There's an element of chance involved in recovering fumbles. The ball is bouncing around on the turf and your guy falls on it, or the other team's does. Chance. Still, in fantasy leagues it's worth monitoring which teams seem to be better than others at recovering them.
The defenses run by a pair of respected minds, Bill Belichick and Ron Rivera, have been better at it over the last five seasons than any other team. New England (helped by a whopping 21 in 2014) and Carolina (at least 10 in all five years) have 61 and 59, respectively. Only Arizona and the Giants are within 5 of those teams.
Fumble recoveries aren't a critical factor in our defensive rankings, but we do take them into account. Some of the teams near the bottom of the below table have to be wondering if they're unlucky, or just not aggressive enough in getting after loose footballs.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES, 2012-2016 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Defense | '12 | '13 | '14 | '15 | '16 | Tot |
New England | 21 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 61 |
Carolina | 12 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 10 | 59 |
Arizona | 11 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 56 |
NY Giants | 14 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 55 |
Philadelphia | 5 | 12 | 16 | 11 | 10 | 54 |
Washington | 10 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 7 | 54 |
Pittsburgh | 10 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 53 |
Tampa Bay | 8 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 53 |
Atlanta | 11 | 11 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 52 |
LA Rams | 4 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 52 |
Chicago | 20 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 51 |
Kansas City | 6 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 51 |
Oakland | 8 | 13 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 51 |
Seattle | 13 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 51 |
Denver | 8 | 9 | 7 | 13 | 13 | 50 |
Jacksonville | 11 | 10 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 50 |
San Diego | 14 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 50 |
Baltimore | 12 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 49 |
Dallas | 9 | 13 | 13 | 3 | 11 | 49 |
Houston | 14 | 4 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 49 |
Minnesota | 12 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 48 |
New Orleans | 11 | 7 | 5 | 13 | 12 | 48 |
Indianapolis | 3 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 9 | 46 |
Cincinnati | 16 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 43 |
San Francisco | 11 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 42 |
Buffalo | 9 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 41 |
Cleveland | 12 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 40 |
Green Bay | 5 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 39 |
NY Jets | 12 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 37 |
Miami | 6 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 9 | 35 |
Tennessee | 5 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 35 |
Detroit | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 33 |
--Andy Richardson