Deciding which defense to start in fantasy football can feel like an impossible task at times, but following the right data can help us identify trends that can make it less confusing for managers.
Let’s examine where each of the 28 teams taking the field this week falls in our Week 5 fantasy defense rankings and highlight a couple of the top matchups.
WEEK 5 POSITIONAL RANKINGS: QB | RB | WR | TE | K | FLEX
Top 28 Fantasy Defense Rankings
1) Chicago Bears (vs. CAR)
2) Kansas City Chiefs (vs. NO)
3) New York Jets (vs. MIN {London})
4) Dallas Cowboys (at PIT)
5) New England Patriots (vs. MIA)
6) San Francisco 49ers (vs. ARI)
7) Las Vegas Raiders (at DEN)
8) Pittsburgh Steelers (vs. DAL)
9) Miami Dolphins (at NE)
10) Denver Broncos (vs. LV)
11) Baltimore Ravens (at CIN)
12) Seattle Seahawks (vs. NYG)
13) Green Bay Packers (at LAR)
14) Houston Texans (vs. BUF)
15) Minnesota Vikings (vs. NYJ {London})
16) New Orleans Saints (at KC)
17) Cleveland Browns (at WAS)
18) Buffalo Bills (at HOU)
19) Indianapolis Colts (at JAX)
20) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (at ATL)
21) Los Angeles Rams (vs. GB)
22) Atlanta Falcons (vs. TB)
23) Cincinnati Bengals (vs. BAL)
24) Jacksonville Jaguars (vs. IND)
25) New York Giants (at SEA)
26) Washington Commanders (vs. CLE)
27) Carolina Panthers (at CHI)
28) Arizona Cardinals (at SF)
Which Defenses Are Intriguing for Week 5?
Denver Broncos (vs. LV)
The fact that the Broncos’ defense is only rostered in 16% of leagues on Yahoo seems like a crime, and it should change in short order. They’ve scored the fourth-most fantasy points this season in Yahoo’s defense scoring, including three double-digit returns.
Defense came to PLAY 😤 pic.twitter.com/ueJXGr1LiT
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos)
Regardless of the site you play on, the Broncos have been good for fantasy this year. Things should only get better this week when they take on the Las Vegas Raiders, who are the fifth-most favorable offense for a DST to face.
The Raiders have allowed opposing defenses to score 9.25 fantasy points per game on average. There is no reason to overthink this; pick up Denver, use them this week, and potentially have a usable option through the next month.
New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins
Four offenses should be actively targeted each week as options for starting a fantasy football defense: the Broncos, Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots.
With the Titans on a bye and the Raiders not being a defense you should trust, that leaves the Patriots and Dolphins, who also happen to be facing each other.
The Patriots and Dolphins offenses have been the lowest-scoring units in football through the first four weeks. New England is averaging 13.0 points per game, while Miami is at 11.3. That makes both intriguing options to target when deciding which defenses to start each week.
The risk with them is that their own offenses are so bad that it leaves them vulnerable against opponents if they are on the field for long periods of time.
Just look at last week, when the Dolphins gave up 31 points to a Titans team that had only scored 48 points in the first three weeks. That left Miami’s defense with just two fantasy points in Yahoo’s defense scoring.
The other problem here with the Dolphins is that their ceiling is capped somewhat. They only have seven sacks this season, which severely hurts their upside. When you average just 2.75 combined sacks and interceptions per game, that is always going to limit scoring opportunities from a fantasy perspective.
All stats are from TruMedia unless otherwise stated.
