. Arizona Cardinals. Bye: 0.
  16. Minnesota Vikings. Bye: 0.
  17. Tennessee Titans. Bye: 0.
  18. Carolina Panthers. Bye: 0.
  19. Cleveland Browns. Bye: 0.
  20. Washington Redskins. Bye: 0.
  21. Pittsburgh Steelers. Bye: 0.



  22. Philadelphia Eagles. Bye: 0.
  23. New York Jets. Bye: 0.
  24. Las Vegas Raiders. Bye: 0.
  25. Indianapolis Colts. Bye: 0.
  26. Seattle Seahawks. Bye: 0.
  27. Chicago Bears. Bye: 0.
  28. New York Giants. Bye: 0.
  29. Jacksonville Jaguars. Bye: 0.
  30. Detroit Lions. Bye: 0.
  31. Houston Texans. Bye: 0.
  32. Atlanta Falcons. Bye: 0.


Rotating Fantasy Football Defenses:

As I said, I love to rotate fantasy defenses based on matchups. I’ll identify several teams as having probable crappy offenses that you can go against once the schedule releases.


Terrible Offenses:

  • Atlanta Falcons – The Falcons have the same dreadful offensive line as last year, and they don’t have Matt Ryan to bail them out anymore.

  • Chicago Bears – Chicago’s offensive line and receiving corps are both lackluster.

  • Houston Texans – Davis Mills sucks, though Houston’s offensive line isn’t too bad.







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