Week 1 is finally upon us, and as an American football journalist, I am excited to present to you my weekly DST rankings! This column has been a labor of love for me for the past four years, and I am proud to say that it has been recognized with the prestigious FSWA award for Best Fantasy Football Series not just once, but twice. I am dedicated to providing you with the most informative and helpful content possible, drawing from my own research and analysis to help guide you in making the best decisions for your fantasy football team.
After months of speculation and anticipation during this NFL offseason, we are now finally able to witness these teams in action on the field. We can see which defenses have the schemes and players in place to generate consistent pressure, as well as which offenses present opportunities for our fantasy defenses to exploit. It’s an exciting time as we get to see how our assumptions and predictions from the offseason play out in real games.
In my rankings, you will find not just a list of teams, but also my insights into why they are ranked the way they are. The teams in Tier One are considered the “elite” plays of the week, while Tier Two features strong options. Tier Three includes defenses that are on the borderline of the top 10, either due to favorable matchups or strong performances. Tier Four highlights deep-league targets, while Tier Five consists of defenses that should be avoided in that particular week.
I am committed to tracking the accuracy of my Top-10 defense predictions each week, so that we can all see how well the Best Overall Defense (BOD) rankings hold up.
In terms of my BOD formula and philosophy, I prioritize defenses that excel at getting pressure on the quarterback and creating turnover opportunities. While matchups do play a role in my rankings, I aim to assess the overall quality of the defense rather than solely focusing on the opponent. This season, I have made a slight adjustment by emphasizing quarterback hit rate over pressure rate, as it has shown to correlate more strongly with top-10 defenses in the past.
As we are only in Week 1, we do not yet have enough data to establish true BOD rankings. It typically takes about three weeks of games to gather sufficient information on which DSTs can be trusted and which offenses are vulnerable. In the meantime, it is important to lean towards defenses with proven talent, successful track records, or face short-handed offenses to minimize risk.
So without further ado, let’s dive into how these defenses stack up for Week 1 of the NFL season.
