Through three weeks a year ago, three defense/special teams units had more than 40 fantasy points. Kansas City had 51 points, Seattle 43, and Dallas (yes, Dallas) had 41. Fourteen units had at least 25 points.
Fantasy football rankings, Week 4: Defense/Special Teams
There aren’t a lot of elite defensive units so far on the young season. What does that mean for fantasy ownership?
Mike Ehrmann
Through three weeks this year, no teams have 40-plus points. New England, at 39, leads the way, and only seven units have put up 25 or more, with most of those in the 20s and not the 30s. This despite the fact that the average offense puts up just slightly less per game this year than they did a year ago through the same time.
It’s small sample size to be sure, but the answer so far on the young season is easy: turnovers.
There have been 2.7 turnovers per game through the first three weeks. Last season, there were 3.2 per game over the season. That will naturally limit D/ST scoring, and since elite defensive units are the ones usually getting the takeaways, fewer turnovers means fewer super-elite defenses.
For fantasy, this means one of two things: either defenses will start getting more turnovers (and I can’t really swear there’s a reason to believe this is true), or more defenses fall into the streaming category, the group where you are willing to drop them any time, week-to-week, depending on the matchup, and you aren’t risking losing out on a dominant unit.
Right now, there are at most, what, four units you feel you have to hold on to? There’s Cincinnati, New England, Carolina and Seattle. Maybe Detroit. But heck, Carolina’s coming off an outing with negative seven points. Seattle has a negative on its resume as well, and only has 14 total points. And New England has put up big numbers on defense, but that’s against Miami, Minnesota and Oakland -- talk to me when they face a good offense.
This time last year, you weren’t dropping Seattle or Kansas City, and frankly, you couldn’t risk dropping Dallas. Chicago, New England, Tennessee, Carolina -- they were all performing really well. This year, if your unit is on a bye (and there are six this week) or has an awful matchup, you can feel much safer just letting them go.
Defense/Special Teams rankings, Week 4
(DK: Daniel Kelley; DC: Dan Ciarrocchi; JD: John Daigle; SK: Scott Kaliska)
| Rank | Consensus | Opponent | DK | DC | JD | SK |
| 1 | San Diego Chargers | JAC | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 2 | New England Patriots | @KC | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Houston Texans | BUF | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Carolina Panthers | @BAL | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Miami Dolphins | OAK (England) | 6 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| 6 | Buffalo Bills | @HOU | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| 7 | Baltimore Ravens | CAR | 9 | 6 | 7 | 5 |
| 8 | Detroit Lions | @NYJ | 4 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh Steelers | TAM | 10 | 9 | 24 | 6 |
| 10 | Washington | NYG | 17 | 11 | 8 | 13 |
| 11 | San Francisco 49ers | PHI | 8 | 12 | 20 | 11 |
| 12 | New Orleans Saints | @DAL | 15 | 13 | 13 | 12 |
| 13 | Indianapolis Colts | TEN | 22 | 10 | 16 | 8 |
| 14 | Chicago Bears | GB | 14 | 16 | 14 | 16 |
| 15 | New York Giants | @WAS | 16 | 15 | 17 | 15 |
| 16 | New York Jets | DET | 18 | 14 | 19 | 14 |
| 17 | Kansas City Chiefs | NE | 21 | 17 | 12 | 18 |
| 18 | Atlanta Falcons | @MIN | 13 | 18 | 21 | 19 |
| 19 | Oakland Raiders | MIA (England) | 24 | 20 | 11 | 20 |
| 20 | Philadelphia Eagles | @SF | 11 | 21 | 22 | 22 |
| 21 | Tennessee Titans | @IND | 12 | 23 | 18 | 23 |
| 22 | Green Bay Packers | @CHI | 20 | 22 | 15 | 21 |
| 23 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | @PIT | 19 | 19 | 25 | 17 |
| 24 | Minnesota Vikings | ATL | 25 | 24 | 9 | 24 |
| 25 | Dallas Cowboys | NO | 23 | NR | 23 | 25 |
| UR | Jacksonville Jaguars | @SD | NR | 25 | NR | NR |
