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Defensive Notes

Follow the Sacks

Bills, Broncos should be the best

The Bills made life miserable for Cleveland quarterbacks the other night. The Broncos have 12 sacks in two games, wreaking havoc with the offenses of the Seahawks and Texans. Two great pass rushes, and they help those defenses come in near the top of our rankings.

If you're in a league where the scoring system is largely dependent on sacks for defenses, the Bills and Broncos are the ones that should catch your eye. The Bills look awesome. The Broncos added Shane Ray to their Von Miller-DeMarcus Ware tandem.

We currently have the Rams 3rd, and that's a great pass rush, too. Up front, Robert Quinn and Aaron Donald are both elite players at their position. Oddly, this defense doesn't have any sacks in two preseason games. It got off to a slow start last season, too, before coming on in the second half. So we're a little wary of that projection right now.

At the other end of the spectrum, the 49ers have lost a lot of defensive personnel since the start of last season, with Aldon Smith recently being released. Tough to see them having a good pass rush.

The NFL average over the past two years is 38-40 sacks per team. That's up some; NFL teams averaged about 36 sacks as recently as 3-4 years ago. Teams are getting more creative in getting after quarterbacks (and of course, there's more passing in general right now, across the league, creating more opportunities for sacks).

Our current projections in this area are below. Obviously, if you're in a TD-only scoring system, or if yards and points allowed are components, these rankings are only part of the picture. But this is how we've got the sacks figured for the 2015 season.

PROJECTED SACKS, 2015
TeamSack
Buffalo 51
Denver47
St. Louis 45
Kansas City 44
Philadelphia43
Green Bay 42
Miami 42
Baltimore 42
New England 41
NY Jets40
Houston 40
Minnesota 40
Indianapolis40
Jacksonville40
Seattle 39
Washington39
Dallas38
Pittsburgh38
Tennessee 38
Carolina37
Arizona 37
Tampa Bay 36
Chicago 36
NY Giants35
Detroit 34
San Diego 34
Atlanta 34
Oakland 34
Cleveland 33
Cincinnati32
New Orleans 32
San Francisco 30

--Andy Richardson

Fantasy Index