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Factoid

Fumble recoveries

Pats, Panthers the best

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'12'13'14'15'16Tot
New England2112991061
Carolina121012151059
Arizona11107141456
NY Giants1412912855
Philadelphia51216111054
Washington10101215754
Pittsburgh101010131053
Tampa Bay81011121253
Atlanta11111281052
LA Rams4151213852
Chicago209109351
Kansas City615871551
Oakland8135111451
Seattle1311118851
Denver897131350
Jacksonville1110149650
San Diego1461191050
Baltimore1281181049
Dallas9131331149
Houston1441411649
Minnesota128691348
New Orleans1175131248
Indianapolis312148946
Cincinnati161167343
San Francisco1112631042
Buffalo97118641
Cleveland127810340
Green Bay51196839
NY Jets122712437
Miami66113935
Tennessee51248635
Detroit6779433

--Andy Richardson

Fantasy Index