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Factoid

First to near-worst

Striking decline for Bills pass rush

We like to think we can predict things with some degree of accuracy, in every fantasy arena. But there are always exceptions that prove what a guessing game we're involved in, none more so than the 2015 Buffalo Bills defense.

The Bills racked up a league-best 111 sacks in the 2013-2014 seasons, finishing 2nd and 1st in sacks in those two years. They then hired Rex Ryan as their head coach, and he'd come off overseeing a Jets pass rush that ranked 6th the previous season. Gold!

But Buffalo crashed heavily in 2015, finishing with a mere 21 sacks -- better than only Atlanta. Mario Williams is handed a lot of the blame, but he's just one guy. Clearly there were defensive scheme fit problems with other Bills players.

At the other end of the spectrum were a pair of AFC North teams: Pittsburgh, which ranked 25th and 26th in sacks in 2013-2014. Last year they zoomed up to 48, 3rd in the league. And Cincinnati, last in sacks a year ago and 9th last season.

Three-year sack trends, by NFL rank, for each team are shown in the table below. They're sorted by the biggest increase (or decline) from 2014 to 2015.

TEAM SACKS, 2013-2015, NFL RANK
Team201320142015+/-
Cincinnati10329-10+23
Pittsburgh25-27263+23
Oakland18-1930-3114-16+16
Houston29-30195+14
New England513-152+11
Denver13-159-121+8
Tampa Bay23-2422-2314-16+8
Carolina113-156+7
Washington21-2220-2114-16+6
San Diego23-242924+5
Tennessee21-2216-1812-13+4
Dallas25-272825-27+3
Seattle8-920-2117-19+3
Green Bay8-99-127-8+2
St. Louis313-1511+2
Minnesota13-159-127-8+2
Kansas City6-754+1
New Orleans42525-270
Atlanta29-3030-3132-1
Cleveland16-172728-1
Detroit2889-10-1
Arizona6-72420-21-3
Chicago31-3216-1822-23-6
NY Jets13-156-712-13-6
San Francisco18-1922-2329-7
Miami11-1216-1825-27-9
Indianapolis11-129-1222-23-13
Jacksonville31-326-720-21-14
Baltimore16-172-317-19-15
Philadelphia202-317-19-15
NY Giants25-27430-26
Buffalo2131-30

--Andy Richardson

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