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Defensive Notes

Indianapolis Colts

Leonard, Ngakoue an opportunistic duo

Chasing fumble recoveries with fantasy defenses seldom pays off. There's not a ton of separation (more than half the league's teams finished within 2 of each other last season), and results are sometimes illogical (the Rams last year finished 3rd in sacks but 3rd-worst in fumble recoveries). But if you want to use them as a tiebreaker between close defenses, give an edge to the Colts.

Linebacker Darius Leonard is unusually productive in this regard, and the Colts added another such player last month. Leonard led the NFL with 8 forced fumbles last year; his 17 during his four-year career is 2nd-only to T.J. Watt. And the Colts just traded for Yannick Ngakoue, who for some reason doesn't stay anywhere long -- he's now with his fifth team since 2019, if you can believe it -- but he's also very productive in this area. He led the league with 6 forced fumbles in 2017, and in the last four seasons has 10. That's just outside the top 10 in that same time period.

FORCED FUMBLES, 2018-2021
PlayerPosGFFFR
T.J. WattOLB62217
Darius LeonardOLB58177
Chandler JonesDE52176
Aaron DonaldDT65144
Khalil MackOLB53146
Marlon HumphreyCB57123
Josh NormanCB52123
Shaquil BarrettOLB59112
Robert QuinnDE61111
J.J. WattDE47113
Yannick NgakoueDE63101
Dee FordOLB34100
Myles GarrettDE57103
DeMarcus LawrenceDE55104
Vonn BellSS6199
Lavonte DavidOLB5896
Justin HoustonOLB5999
Malcolm JenkinsFS6493
Haason ReddickOLB6492
Logan RyanCB6193
Joey BosaDE5182
Frank ClarkDE5984
Jadeveon ClowneyOLB5085
Bud DupreeOLB5481
Trey FlowersDE4482
Dante FowlerOLB5983
Randy GregoryDE3682
Terrance MitchellCB5381
Jason Pierre-PaulDE5483
Kyle Van NoyMLB6187

Search tools at pro-football-reference.com were used in compiling this table. The Colts aren't the only team with two players among the league leaders the last few years. The Chargers (after trading for Khalil Mack) have a pair, as does Dallas; Tampa Bay -- if it brings back Jason Pierre-Paul -- would have three. So give a slight edge to those defenses, too. But the Colts have two of the very best.

--Andy Richardson

Fantasy Index