Kansas City fired defensive coordinator Bob Sutton last week, finding an easy scapegoat for the team's lousy defensive performance this past season. If only he'd been better at coaching Dee Ford (pictured) not to line up offside, his team would be playing in the Super Bowl next Sunday.
But while no one would argue that Sutton's defense was good last year -- it was 27th against the run, 32nd against the pass, and next to last in total yards allowed -- fantasy coaches have had reason to appreciate Sutton's defenses. As fantasy defenses go, this team has been way better under Sutton than it was before he was hired.
Since Sutton took over in 2013, Kansas City has had a top-5 fantasy defense four times in six years. (1 point for sacks, 2 for takeaways, 6 for all touchdowns.) That includes special teams scores, which Sutton had nothing to do with, so he doesn’t deserve all the credit for those finishes. But Kansas City shared the league lead in sacks last season, and was top 10 in both interceptions (15) and fumble recoveries (12) -- it hasn't all been bad. Prior to Sutton taking over, Kansas City had gone nine years in a row without ranking higher than 16th in fantasy defense.
In NFL terms (yards and points allowed), Sutton probably earned his dismissal. But he's overseen some pretty productive fantasy groups. Kansas City is replacing him with Steve Spagnuolo, which has potential. Spagnuolu was out of the league last season, but had some great seasons with the Giants a decade ago, and top-12 fantasy groups twice during his second go-around (2015-2016). Bottom-10 in 2017, though. But some talent to work with in Kansas City.
Fantasy defenses rankings since 2013, sorted by average ranking over that span, are shown below. If you had only one defense in those six seasons, you couldn't have done better than Kansas City.
| FANTASY DEFENSE RANKINGS, 2013-2018 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Avg |
| Kansas City | 1 | 25 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 8 |
| Los Angeles | 3 | 5 | 9 | 29 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| Arizona | 6 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 17 | 9 |
| Denver | 12 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 6 | 9 |
| Carolina | 5 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 24 | 10 |
| Philadelphia | 15 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 29 | 11 |
| Seattle | 2 | 18 | 13 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 11 |
| Pittsburgh | 26 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Minnesota | 19 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 24 | 9 | 13 |
| New England | 11 | 5 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 6 | 13 |
| Buffalo | 7 | 3 | 23 | 13 | 15 | 20 | 14 |
| Baltimore | 19 | 17 | 24 | 12 | 2 | 14 | 15 |
| Chicago | 8 | 22 | 30 | 21 | 9 | 1 | 15 |
| Houston | 32 | 2 | 12 | 21 | 21 | 4 | 15 |
| Washington | 13 | 29 | 8 | 19 | 13 | 11 | 16 |
| Green Bay | 19 | 4 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 26 | 16 |
| Miami | 24 | 9 | 27 | 9 | 26 | 5 | 17 |
| Tampa Bay | 14 | 23 | 16 | 5 | 14 | 29 | 17 |
| NY Giants | 18 | 18 | 11 | 10 | 27 | 22 | 18 |
| Detroit | 19 | 12 | 21 | 24 | 4 | 28 | 18 |
| Cincinnati | 4 | 26 | 15 | 26 | 23 | 16 | 18 |
| Indianapolis | 16 | 18 | 10 | 21 | 29 | 22 | 19 |
| Jacksonville | 28 | 18 | 20 | 30 | 1 | 19 | 19 |
| San Diego | 31 | 28 | 29 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 20 |
| Dallas | 10 | 14 | 31 | 24 | 17 | 27 | 21 |
| Cleveland | 16 | 14 | 24 | 31 | 31 | 14 | 22 |
| New Orleans | 29 | 31 | 22 | 28 | 7 | 13 | 22 |
| Tennessee | 24 | 27 | 24 | 20 | 18 | 21 | 22 |
| San Francisco | 8 | 10 | 32 | 26 | 28 | 31 | 23 |
| Atlanta | 27 | 24 | 28 | 10 | 24 | 24 | 23 |
| NY Jets | 30 | 30 | 17 | 32 | 30 | 8 | 25 |
| Oakland | 19 | 32 | 19 | 15 | 32 | 32 | 25 |
--Andy Richardson