Factoid
It's risky drafting defenses; anyone who used an early pick on New England or San Diego last season could tell you that. Age or injury can turn a good defense into a poor one very quickly.
There's value, then, to focusing on defenses that perform year in and year out. The Ravens and Titans, for example, are the only two defenses who have ranked in the top 12 in our scoring system (6 points for touchdowns, 2 points for all sacks and turnovers) in six of the last seven years. The Bears and Vikings are the only teams who have finished in the top 10 for four straight seasons.
The rankings of defenses over the past seven years are presented below.
08 07 06 05 04 03 02
10 9 7 20 17 30 31 Arizona
19 32 19 13 3 11 8 Atlanta
3 23 1 12 2 1 7 Baltimore
20 16 12 15 1 21 28 Buffalo
15 29 17 1 12 10 5 Carolina
10 3 2 2 7 31 27 Chicago
29 17 20 16 8 27 29 Cincinnati
24 21 26 31 27 25 23 Cleveland
5 8 10 25 31 20 19 Dallas
31 17 16 18 28 24 20 Denver
28 7 27 19 14 13 14 Detroit
8 10 4 27 21 14 6 Green Bay
25 13 29 28 23 32 13 Houston
15 15 30 3 4 18 30 Indianapolis
25 12 25 9 26 28 26 Jacksonville
30 26 22 24 19 4 16 Kansas City
12 27 8 7 24 6 15 Miami
7 4 5 8 20 7 32 Minnesota
25 2 9 30 5 3 9 New England
21 19 28 32 10 19 4 New Orleans
13 5 24 4 13 17 25 NY Giants
3 24 21 23 11 22 21 NY Jets
14 28 18 29 32 23 3 Oakland
1 30 6 26 15 15 2 Philadelphia
2 20 13 5 6 16 10 Pittsburgh
18 1 3 21 22 29 12 San Diego
21 30 23 22 29 8 24 San Francisco
17 6 14 6 16 12 17 Seattle
23 21 15 10 30 2 22 St. Louis
9 13 31 14 9 9 1 Tampa Bay
6 11 11 11 25 5 11 Tennessee
31 24 32 17 18 26 18 Washington
--Andy Richardson
- Comments [2]
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Posted by ADAM HOLTZ | Mar. 26 at 12:32 AM
The question, however, of whether Baltimore and Tennessee will continue to boast top defenses after losing key players to free agency, still looms large. After the past couple years of drafting a defense around the midpoint of my drafts, I'm not sure I will take one until the last round or two now.
Posted by ANDY RICHARDSON | Mar. 26 at 12:46 AM
I agree it's a concern with those defenses. And not just players, but both teams lost their defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs -- that concerns me just as much as personnel (although both promoted from within, which is a plus I think). Past performance is of course not a guarantee of future results, but it's a nice track record regardless.