Fantasy football rankings, Week 6: Defense/Special Teams

Every defense/special teams unit has now played at least four games, and while four games isn’t exactly a conclusive data set, there are some things we can start looking at.

With that in mind, I find it more interesting and more illuminating to look at what units avoid awful performances moreso than what units always put up big ones.

The following chart lists the number of D/ST units that have not put up point totals as bad as a given value so far. For example, the worst single point total this season belongs to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 4, at negative-10. So that gets a “31,” because 31 teams haven’t put that up yet. I’ll also list what teams have each total as their worst number. You’ll get it, I have faith in you:

It’s been awful so far. If you set the standard as “has at least had a positive point total every week,” only 11 teams have met that every week. Move it up to a minimum of two points a week -- hardly an impressive standard -- and we’re down to Denver, San Francisco, Detroit and San Diego. And if you want a defense that has had at least three points every week, that numbers falls to the 16^th defense off the board in preseason, San Diego, and the 17^th, Detroit.

Average fantasy defense scoring is way down this year. Through five weeks last year, the average D/ST unit had 35.4 fantasy points. This year, that’s down to 27. I’ve been mentioning this in some form or another for a few weeks, but this year, your fantasy defense isn’t winning you games very often. But it can lose them for you far more often.

Tread lightly. Avoid goose eggs and negatives.

Now, to our Week 6 rankings:

(DK: Daniel Kelley; JD: John Daigle; SK: Scott Kaliska; Dan Ciarrocchi has the week off)