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2025 Team Defense & Defense by Committee Thread (4 Viewers)

Benjamin Allbright
I’ve had a half a dozen coaches and Niners beat people reach out, gushing over the Broncos defense in the last 40 minutes.
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Zack Kelberman
"Honestly, [the Chiefs] are worried about the #Broncos."

"Bo Nix is for real, and that defense is amazing."

"They have a lot of respect for the Broncos in terms of that defense, and they think Bo Nix is legit."

👀👀👀
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Bonta Hill
My big takeaway from the joint practice:

@AllbrightNFL was right, the Broncos have a Super Bowl caliber defense. They got after the 49ers starting offense.
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Leroy Hoard said:
Never too early for some streaming options on defense. My current week one favorite is Arizona. Whoever the Saints throw out at QB could be ripe for the picking and the Cards did make a point of drafting all defense through the 5th round this year. Current overall ADP of #15.
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Would love to hear more by Aug 29th on this by the eve of my draft. TIA
 
In deeper bench leagues, I like to draft SF and ARI in back to back rounds late. You start ARI first against the Saints, then throw them into the waiver pool and pick up the Seahawks and start SF in week 2 against the Saints. If you are willing to carry 2 D's, you can play the Saints for the first 3 weeks. Week 4 they face BUF, who will not be on the waiver wire.
 
I like the strong offense with a good defense mentality that Baltimore brings this year. Not that they aren’t highly ranked everywhere, but reading the articles above from @Faust they have added some key pieces and will put opposing offenses in some precarious situations.

Having said that, they have some tough offensive matchups on paper peppered throughout their schedule. So may be hard to treat as a set and forget if they don’t show quick like last year.

Starting the year week 1 with Buffalo doesn’t help either, if you are aiming for a solid week 1 start to your fantasy squad.
 
Just going to put New England on people’s radar. I’m probably late anyway.

This is what Ian Hartitz (hilarious last name I’ve never realized until I just typed it out) about the NFL’s 6th most expensive defense:

Enter: The Patriots. Stud CB Christian Gonzalez presents the unit with a legit elite difference-maker in the back end, and a plethora of offseason additions has Mike Vrabel's crew sitting as the league's sixth-most expensive unit in terms of 2025 dollars. They have the potential to be a good to maybe even really good real life unit, but that's not even the best part.

"What's the best part, Ian, or whatever your name is writing this article?"

Thanks for asking: It's the schedule. Holy f*ck does this set up nicely:

  • Week 1: LV (Geno Smith, who tossed the league's third-most INTs last season)
  • Week 2: MIA (probably Tua)
  • Week 3: PIT (old man Aaron Rodgers)
  • Week 4: CAR (Bryce Young)
  • Week 5: BUF (f*ck)
  • Week 6: NO (Spencer Rattler or Tyler Shough)
  • Week 7: TEN (Cam Ward)
  • Week 8: CLE (Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, or a rookie)
  • Week 9: ATL (Penix has some Gen-Z Jameis Winston/Jay Cutler in him)
  • Week 10: TB (not ideal but Baker does lead the NFL in INTs over the past two seasons)
  • Week 11: NYJ (Justin Fields)
The 49ers are another group with a nice blend of real-life goodness and a quality early-season schedule. The Cardinals don't stack up as favorably in real life, but do have a nice start to the year.

Chart for the first four weeks

My notes: they also have a week 14 bye.

John Paulsen reports:

The Patriots spent a record-breaking $69.2M on defense this offseason. Under new HC Mike Vrabel, they added Milton Williams, Carlton Davis & more. History says teams spending $20M+ see a 21% fantasy boost.
 
Drafted Baltimore due to their ranking. But, not loving them due to their week 1 matchup and first 6 weeks is fairly rough schedule on paper, and a week 7 bye.

Might drop for Arizona as my first transaction of the year.

Can’t get to 100 free agent waiver moves if I don’t start now.
 
I feel like the owners in my dynasty haven’t reacted yet to the changing D landscape … I’m overwhelmed with my options:

Arizona @ NO
Detroit @ GB
NE vs. Vegas
Jets vs. Pittsburgh
SF @ Seattle
Washington vs. Giants
 
Always interesting how we grade fantasy defenses. Some grade them based weekly starting with week 1. Some might go a month at a time. Some don't grade them at all and simply stream. On draft day I personally look at weeks 15, 16, 17. That's all I care about. I am in 2 leagues and targeted the Steelers as my #1. Landed them in both my leagues. 2 out of the 3 starts in playoffs are smash for me. I took Steelers over Eagles, Ravens, Broncos, etc based on playoff matchups. I'll hold them all year waiting for that moment. I then use another roster spot use a defense to target weekly on Steeler weeks with bad matchups. 8 of their 17 matchups are smash starts for me. Thats half the season. I like that. All my opinion of course.
 
FarFromHome said:
Always interesting how we grade fantasy defenses. Some grade them based weekly starting with week 1. Some might go a month at a time. Some don't grade them at all and simply stream. On draft day I personally look at weeks 15, 16, 17. That's all I care about. I am in 2 leagues and targeted the Steelers as my #1. Landed them in both my leagues. 2 out of the 3 starts in playoffs are smash for me. I took Steelers over Eagles, Ravens, Broncos, etc based on playoff matchups. I'll hold them all year waiting for that moment. I then use another roster spot use a defense to target weekly on Steeler weeks with bad matchups. 8 of their 17 matchups are smash starts for me. Thats half the season. I like that. All my opinion of course.
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That sounds like the old way of thinking as far as DST. It is hard to know at this point which offenses/DST are going to be good/bad. We used to base DST rankings on the prior year and eventually realized that is not accurate at all.

I draft just looking at the first 2-3 weeks. I went AZ & Balt this year. I know that will be the least accurate. As the season goes on we really see who the bad offenses are going to be. I do like to figure out my playoff DSTs around week 10.
 
FarFromHome said:
skinsrule05 said:
FarFromHome said:
I do like to figure out my playoff DSTs around week 10.
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Good post. I'll say the problem with waiting till week 10 is that in aggressive leagues that's just too late.

Commenting on the old way of thinking about not really knowing which defenses are good from year to year I'll say I put the time in. For example. Steelers used 3 of 4 first draft picks on defense. That's good
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The good playoff matchups can change, especially when injuries happen. I would rather focus on early matchups.
 
In the FBG Bowl League with 10 bench spots, I chose to carry 3 D's. I drafted ARI, SEA, and SF with my 17th thru 19th picks, and will face NO for the first 3 weeks of the season. After week 1, I will reevaluate and likely churn.
 
IHEARTFF said:
FarFromHome said:
skinsrule05 said:
FarFromHome said:
I do like to figure out my playoff DSTs around week 10.
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Good post. I'll say the problem with waiting till week 10 is that in aggressive leagues that's just too late.

Commenting on the old way of thinking about not really knowing which defenses are good from year to year I'll say I put the time in. For example. Steelers used 3 of 4 first draft picks on defense. That's good
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The good playoff matchups can change, especially when injuries happen. I would rather focus on early matchups.
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For sure. What doesn't change typically are the traditional bad matchups. We know your not gonna start fantasy defenses against the same 10 teams every year. Bills. Chiefs. Eagles. Lions. So, for me, it's not so much looking at good matchups, it's looking at how many of those bad matchups does the defense have. Teams like the Cardinals, or even the Jags, have potential to be good offenses. So they may not be good matchups, but they aren't just bad matchups. Hey, my logic may not be smart, but my arrogance is big enough to make me believe it is. Ha ha
 
I agree Arizona is great target you don’t even have to draft, and can just pick up off the WW right before week one kickoff, but I’m surprised the 49ers aren’t getting more hype here.

SF has two great matchups to start the season and unlike Zona, some people consider them to be a top ten real life defense.

I’m trying to figure out why this is the case. Is it because the SF D replaced six or so players in the offseason? I’ve been able to pick up SF DST in the final round of my drafts, so it’s not like Arizona is any cheaper. What gives Arizona the edge here?
 
I get the Cardinals love, and I'm certainly not against streaming them for Week 1, but I think your goal coming out of the draft should be to find a D that you think can be elite. That doesn't mean taking Denver in the 6th -- defenses are too volatile year over year to justify such a high pick. Instead, it means trying to identify this year's Denver. That means avoiding the ones with too much hype and/or too much of a historical reputation (Pittsburgh and Baltimore will inevitably be overdrafted).

Here are the ones I'm targeting this year -- and I'm not totally up on defensive ADPs, so some of these may fall in the overhyped category
  • Houston -- I suspect people are catching on about them, but if they fall to the late rounds I will snatch them up
  • Minny -- also probably overpriced given Flores' rep
  • Seattle -- Year 2 of McDonald
  • Detroit -- if the end to last year + Glenn's has people doubting them; I have a sneaking suspicion their D may outperform the offense this year
  • GB -- if the Parsons news hasn't yet been properly priced into ADP
  • Chargers -- Minter may well be next year's hot HC candidate
  • Bears -- probably a bridge too far, but proven DCs in new jobs are often a good bet (call it the Wade Phillips Rule), and Dennis Allen is as good a DC as he is bad a HC
 
RaidersAreOne said:
I drafted Baltimore but obviously hate them playing the Bills week 1. I picked up the Commanders vs. the Giants.
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Somebody snagged AZ right before me so I also picked up Wash D. Don't love it, don't hate it. Game at WASH and I'd think the NYGs O Line is still a bit of a trainwreck. That said, I think Wilson could have his moments.

Tempted by the CHI D against rookie McCarthy.

LAR young D also available against what should be a terrible HOU O line.

Cinci D against CLE away seems like a huge trap. Could see Flacco throwing for 300+.
 
My main talking point is the 49ers have the projected easiest schedule in the NFL. I swung and grabbed CMC, Purdy, even drafted Aiyuk to put in IR.

Now I'm thinking the D. and can drop Washington who I grabbed in haste.

I have Cards or 9ers avail so this is tough.
 
ended up with the Chargers, but wasn't crazy about their week 1 matchup with Kansas City.

saw the Rams on the waiver wire playing Houston at home, so I grabbed them.

then i realized, with both LA teams, i was at least guaranteed a home game for my defense every week.

anyone else do this with LA or NY?
 
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