Defense is the one position where I almost never carry a season-long option in fantasy football. I stream it. Playing the weekly matchups is how you squeeze fantasy points out of a spot most managers ignore until Sunday morning. That reality shapes how I approach the position on draft day. The aim is not to land the best defense in football. It is to find a unit I can confidently start in Week 1 or Week 2, with anything after that treated as a bonus. These are the defenses whose early schedules are set up to do exactly that.
Preseason Fantasy Football Rankings
1) Houston Texans
2) Denver Broncos
3) Los Angeles Rams
4) Seattle Seahawks
5) Philadelphia Eagles
6) New England Patriots
7) Minnesota Vikings
8) Pittsburgh Steelers
9) Baltimore Ravens
10) Jacksonville Jaguars
11) Los Angeles Chargers
12) Green Bay Packers
13) Kansas City Chiefs
14) Detroit Lions
15) Buffalo Bills
16) Cleveland Browns
17) Atlanta Falcons
18) New Orleans Saints
19) Indianapolis Colts
20) San Francisco 49ers
21) Miami Dolphins
22) Washington Commanders
23) Dallas Cowboys
24) Chicago Bears
25) New York Giants
26) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
27) Cincinnati Bengals
28) Carolina Panthers
29) Tennessee Titans
30) New York Jets
31) Arizona Cardinals
32) Las Vegas Raiders
Best Defense for Fantasy Football
The Chargers were a mediocre fantasy defense last season, finishing 14th in fantasy points per game. Fortunately, none of that really concerns us. We just need to answer one question during fantasy drafts: Who can we start Week 1? The answer is in Los Angeles.
The Rams may be the best defense in the NFL with Aaron Donald returning to join newly acquired Myles Garrett to form one of the most feared defensive fronts in NFL history, but don’t sleep on the Chargers, especially not in Week 1.
We are generally pretty bad at predicting who the top defenses will be. We’re much better at predicting who the worst offenses will be. So, we’re going to target some of them.
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The Chargers are a great option because we can get two startable weeks out of them to open the year. First, they get the Cardinals, who allowed the eighth most fantasy points to defenses last season. Then, in Week 2, they get the Raiders, who allowed the most fantasy points to defenses last year.
Yes, both of those teams look a bit different with Jeremiyah Love joining the Cardinals, plus a new coaching staff, and the Raiders overhauling everything. But it would still be surprising if either of these opponents proved to be overwhelming.
Draft the Chargers. Start them for the first two weeks. Then figure it out from there.
The Steelers get the Panthers and Titans in the final two weeks of the fantasy season. Need I say more? Streaming defenses is the play and something I fully endorse, but if you’re a low-effort manager who will check back every once in a while and hope that your team is competitive, why not operate with the long-term goal in mind? If this offense can take a step toward average with the addition of Michael Pittman, maybe they can speed up opponents into mistakes and offer a bit more upside than the industry is giving them credit for.
