The Chicago Bears had a knockout performance a year ago, and they're the top defense on most boards for the 2019 season, as well. There was a story here discussing them over the week. Personally, I doubt I'll be drafting them anywhere, and doubt I'll be the first to select a defense in any league. Just too much year to year variance.

With personnel or coaching changes, differing schedules, and good old-fashioned dumb luck, it's tough for defenses to repeat elite performances. That's been shown in recent years.

I took a look at how top-5 fantasy defenses (scoring system 1 point for sacks, 2 for takeaways and 6 for touchdowns) over the past five years have performed the following season. Of the 27 top-5 defenses over the past five years (there were a couple of 5th-place ties), fewer than a quarter of them (six) made it back into the top 5 one year later. Only a third (nine) finished in the top 10.

TOP-5 FANTASY DEFENSES, NEXT SEASON
YearTeamRkNext
2013Kansas City125
2013Seattle218
2013LA Rams35
2013Cincinnati426
2013Carolina512
2014Philadelphia15
2014Houston212
2014Buffalo323
2014Green Bay417
2014LA Rams59
2014New England514
2015Arizona13
2015Carolina27
2015Denver35
2015Kansas City41
2015Philadelphia58
2016Kansas City112
2016Minnesota224-25
2016Arizona318-20
2016LA Chargers48
2016Tampa Bay514
2016Denver518
2017Jacksonville119
2017Baltimore214
2017LA Rams33
2017Detroit428
2017Philadelphia529
2018Chicago1?
2018Kansas City2?
2018LA Rams3?
2018Houston4?
2018Miami5?

In the table, top-5 defenses a year later are in bold, top-10 in italics.

Chicago returns all but one starter (safety Adrian Amos) from last year's defense, but they did lose coordinator Vic Fangio. They might still finish as a top 5 defense; that's what the projections indicate, anyway. But it's not a great recent history they're fighting. Not good enough odds to use a premium pick in my eyes, which means someone else will be selecting them.

--Andy Richardson