2026 NFL Rankings | Defenses
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1 hr 7 min
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Aug 26, 2026
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Wed, August 26, 2026
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2:04And we are underway! Welcome to the Action Network Podcast.
2:06I am Gilles Gallantz and I am joined by NFL betting expert and futures analyst, Brandon Anderson.
2:11And if you've been listening to the Action Network Podcast over the last couple of weeks, we've been doing a lot of
2:18rankings, but we've been mostly doing rankings on the offensive side of the ball.
2:22But today, we've got to take a look at these defenses.
2:25Brandon is going to bring his defensive rankings. We're going to rank 1 through 32 all through the NFL.
2:30Now, Brandon, by the time we got to the end of our offensive side of the ball, we kind of got a
2:37pretty good idea of what you value, what kind of criteria you're looking for on the offensive side of the ball.
2:43But the defense, it flips, right? Can you explain just a little bit more of the criteria and the traits that you
2:49look for when you're doing rankings of the NFL defenses?
2:52Yeah, defense is tough, man. Defense is hard to figure out and tough to rank.
2:56It is a fool's errand trying to go 1 to 32 on these, but we're going to try anyways.
3:01Defense wins championships, right? That's the old saying. Well, last year, defense literally won the championship, and it got a couple other
3:08teams right near the top of the league as well.
3:11The question now is, is that the meta? Is that where the league is trending?
3:15Was that a one-year blip? Is this still the quarterback's league, or is this more of a defensive thing now?
3:21So defense tends to be more reactive, right? Today's units that are really good, though, are proactive.
3:25What do I mean by that? You're coming out, you're attacking, you're bringing the game to the offense.
3:31You are dictating the way that the game is going to be played, rather than typically and historically defense is kind of back on its heels, right?
3:38You're reacting to what is the offense coming? What's the package on the field?
3:42Is run pass, how do we play accordingly? So that's been a lot of the shift is defense is finally saying, enough, like, I'm tired of this.
3:50We're doing things our way now, and you're going to see that with a lot of the defenses near the top.
3:56Another thing, too, we used to see a lot of these guys, we call them like positionless, right, or tweeners, and a
4:02decade ago, those were sort of guys we couldn't find a spot for.
4:06Now, those are weapons, right? Those are your skill players on defense.
4:10Those are your Nick and Manwari for the Seahawks last year, the rookie that was so good for them.
4:15That's Kyle Hamilton. It's guys playing in the nickel, guys playing in spots off the edge or multiple positions, also, and just, again, really dictating to the offense.
4:23Unlike offense, where quarterback is so heavily weighted, obviously, defense is a lot more even.
4:27I do prefer corners and edge rushers. It's still a passing league, so that's going to be top of the list.
4:33Linebackers become somewhat of the running back of the defense, where it's probably the least valuable, but not quite as far as running backs.
4:40And then the last thing, kind of alluded to already, defense is just really volatile.
4:44So there's no quarterback to steady the things, right?
4:47So if quarterback is the heavily valued part of the offense, and we know who the great guys are each year over
4:53the teams that don't have one, then that's going to stay sticky.
4:57It's going to stay consistent. We don't really have that defensively.
5:00And guys in a new scheme, guys playing through an injury, things can change a lot year by year.
5:05There's not one guy affecting quite as much. So it's tough.
5:09It's a tough exercise. This was definitely the hardest of all the rankings for me.
5:13Not at the top, necessarily, but especially as we get on a list, and we'll get into that today.
5:18Yeah, looking at tier one, we're going to get into this now.
5:22It seems there is a little bit of stickiness to it.
5:25We're going to talk about this now. Let's start with tier one.
5:28Just like last year, at number one, you have the Houston Texans as the top rated team.
5:33At number two, you have the Seattle Seahawks coming off a Super Bowl championship.
5:37And the Philadelphia Eagles at three. So again, a lot of familiar names at the top.
5:42All three teams ranked in the top six for you last year.
5:45But let's start with the Texans. Number one for a second straight year.
5:49What did they do to be able to elevate themselves to be number one again in your rankings?
5:54Yeah, defense not quite as sticky, except everyone kind of agrees this year on four, probably five teams that are definitely near the top.
6:01And then we'll see what happens after that. Houston, certainly one of those teams.
6:05Top three DVOA run and pass each of the last two years.
6:08Obviously, overall then as well. D'Amico Ryan's pretty easy philosophy to figure out.
6:12He just says, our guys are better than yours.
6:15We're going to play harder. Come and get it.
6:17And the good thing about that is it's less volatile.
6:20It's less up and down and less vulnerable to big plays and that sort of thing.
6:25They're just going to have a lot of talent and come and get it.
6:29So Will Anderson, I think a very obvious defensive player of the year candidate there for them.
6:34Probably would have won last year if not for Miles Garrett's huge season.
6:37Next to him, Daniel Hunter and now Jadeveon Clowney as well once he gets back out there.
6:42So that's a top three edge group and top three corner group.
6:46Derek Stingley Jr. already mentioned. Kamari Lasseter, one of the fun young players in the league, really comes at you.
6:51Jalen Petrie. That group, if you're going to have top three corners and top three edge, and I already said that's the
6:58two most important positions, pretty easy number one after that.
7:00All right. So then the Seahawks, because offensively, let's just call it what it is.
7:05You trash them on many different phases, especially like offensive line.
7:08But you're wearing a Seahawks shirt right now. And, you know, they just come off a Super Bowl championship.
7:13So talk to me about Seahawks Island. Yeah, we've been on Seattle Island plenty of times the last couple of years.
7:19We had the Super Bowl ticket last year. Come on, Seattle fans.
7:23Come on back. We like you. You were just waiting for the defensive teams here.
7:27And look, I know if I really, really wanted to win you back, I should have put you at number one.
7:33Why number two, not number one? Look, I prefer Mike McDonald.
7:36He is the number one defensive play caller. But I like him because he's aggressive.
7:40I like him because he's attacking. That does make it more volatile, though.
7:44Game to game and just over the course of a season, you're going to be more vulnerable on the downside.
7:50You're going to have the higher upside. And the higher upside just won the Super Bowl.
7:55You want upside in that side of things. But the talent here is not quite the level of Houston.
8:00That's not a diss. That is giving Mike McDonald the credit for elevating everything there.
8:04I do think it's maybe the best secondary in the league.
8:07Devin Witherspoon. I already mentioned Nicky Manwari. Those are two absolute just weapons that McDonald's going to come at you, use them in all sorts of different ways.
8:15The defensive line. Leonard Williams is a star. DeMarcus Lawrence.
8:18He's getting up there in years but does his thing.
8:21Byron Murphy just body after body rotating through coming at you.
8:24Last year, they were the number one defense. Run and pass.
8:27They were the top of the league. Last decade, the number one DVOA defense has finished top 10 the following season.
8:33Eight out of 10 years. Average finish, seven and a half.
8:37Median five. So, what does that tell me? Yeah, we know you're going to be good again.
8:41But it's really hard to be number one again.
8:44You usually fall off a little bit. I didn't even have Seattle falling off that far.
8:49I just have them dropping a spot here. This, we're going to have a clear top six here.
8:54I have a tier of three and another tier of three.
8:57Of those six, this is my slightly least talented of the bunch.
9:00The pass rush in particular. They kind of have to create pass rush in the aggregate.
9:05But again, they're still a really talented bunch. They're still top six out of all the 32.
9:10And Mike McDonald just elevates everything above the rest.
9:12Yeah, and it helps when you hit those picks that you got from the Denver Broncos in that Russell Wilson trade.
9:18Devon Witherspoon is one of the key players that I think of from that.
9:22Eagles, though, because I feel like we know what we're getting with the Eagles at this point, especially with Vic Fangio and the Eagles.
9:29But why do you have them the lowest of the three?
9:32Because I could make the case that they could be one.
9:36But yeah, I think it's really tight between these three teams.
9:39They were the team that was number one two years ago.
9:42Then they dropped back to number seven last year when no one would have expected that.
9:46That's that stat we just talked about in action there.
9:49The run defense fell off a little bit, but still a very easy top three pick here.
9:54Quinjon Mitchell and Cooper Dejean. We know how good they were as rookies.
9:58I had to be a little bit skeptical, but then they were just as good last year.
10:03Now you get Rick Wollin. Speaking of Seahawks coming over there, he's kind of the X factor guy.
10:08I wonder if he could be a little bit kind of Trayvon Diggs as, you know, he's going to give up a
10:14few plays at times, but maybe gamble and add in some upside here as well.
10:18The linebackers here is I kind of trashed linebackers a bit already.
10:22Zach Vaughn and Giad Campbell. They're just nobody who has a combo like that.
10:26A very unique pass coverage weapon for this team.
10:28So this is a top five linebacker group, top five corners, top five on the line.
10:33You add Jonathan Grenard. You got Jalex Hunt waiting to break out as a pass rusher.
10:38I do think to your question of why bottom of these three, they have the clearest weakness here, I think, which is safety.
10:44Andrew McCuba and Marcus Epps. It's a clear weakness of the position groups here.
10:48But look, it's Vic Fangio. He's going to fix that.
10:51He's going to solve the secondary. No problem whatsoever.
10:54And it's not quite as attacking. That's not Fangio style, but that is a safer floor.
10:58I'm not sure they have the number one go do it all on your own upside like Seattle sort of had to
11:05deal at times last year, but definitely top tier.
11:07And we know the Eagles are just as good as anyone else.
11:11Yeah. And the one common theme I do find with these three teams is all three of them ranked top 10 in
11:17zone coverage rate per drop back last year. And what's funny is if you look at the defensive DVO ways to see
11:23where their weaknesses, even though they didn't give up a ton of touchdowns on this front, all three bottom 10 against the tight end.
11:30So just something to consider heading into this season.
11:33All right, let's move to tier two. This one's called all the talent in the world at number four, you have the
11:39Baltimore Ravens number five, the Los Angeles Rams and number six, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
11:43We'll talk more about the Steelers here in a minute.
11:46Let's start with the Rams because I mean, you're talking about edge rusher and corner.
11:50I mean, you've got Miles Garrett and Trent McDuffie, arguably, I mean, Miles Garrett, I think is the best pass rusher in the NFL.
11:57Trent McDuffie is probably a top five corner at this stage of his career.
12:01But again, you're having them in tier two. So there has to be maybe some concerns attached to that team.
12:07Yeah, just have them a slight nudge down from that top group.
12:10And I mentioned everyone's got their four, maybe five defenses.
12:13This is the fourth. So they are they are number four of that top group.
12:17And look, frankly, I kind of thought I'd have them a little bit lower.
12:21But there's just so much talent on this team.
12:24They already had a lot of talent last year.
12:26They already were top five last year DVOA. And now you add in those big names, Miles Garrett, Trent McDuffie and Jalen
12:33Watson also from the Chiefs comes over. So here's why I'm at least a little bit skeptical.
12:38Miles Garrett, we know what he just broke the sack record.
12:41We know how good Miles Garrett is, obviously. But he was really, really good as a Jim Schwartz attacking wide nine.
12:47Now he's a three, four outside linebacker. He's not done this sort of role.
12:51This is a different sort of look. The Rams have been a defense predicated on all this speed, guys.
12:56That's Jared Burse where he's departed. Now, it's just sheer speed.
12:59Garrett's got speed, but not Jared Burse level speed.
13:02In my opinion, he's got a way more rounded game power, finesse, all of that sort of thing.
13:07But does it fit the scheme here? And then McDuffie and Watson, those guys played for spags.
13:12Like those guys to me are already absolutely maxed out.
13:15They were awesome in Kansas City. But are they that awesome in a new system, in a different sort of look here?
13:21We see cornerbacks sometimes switch teams and have very, very different results.
13:24And not just like slightly worse, but way worse.
13:27I'm not saying that will happen. But I think it's fair to have some skepticism about you can't just take these names
13:33under elite defensive play callers who got them great production, put them in here.
13:37I'm still a little bit skeptical on Chris Shula.
13:40Like the results have been pretty good. But he's not Jim Schwartz.
13:43He's not Spagnuolo. So and I think, too, this defense is very top heavy, loaded across the board, everything but linebacker, which
13:50is the spot to be weak at. And then on top of it, we've said all that.
13:55We might still add Aaron Donald to the mix here.
13:57Like we might just add the greatest defensive player in the last, whatever, 25 years.
14:02So like I kind of wanted to be out on the Rams.
14:05I thought they'd be out of my top couple tiers.
14:08But there's just so much talent and they're already this high last year, even with my skepticism, even pre Aaron Donald, to
14:14be clear, I'm not factoring him into the rankings.
14:17I still have this as a top five defense.
14:19And the Rams could get a slight bump, too, in this ranking if Aaron Donald it was to sign.
14:25So we'll see how that goes. And I think J.J.
14:28Watt would also have something to say about that top defensive player in the last 25 years.
14:33But either way, let's talk about the Ravens now, because this feels like a pretty huge bet on Jesse Minter.
14:38And the personnel, I like the personnel. I like names all at every level, but it's starting to get a little old in the secondary.
14:45What do you like about the Ravens here at four?
14:48Yeah, I like almost everything. We'll get to the secondary.
14:51I agree that's the weak spot, but I think it's both.
14:54I think it's Jesse Minter and it's the personnel.
14:57Before last year, actually including last year, the Ravens have been a top 10 DVOA defense eight of the last 10 years.
15:03So the only two misses have been both disaster injury years.
15:06Last year, no defensive line, right? Like they lost everybody up front.
15:10You could not stop the run early. They've had no pass rush.
15:13The bodies in the secondary, just whoever they can find out there.
15:17What'd they do? They collapsed to 17th. They were league average when everything went against them last year.
15:22The core and the franchise of this defense is so strong.
15:25Now, huge, huge news for them is getting Nnamdi Matabike back this year.
15:29He was an absolute star for them and missed all of last season.
15:32Now next to him, Travis Jones, nose tackle. He broke out last year.
15:36Now you're bringing Calais Campbell, who's in like his 70th year in the league, and just add him into the mix.
15:42I think this is the best defensive line up front.
15:45And now you add Trey Hendrickson on top of all that.
15:48Finally, you get that one star edge rusher. And then on top of all that, you mentioned the secondary.
15:54The corners don't love the corners. Nate Wiggins, especially Marlon Humphrey and Awuzie.
15:57Those guys are definitely getting up there. Like you said, if there's something goes wrong here, I think it is the corners.
16:04But if you need a solution, how about Kyle Hamilton?
16:06This defense like every year gets somewhere in the middle of the season.
16:10I was like, well, you know, we're not really stopping the run that well.
16:14What if we just fill in the blank, Kyle Hamilton, and it's magically solved?
16:18The next week, you know, we're like, we can't really cover guys out of the slot.
16:23How about Kyle Hamilton? He can just do whatever they feel like.
16:26He's this heat seeking missile and makes them the best safety group.
16:30And now Jesse Minter, who just unleashed Derwin James in this role.
16:33Now he gets a better version in Kyle Hamilton.
16:36So I think it's the dream fit with Minter.
16:38I think Hamilton is the ultimate problem solver. I think this can be the number one defense this year.
16:44And I got really excited digging into this team and excited for the defense coming ahead.
16:48Okay. Well, then last thing with the AFC North, the Steelers near the top of the ranks.
16:53Again, you had them two last year. Now Mike Tomlin gone.
16:56Are you still comfortable running it back to having them up here in tier two?
17:01Yeah, it wasn't just Tomlin. And look, I've kind of talked about this a little bit.
17:05With respect to Mike Tomlin, that was a really great staff, but maybe not an elite staff.
17:10They were top 14 under Tomlin, 17 of 19 years.
17:13So just an incredible floor to year after two decades to always be an above average defense.
17:18But they're top three only five times. And I kind of always end up slightly too high on Steelers in these ranks
17:24each year because the talent is so high year after year.
17:27TJ Watt, you mentioned JJ. TJ is pretty good too.
17:30Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig, a bit underused elite pass rushing trio, even as they age up a little bit.
17:35Cameron Hayward, speaking of aging decade and a half later, still maybe the best defensive lineman in the league.
17:41You get Derek Harmon year two. Again, the corners here, you're a little bit older.
17:45They bring in Jamel Dean. I like him a lot.
17:48That hopefully lets Jalen Ramsey go back to the slot, where I think is the best spot for him this stage of his career.
17:55We need to get Joey Porter out there. But those three, Asante Samuel Jr., a lot of talent.
18:00And then the question mark, of course, is no Tomlin.
18:03That means Patrick Graham now. And at first, I was like, man, how do you improve on Mike Tomlin when it's been so good?
18:10It's got to go down from there. But I do think this is a spot where Patrick Graham, he's quite proven.
18:16And look, we'll get to the Raiders much, much later in the rankings.
18:20That is not a talented group of players. And the Raiders were like a league average defense the last two years under Patrick Graham.
18:26He really has turned talent, non-talent, into a better than you expect defense.
18:30So can he crack the code on a ceiling here?
18:33We talked about Davis Webb with the Broncos offensively.
18:36We're OK. We knew what it used to be under the Sean Payton system.
18:40Is there a higher ceiling here, even if there's some unknown?
18:43I wonder if Patrick Graham could bring that higher ceiling and unlock even more what's already super talented, albeit older defense.
18:49I think the Steelers are going to be really good again.
18:52All right. So those are your top two tiers that have six teams.
18:56When I read your article, though, there was a little bit of a gap here because, again, when you read the article, you'll see what I'm talking about.
19:04But you have tier three and you just left it blank.
19:07So is it because there's just a huge gap between six and seven?
19:10Like, tell me what happened here. Yeah, it is a ginormous gap.
19:14I don't know if I really ever seen this as I kind of prepped for the season.
19:19So, again, I keep mentioning this. Most people out there have four or five top, top defenses.
19:24We haven't got there yet. We haven't got to number five.
19:27I know you're going to talk about this shortly.
19:29It's the Broncos. They're coming soon, I promise. But for me, it's that top six I had that we just did.
19:35And it is a cliff drop from there and kind of dark throws after that.
19:40The gap from six to seven is the same in my rankings as the gap from seven to 28.
19:45So that's how big it is. You've got those six defenses.
19:48Now, look, that doesn't necessarily mean those are the top six defenses.
19:52Again, we're looking for how certain are we that this is a good defense or how certain is this a bad defense?
19:58Those six, I'm just really confident should be very, very good defense this year, somewhere in the top 10.
20:03And now after that, it's just like, man, if you think a team at seven should be number 18 or you think
20:10number 23 should be top 10, it's not all that far apart.
20:13And so it's a lot of volatility to come.
20:16But it's those six and it's everybody else. All right.
20:19Well, let's move on from the novelty of the empty tier here.
20:22Let's go now to tier four. And this is one where we're mostly focusing on play callers because it's a lot of names.
20:29At number seven, you have the New England Patriots.
20:31Number eight, the Kansas City Chiefs. Number nine, Denver Broncos.
20:34Number 10, Minnesota Vikings. Number 11, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
20:37So like I said, the familiar names, you've got Brian Flores, Vance Joseph, Spaggs with the Chiefs, but the Patriots, I don't
20:43think a lot of people are aware of who the defensive coordinator is with the Patriots.
20:48So tell us a little bit more about them and why you have the Patriots at seventh.
20:52Yeah. Zach Kerr doesn't exactly fit in this group just yet until he approves.
20:56He took over play calling mid last season and did a really nice job.
21:00Last year, if you watch the playoffs, obviously we all watched the playoffs last year.
21:05Drake May was not that great. He was not the reason that the Patriots made the Super Bowl.
21:10The defense really is what stepped up for New England.
21:13And this is a defense I was high on last year.
21:16They went out and added a bunch of names and just really added floor raising talent.
21:20And then it wasn't that good early, but it wasn't healthy early when they finally got healthy late in the season and
21:27into the playoffs is when they really hit their peak.
21:30And Kerr, I think, brought that out of them.
21:32So Patriots defense had been top 10 DVA four to five seasons.
21:36Then they fell all the way to 30th. Last year, they only got back up to 23rd.
21:40That's still bottom 10, but they were much better than that in the playoffs.
21:44And now you add in Kevin Byard at safety to maybe the best one, two corner duo, Carlton Davis and Christian Gonzalez.
21:51So I think they also have a case for best secondary in the NFL and just a deep roster.
21:56Lots of veterans, a lot of talent that guys they added last year, finally healthy together again.
22:01If I kind of take away the defensive play caller part of things, which again is the force multiplayer and just look
22:07only at sheer talent, this by talent alone is the best in my matrix on rosters outside of that top six.
22:13The top six is top six talent and the right play caller.
22:17So that's why they're so far ahead. This is a talented roster.
22:20I'm not even really giving Zach Kerr that much credit yet.
22:23I have him slightly below average as far as defensive play caller.
22:27So if he really is that good, if he belongs in this group of names, then this defense could really take off this year.
22:34The Broncos though, man, the Broncos is the one team that we've talked about where I'm just not sure I can get down with them being at nine.
22:42I would have thought I wasn't necessarily ready for you to have them in tier one, but I thought they would have
22:48at least earned the respect to get into tier two, especially when given all the names, Vance Joseph.
22:53So we'll talk about the Vikings and some other teams, but just talk to me a little bit about the Denver and
22:59why we can't include them in those top two tiers for you.
23:03Yeah, they're the team that I just continue to find myself a bit skeptical on.
23:07Look, I was skeptical heading in the last year.
23:10They finished top five again, second year in a row.
23:13So they should be winning me over at this point.
23:15This is into my top 10 from where I did not have them that high last year, but it's a few different parts.
23:22Vance Joseph before these last two years, eight years leading a defense had never been even top 10 points per game.
23:28Only once top 10 in yards per game. Also run defense.
23:31He'd been 20th or worse six out of eight years, suddenly top three the last two years.
23:36So that doesn't really pass the smell test as far as like normally those sort of, you know, your profile of what
23:42you are can sort of stay the same from team after team.
23:46This has looked a lot different, obviously a very talented defense.
23:49And with Joseph, it's this very aggressive defense, which is going to expose your defense.
23:53And it really relies on your corners, you know, a lot of man to man, and you just got to shut it
24:00down on the back end because you're going to wreak havoc on the front end.
24:04It does mean less turnovers usually, which can kind of cut down your upside as far as huge plays.
24:09But we come to the corners then. I've always been the guy that is not quite, quite as high in the media
24:16as Pat on Pat Sertain as everyone else. Jaquan McMillan, though.
24:19Jaquan McMillan was really good last year. Stepped it up next to Riley Moss, who I know is kind of the punching
24:25bag because, you know, somebody has to get thrown at and you're not throwing at Sertain.
24:30And then Jadey Barron, we kind of forget about him.
24:32He was the round one pick last year. So he steps up as well.
24:36Nick Benito, another guy I'm just not quite as high on as everyone else.
24:40Electric pass rusher, but nothing else. Like it's just that.
24:43There's no run stop ability. There's no set the edge.
24:46It's just pin yours back and come after the quarterback.
24:49And it works pretty well, but more of an incomplete player.
24:52And Denver is starting to lose a few bodies up front now.
24:56Jonathan Cooper, not even sure if he's going to necessarily be out there.
24:59And we lost Franklin Myers and some of the other names there.
25:03So it's just a defense that, again, I still have in the top 10 here as opposed to fifth.
25:08They're at 10th or, you know, in this rating here.
25:11But they are a big fall, though. It's not just a slight drop.
25:15I'll own it. I talked about the huge teardrop.
25:17I have them higher in my dart throw section, but they're still not in that top group for me.
25:23Yeah. And that's probably the only quibble that I have is just that I thought that they could be included in that top group.
25:30As far as what you laid out for them, I do agree on that front.
25:34Now, the Vikings, though, because the Vikings, I feel like the defensive coordinator elevates to some of its parts.
25:39I feel like some of those pieces aren't necessarily as talented, but the schemes that Brian Flores is throwing at these offenses,
25:46I feel like makes it almost impossible not to include them in the top 10.
25:50Yeah, that's basically where I ended up and why they snuck in here.
25:54And look, it's very similar type defenses here in that you have this aggressive attacking defense, but that can sometimes go really
26:00sideways if the talent is not there. And I'm not positive the talent is there with the Vikings.
26:05Again, if I take away the defensive play caller, just go talent.
26:09The Vikings end up bottom 10 defensively on talent alone.
26:11So this is a big bet on Flores to say, OK, you're a bottom 10 talent defense, but I'm putting you top 10 in the rankings.
26:19That's how good Brian Flores is. But we lost a lot of names here.
26:23No, Jonathan Grenard, Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. They were not good up front, but that's a lot of names to replace up front.
26:30Obviously, Daniil Hunter not so long ago as well.
26:32You need now Dallas Turner, the big pass rusher.
26:35He's got to do the thing. He hasn't been that great yet.
26:38You need James Pierre, who had pretty good metrics last year, to maybe be your top corner this year.
26:44That's a big step up for him. You need Caleb Banks, the first round pick to show up and play game after game.
26:50I think this team ends up still as above average defense here.
26:54But I wouldn't be surprised if we get some sort of ugly games where it did not go well.
26:59The really good offense exposed this defense a little bit, but they're going to really hammer some bad quarterbacks.
27:05They're going to really hurt some bad offenses. And that's going to make the numbers look pretty good in the end of the day.
27:12But I think it could be a bit more up and down than it has been in recent years.
27:17Okay, so Kansas City then, because they did lose their top two corners.
27:21They did end up drafting a corner in the first round of Mancelor Delane, and they did bring back Legerious Sneed.
27:27But even Chris Jones, as effective as he is, he's starting to get a little long in the tooth as well.
27:33Outside of like Spags, I feel like that's probably the big thing that you're looking at right now, what you love about Kansas City Chiefs defense.
27:40Yeah, just no real weakness here. Pass rush has never been a huge strength, but I like they go out and add
27:46in Peter Woods and Thomas the first two rounds.
27:49So the defensive line gets a little better. And we talked about Trent McDuffie and Jalen Watson missing.
27:54Obviously, they're over with the Rams now. Spags has always been a really good developing corners.
27:59And they go out and add a few names here.
28:02They trade up, big trade up for Mancelor Delane.
28:04I have to assume he's got to be the right fit if they're going that hard to get him.
28:10And they bring back Legerious Sneed for dirt cheap because he was horrendous last year leaving them.
28:15But that's the thing with corners is we know how good he is in the system for Spags and have to believe a little bit there.
28:22And already last year, Noel Williams. I think he's one of the next breakout guys for this defense.
28:27Round three a year ago looked really good. I think he steps right into that Jalen Watson, even maybe Trent McDuffie type role.
28:34So it's Spags, man. Look, last four years, you're going to average defense twice.
28:38You're seventh or eighth twice. And it always gets better into the playoffs.
28:41So this is just a bat on like, well, I don't really know who the next great defenses are.
28:47So if I have to pick some teams, let me just pick some of these coordinators.
28:51I know we're going to give me results here.
28:54All right. Now, Tampa, you'd think that I thought that you were trolling me here by putting them at 11.
29:00I actually agreed here with this ranking because the reason why is because I, again, different from a value standpoint, if you
29:06can make an offense completely have to shift their entire game plan, that player becomes much more elevated.
29:11And somebody like Veda Vea, who they just signed to an extension, I think is the best at doing that.
29:17And when you have somebody like that, it's very difficult for me to downgrade your defense.
29:22Make the case for Tampa Bay at the top 11 here because you had them at 20th last year and they didn't
29:28really add a ton of names here year over year in the offseason.
29:32Yeah, it's just a relatively safe floor. You know, with Todd Bowles, what you're getting as like the 10th or 12th best
29:38play caller still not a great head coach, but he's going to give you a pretty good defense.
29:43Veda Vea, like you said, you just don't even it's like a no fly zone.
29:47You're not going to try to run at Veda Vea.
29:50That's how dominant it is. And this has always been a great run defense.
29:54I don't love the corner depth. So the pass defense is going to get picked on, especially if you can't run anyway.
30:00So it's hard to get to a huge ceiling here.
30:03I think to get to the ceiling, it's got to be Ruben Bain, right?
30:07This team has sort of outsourced pass rushing for years.
30:10And now they finally got a chance to draft a star, keep them right at home in Florida there.
30:16So Todd Bowles last four years, 13th to 18th in DVOA.
30:19So basically right at league average. This is me saying, OK, if that's the floor, what if you get a little bit more talent in here?
30:26And what if if the offense plays a little better?
30:29Can you set your defense up a little bit?
30:32And so I just sort of see everything slightly ticking up for Tampa this year.
30:36OK, so that was your tier four. We're trusting the player, the play callers rather on the defensive side of the ball.
30:42Let's move to tier five. You have a group of four teams and you've titled this tier better than you thought.
30:48And number 12, you have the Detroit Lions, number 13, the Jacksonville Jaguars, number 14, the New Orleans Saints and number 15, the Chicago Bears.
30:55And I find this to be a very interesting group because you have two NFC North teams in here, the Lions and Chicago.
31:02And the Lions just have been dealing with injuries on defense for a couple of seasons now, whereas the Bears really elevated their defense last year.
31:09But a lot of it was noisy, a lot of it turnover based.
31:13What are we looking at from these teams secondaries?
31:16Is that a weakness point for you for these two teams?
31:19Yeah, I think the injuries are the big story with both these teams.
31:23So the Lions, it's Brian Branch and Kirby Joe.
31:25So that's the best safety do in the league.
31:28But we don't know when we're going to see either one of those guys.
31:32So for now, that's a big hole on the team, even though some of the backups did fill in nicely.
31:37But there's still a lot else to like there.
31:40Aiden Hutchinson, rising star, Aleem McNeil, a big just space eater back on the line all season.
31:45He missed a lot of last year. And when Branch and Joseph are back, that I think pushes this into a top 10 defense here.
31:52Even pushes them ahead of the Patriots as the most talented defense outside of that top six.
31:57Even with all the injuries, they still finished ninth in DVOA last year.
32:01They've still finished top 13 three years in a row, even though they keep having a ton of injuries.
32:06So they're just starting to win me over with the talent.
32:09Now with the Bears, I was high on them last year.
32:12I had them seventh, and that did not work out for me.
32:16They did get a lot of turnovers, like you said.
32:19But the core defense itself was not so good.
32:21We know about the turnover regression. So I think everyone's projecting them as a huge drop now.
32:26I think the injury regression or progression should be better here.
32:29Dennis Allen's defense really needs top corner play. He did not get it last year.
32:34He had me and you playing corner last year.
32:36Jalen Johnson is back. Kyler Gordon is back. Dylan Thienemann, the safety of first round.
32:40He's going to help out the second year. I think much more talent there, and I still trust Dennis Allen.
32:46It's a wide variance here, but this is middle of the pack.
32:50And if you are a top five offense, middle of the pack is going to be just enough for you.
32:55Yeah, the Bears have a ton of names on defense, too, like Montez Sweat, Grady Jarrett, Devin Bush.
33:00And, you know, if you can have Jalen Johnson for a full season, maybe we might be able to see what kind
33:07of things happen here for this defense. Now, in your article that's going to be published on ActionNetwork.com here sometime within the
33:13next 24 hours, but you wrote about how the Jaguars and Saints, despite being in different conferences, just have some similar traits.
33:19Can you expound on that? Yeah, to me, the big similarity is we know how those teams kind of leapt forward, obviously
33:26less the Saints than the Jaguars, but we give a lot of credit to the offense.
33:30I actually think it was the defense that deserved the real credit for the rise.
33:35So Jacksonville last year, big leap in talent and production.
33:37Safety Antonio Johnson, I thought was a huge breakout player.
33:40Devin Lloyd, he's a big miss now. He moves on from the team, but I thought Anthony Campanelli did a great job last year.
33:47He's been especially good with linebackers, so I don't think they're going to have a huge time replacing Lloyd.
33:53It is a bit of a red flag, though.
33:55This is another turnover team where they had a huge swing in turnovers.
33:59They were second in the league in interceptions last year.
34:02And along with it, they jumped from 31st to sixth in DVA.
34:05This huge leap forward, maybe too far of a leap, right?
34:08Like maybe a little bit outkicking your coverage as far as what your players are.
34:13And so I think a little bit back toward the pack here, kind of middle of the rankings here.
34:18But this is a defense that's more the sum of their parts.
34:21More good than great, though, maybe. The Saints, they made a big leap late in the year under Brandon Staley.
34:27They finished 13th in DVA, especially good against the run.
34:30Now you add in a nose tackle in the second round.
34:33Get some older guys. Cam Jordan, Chase Young, and Demario Davis is gone now.
34:37Caden Ellis, that's a drop off there. But I like Justin Reed, Julian Blackman at safety.
34:42Just a lot of talent there. And I think kind of quietly became this very solid, stable defense.
34:47We don't maybe notice it as much. Kellen Moore goes high-tempo offense.
34:50So maybe they're going to still give up some points.
34:53But the offense is going to put up some points also.
34:56And you're just playing more snaps out there with the defense.
35:00The metrics have been really good for the team.
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39:35This is the change we can believe in. At number 16, right in the middle, you have the Dallas Cowboys followed by
39:41the New York Giants at 17 and the New York Jets.
39:44Considering where we had or where they finished rather at the end of the year, I believe last in defensive DVOA, the
39:50fact that you have the Cowboys at 16, I'm feeling pretty encouraged.
39:54What do you say about the Cowboys here? Yeah, I think you should be encouraged.
39:58This is a defense I'm really excited about. I almost want to be more excited than I am at this ranking.
40:04Christian Parker, the new defensive play color. Everyone is excited for him.
40:07Comes over from the Fangio tree. Great with defensive backs.
40:10But it's not just him. It's talent too. Quinnen Williams.
40:13People forget they don't get him last year and that defense rose a lot late in the season.
40:18Quinnen Williams is still a superstar on the line.
40:21So he's there. Now you add in veterans. Ray Sean Gary, Dee Winters, Von Miller, Jalen Thompson at safety, I think is
40:27going to step up with a scheme change here.
40:30And then the other safety, Caleb Downs. Is he a safety?
40:33Is he a nickelback? Whatever he is, I think it is not a mistake that Christian Parker gets hired and they go out.
40:40They got this team's Derwin James. They got this team's Nicky Manoir.
40:43This is the guy that's going to play in the slot, play over the field and attack on this defense.
40:49DeMarvion Overshawn. I think he's going to step forward.
40:51Now he's healthy again at linebacker. Or Daron Bland has had some really high seasons and a better system.
40:57He steps up too. And it's not just Christian Parker.
41:00It's also not Matt Eberflus. And that is a pretty huge swing from one play caller to the next.
41:05So don't forget, you wouldn't forget, Shell. This was a top five defense three years in a row, 2021 to 2023.
41:11That's a bit ago now. And these are a lot of different names.
41:15But this has a lot of potential here. It's more talent than you think.
41:19And again, like the Bears, if you're a top five offense, even just getting to middle of the pack gets you right
41:25in range enough to go game by game, enough to really make a push into the playoffs.
41:30Yeah. Anything better than Eberflus at this point. You're having him as your defensive coordinator.
41:34I'm sure that contributed to the increase in ranking.
41:37Sticking with the NFC East, I wanted to talk about the Giants because when you look at the defensive line and linebacker
41:43core, it looks a little scary for opposing quarterbacks.
41:46It looks like they're going to be able to get after it.
41:49And then the Jets, they made some slight improvements as well.
41:52Demario Davis, you mentioned he's now on that team.
41:55Minka Fitzpatrick in the secondary. Are those the main reasons to be excited about these defenses or are there other things we should be considering?
42:02Yeah, I think you nailed it. Abdul Carter was awesome last year.
42:05He did not get the huge sack numbers, but huge on pressures.
42:09A lot of the underlying metrics really thought he had a great season.
42:13Plus Brian Burns, plus came on Thibodeau. So you got this great pass rushing trio.
42:17Lose Dexter Lawrence, but he wasn't that great last year.
42:20And this was the worst run defense in the league.
42:23So what do they do? They go out and add DJ Reeder.
42:26They get Shelby Harris. Guys are going to be able to stop the run, stop the bleeding there a little bit.
42:32You go and draft Arvel Reese and Colton Hood.
42:35You bring in Tremaine Edmonds. Just a lot of floor raising guys here where I don't think this is going to be a great deal.
42:42Great defense. But I think it fits the system better under Denard Wilson.
42:45I was not a big fan of Shane Bowen.
42:48Kind of bleed passing with this personnel is just not the way to go.
42:52I think this is a more balanced effort this year.
42:55And then the Jets. I don't know, man. Like the Jets are in bottom five.
42:59A lot of the rankings I see out there.
43:02Here they are middle of the pack, which is a pretty huge step forward.
43:06But I think people are focusing on the names missing.
43:09Quinn and Williams, not there. Sauce Garner. Quincy Williams, not there anymore.
43:12But you said the names that are there now.
43:15Demario Davis. Minka Fitzpatrick. David Onyamata. Devondre Sweat. I think a nose tackle is really good.
43:19You get round one top five. I think edge rusher David Bailey to a team that has not had any pass rush.
43:25So a lot of talent coming in. And another name that I've talked about being skeptical about.
43:30Aaron Glenn. Going back to calling the plays this year.
43:33He had those pretty good results with Detroit. He really maximized talent there.
43:37He calls calling defensive plays his superpower. Well, let's see if it happens.
43:41Because most people have this bottom five. This is a league average defense.
43:44Even that alone makes the Jets an over. And then we'll see what happens from there.
43:49Yeah, I mean, you had the Jets in bottom five from a coaching staff standpoint.
43:53So if they got rid of Aaron Glenn and replaced him with another coach, this ranking might even see an increase for the Jets at this point.
44:01All right, let's move to tier seven. You've called this one.
44:04A lot has to go right. And the first team in this tier, it clearly makes sense why this tier is called this, is the San Francisco 49ers.
44:12At number 20, you have the Los Angeles Chargers.
44:15And at number 21, first time not in the bottom five of anything, the Tennessee Titans.
44:19But let's start with the 49ers who are obviously getting back, you know, arguably the best middle linebacker in the NFL in Fred Warner.
44:26Nick Bosa can be a top five pass rusher in the NFL.
44:30But like you said, a lot has to go right.
44:32Is it just like another injury concern? Because, I mean, there's injury concerns from the coaching staff all the way to both
44:39sides of the ball at this point. It's true.
44:41It's almost like two on the nose from the script writers that Kyle Shanahan is even hurt now on top of everything else.
44:48But like you said, Fred Warner, probably one of the top middle linebackers.
44:52No, probably about it. Fred Warner is a Hall of Fame, the best there is.
44:56And him back and Bosa back. Look, I'm not a fan of Nick Bosa, the player or the person, if we're being honest.
45:03But he's a game wrecker when he's out there.
45:05He's not out there enough. He gets hurt like every season for a few games.
45:09But those two guys are so good that just having those guys back and healthy changes the entire trajectory of the defense.
45:16But you need them back and healthy. I feel pretty good about Warner.
45:19He doesn't have a huge history. Bosa less so because we don't really know what year to year he's going to give.
45:26But Chris Kokorek, defensive line coach, legendary guy, always gets the best out of the line.
45:30Outside of those two, Kokorek's got his work cut out.
45:33The rest of Raheem Morris, the coordinator, he's got his work cut out.
45:37Because to me, looking at contenders, this is easily the worst secondary in any contender.
45:41And we just got young guys across the roster here that kind of all stunk last, if we're being honest.
45:47Like, it just not go well. And what happens now in year two?
45:51Can we get some step forward there? And can we keep Warner and Bosa on the field?
45:55I'm skeptical. So for once, I'm actually taking my skepticism into account and put the Niners gasp below league average here.
46:01But certainly the talent is there. It's got to be a Warner and Bosa.
46:05Yeah, because I was going to say, like, out of all the rankings we've done, I think this is the only one
46:12where you don't have them in the top 10 for something, right?
46:15So let's talk about the Chargers. Because when we did all of our offensive ranks, I'm just going to call it what it is.
46:22You glaze them pretty hard. Like, you're pretty high on the coach, the coordinators, quarterback.
46:26I thought the defense was probably the only thing that was working for them last year.
46:31So the fact that you have them at 20, I kind of feel like is an insult.
46:36Yeah, look, it's an insult maybe, but maybe it's respect to Jesse Minter because Jesse Minter being gone is the flip side
46:42of Mike McDaniel being there now offensively. So it was a top 10 defense the last two years.
46:47But if we, you know, I keep talking about the non-coordinator talent.
46:51This was a team that would have ranked toward the bottom on just talent last couple of years.
46:56They often did get exposed against real defenses or against real offenses because the talent wasn't quite there.
47:01They just outperformed their talent most of the season.
47:04That was Jesse Minter. Now, look, I like Chris O'Leary in theory.
47:07O'Leary in theory, that's kind of fun. The new defensive coordinator, he is a Minter guy, but he's not Minter.
47:13You still need the guy, right? So it's sort of like the island of misfit toys here.
47:18And I just need to see like Derwin James, he's going to fit anywhere.
47:22But can Chris O'Leary do what Minter did and get the talent to outperform?
47:26I have to be skeptical until we actually see it.
47:28So that's where I'm at with the Chargers. And then you mentioned the Titans, Robert Sala.
47:33Obviously, we know that he's pretty good defensively. Jeffrey Simmons was awesome last year.
47:37Like for all the things that went wrong in Tennessee, Jeffrey Simmons was maybe like a defensive player of the year type candidate.
47:44Now you bring in John Franklin Myers. There's five new starters, I think, from free agency.
47:48So just a floor raising group, not a defense I'm super excited about because Gus Bradley is still going to be involved there.
47:55But this defense was 17th and 19th the three years before last year.
47:59I think it cratered and now bounces back right around to that range.
48:02Yeah, the solid bump makes sense because that is what his focus is on.
48:06We'll see how it goes year over year. But I mean, it can only get better.
48:11I mean, from what we saw last year as well, outside of Jeffrey Simmons.
48:15All right, let's move to tier eight. You've called this one bad news for some contenders because all four of these teams
48:21in this group are looking at playoff potential here.
48:24And at number 22, you have the Indianapolis Colts at number 23, the Green Bay Packers, number 24, the Buffalo Bills, and number 25, the Cincinnati Bengals.
48:31If you're a fan of any of these teams, you obviously are not thrilled that they're this low.
48:37But I want to start with Buffalo because, wow, like what a fall from grace.
48:41I mean, I think you had them from what my memory is, you had them just outside the top 10 last year.
48:47Yeah, normally I'm pretty high on Buffalo, at least relatively, because Sean McDermott has been such a floor raiser, a different, different
48:53sort of coach, obviously, than Jesse Minter, but a guy who has always maximized the talent.
48:58This has not been the most talented roster. By talent alone, this is a bottom seven defense for me.
49:03So how much can the new guy, Jim Leonard, raise the floor of the defense?
49:08I don't know, man, because that was McDermott's thing.
49:10That's what he was doing already. I learned last year and noted in my comments about them, the upside of the defense
49:17was guys like Joey Bosa, Matt Milano, Daquan Jones.
49:19Those were the swing factors. They're all gone now.
49:22Look, they did not raise the ceiling for this team, but where is the ceiling?
49:26Where is it coming from? Jim Leonard doesn't get to actually play.
49:30He's still got to use the talent that's out there.
49:32And I'm not even sure that there is an above average position unit on this defense here.
49:37Maybe pass rusher if Bradley Chubb hits next to Greg Russo.
49:40But we talk about a step back before the step forward.
49:44I think people are maybe in over their head thinking this is the step forward spot.
49:48We might be at the step back spot, man.
49:51Like, I think we need to actually bring in some talent here.
49:54And I think this could be a bit of a transitional year and it could be rocky at times for Buffalo.
50:00Well, and the downside with the Bills year over year, it seems to be that it was the defense that let them down.
50:07And the ranking, I think, reflects that now at this point.
50:10The Packers, I feel like they need to have an asterisk by their ranking.
50:14Just given where we don't know if Micah Parsons, like I'm pretty sure he's going to start on the pup list.
50:20But let's just assume that he's not on the roster at this point.
50:24Is that how you're factoring in that ranking here with them at 23?
50:27Yeah, I'm kind of splitting the difference here. I'm assuming maybe like half a season.
50:32So this is, to me, is a bottom five defense without Micah.
50:35And then probably like a league average defense with them.
50:38So I sort of end up somewhere in the middle here.
50:41Like the safeties, Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams. Lucas Van Ness finally had a pretty good year last year.
50:47But all those guys are going to obviously play better when you put the defender that I think personally is the best
50:53in the league back out there in Micah Parsons.
50:55Everything else gets easier when you have him up front doing all this stuff.
50:59So it's like an incomplete grade. We need to see them come back later.
51:03But again, we're talking about the Green Bay. Got to be a little cautious early in the season until we see Parsons back out there.
51:11Okay, I'm going to tie this together, Indy and the Colts, because Louie Anaromo is the moved over to go with Indy after being with the Bengals here.
51:19So what makes Indy stay in a top of this group of the four?
51:23Yeah, Colts to me is just a high floor.
51:25They've been 14th to 20th DVOA four years in a row here.
51:29Relatively safe. Not a defense I'm super excited about, but they probably don't tumble too far.
51:33Sauce Gardner and Traverius Ward haven't actually played together yet.
51:36So we need to see what that looks like.
51:39It should be very good. Lot two on the rise there.
51:42And then the Bengals, they go out and get Dexter Lawrence.
51:45They add Boye Mafé, Jonathan Allen. They add safety Brian Cook, who was awesome last year.
51:49They added some guys in the draft as well.
51:52But man, did they need to add them because their defense was so bad last year.
51:57I like Al Golden coming over from Notre Dame, but they were rough.
52:00And don't forget, you add all those names, you lost Trey Hendrickson to do all that as well.
52:06So this is a step forward for Cincinnati. 25th would be a positive outcome.
52:10Cincinnati fans would love to get that more like 20th or 18th.
52:13But let's start in the right direction and go from there.
52:16Yeah, I think the Bengals are just hoping to be league average at this point.
52:20And that might actually make them a little bit of a contender.
52:24But the teams that aren't going to be contenders are the next six to eight teams that we have left here.
52:30And we won't spend too much time on them.
52:32But it's a big group of just trash. At 26th in Tier 9, you have the Browns.
52:3727th, the Commanders. 28th, the Cardinals. 28th, 9th, the Panthers.
52:4030th, the Falcons. And 31st, the Raiders. Wow. Okay, so it's getting real ugly here.
52:44We've got new play callers for the Browns, Commanders, and Raiders.
52:48Let's just start there then. What makes them such a downgrade of where they're ranking now, given new offensive play callers?
52:54Yeah, I'm most excited about Durante Jones and Washington among these three new play callers.
52:58He's a former Vikings defensive backs guy. That sort of sets up, hopefully, in the Flores-Zimmer aggressive type thing.
53:03But we talked about that at the top. If you have the aggressive mindset but don't have the bodies for it, that might not go well.
53:11And I think that's the Washington version this year.
53:13Unless you get, like, Rasul Douglas, Amik Roberts in these veteran corners.
53:17If they can bounce back under the D-backs coach, maybe it goes well.
53:20Sonny Stiles, the rookie, everyone's high on him. Can he break out?
53:24You're still replacing Bobby Wagner. I think it could be very ugly at times because the talent is just not super there.
53:30Speaking of ugly, the Browns lose Miles Garrett. So how far can you drop from Miles Garrett on to Miles Garrett off?
53:37And we know that. But I think underrated is losing Jim Schwartz, too.
53:40Mike Rutenberg, kind of a very much unknown defensive coordinator from the Robert Sala, Gus Bradley tree.
53:45We know I'm not going to love that, necessarily.
53:48You get Jared Burse in for Miles Garrett. He's looked great in camp.
53:51You add Quincy Williams. There is talent here. I will note the Browns are at the top of this group.
53:57So Browns and Titans fans, finally, we did it.
54:00We got you out of the very, very cellar here.
54:03But look, it's a long way down losing Miles Garrett for sure.
54:06And then last one, Raiders. Max Crosby, apparently still on the roster.
54:09We traded him and didn't trade him and had that whole thing.
54:13We forget about that in the offseason. Quay Walker and N'Kobe Dean, the new linebackers, not my favorite.
54:18Like putting those guys together, especially not my best.
54:21We talked about Patrick Graham earlier. He's gone now.
54:23He elevated this group. There is not a lot of talent on this team.
54:27And I think, again, Rob Leonard, the defensive play caller.
54:30These are just names we don't know much about.
54:33So you have to be skeptical about new names.
54:35Don't know much. Not a lot of talent there.
54:38I'm going to group the final three teams here.
54:40Arizona, Atlanta, and Carolina together. What's the easiest way that you could say that you're leaving them all for dead?
54:46Yeah, I think it's just it's names you're watching for.
54:49The whole product is probably not going to be great.
54:52But an Arizona Walter Nolan on the line. I like him.
54:55He's a good young player. Will Johnson, Garrett Williams, young corners.
54:58But you're cherry picking names, right? You're picking three guys.
55:01And like, well, there's eight more guys got to play out the defense.
55:05What else is there? Carolina, Derek Brown. He's a stud.
55:08Mike Jackson, good corner. They signed Jalen Phillips. They signed Devin Lloyd.
55:11Not in love with those guys, but should be good.
55:14Kind of very Panthers-y. Just very like, yeah, you're 25th best or something.
55:18Like, you're not the worst, but you're pretty close to it.
55:21I kind of wish you'd make up your mind.
55:23Falcons, for them, it's injuries. Last year, round one, they go get Jalon Walker and James Pierce.
55:28Both the edge rushers. Walker's out for the season.
55:31James Pierce has suspended half the season. So hard to overcome that.
55:34This defense has been built around their speed off the edge, and they don't have it anymore.
55:39So safeties, Jesse Bates and Xavier Watts, I love that too.
55:42But just not a lot else there with those teams near the bottom.
55:46Okay. And no surprise. The Miami Dolphins, last place.
55:48Probably going to have a last place finish. They're first in the odds to be worst team in the NFL.
55:54How much more of a downgrade is this on defense compared to their offense?
55:58Because it's not like we had them in top 10 in offense either.
56:02We didn't, but I actually think this is the single worst Miami rating.
56:06Out of all the Miami ratings we've been down on, remember I talked about the top six, how far of a gap they had from everyone else?
56:13Miami is almost the similar gap at the bottom from even 31.
56:17As much as we just dumped on those last group of six, this is that far down.
56:22It's the worst secondary in the league. Safety, I think, is maybe the worst positional group of any of the groups in the league.
56:29They're starting at least three, maybe five rookies on this team.
56:32Jeff Halfley, I don't know why you did this, but enjoy the ride over there because it's going to be a tough one.
56:38All right. Let's now go back to the top because I want to talk about the top 10 again, some takeaways that
56:45we can use going into the NFL season. So at your top 10, you have the Texans at number one, Seahawks two,
56:51Eagles three, Ravens and Rams to round out your top five.
56:54Then you have the Steelers, Patriots, Chiefs, Broncos and Vikings making up your top 10 of NFL defensive rankings.
56:59I'm going to stick with the conference here, AFC, because six of the top nine teams are coming out of the AFC.
57:06Do you find that from an AFC standpoint, NFC standpoint, like the AFC kind of dominates more from a defensive standpoint than they do offensively?
57:13Because I usually look at the quarterbacks from an AFC standpoint.
57:16Yeah, it surprised me. It's not really super tilted, but it does tilt toward the AFC.
57:21There's at least one top 10 of my defenses in every division as well.
57:25And all of those six teams you mentioned for the six made the playoffs.
57:29The other two had Mahomes and Lamar missed time with injuries.
57:32So just a lot of high floor defense there in the AFC more than the NFC.
57:36Okay. So the other thing too is how many teams overlap?
57:39Like how many teams are in your top 10 in both offense and defense?
57:43Like for example, the Rams, you have them top five in both offense and defense.
57:48But the only other two teams that you have like that are in the top 10 in both of those categories, the
57:54Ravens and Chiefs again from the AFC, but they both missed the playoffs last year.
57:58So give me some encouraging news about why we should feel good about them.
58:02Because when we watched them last year, it was not encouraging.
58:06Yeah. I mean, I feel like the narrative right now is you keep hearing it everywhere.
58:10The wide open AFC, the wide open AFC. It's the Wild West out there.
58:14I don't know, man. Like, are we sure it wasn't a one-year blip where the wide open AFC had all these injuries
58:20and the two superstar quarterbacks got injured? And that's what happened last year.
58:24Like, I think that there's not much skepticism on the Bills.
58:27We'll talk about that in a second here. But I think the Ravens and Chiefs bounce right back into the top of the mix.
58:34The Patriots, they just missed the cut. They're 11th in offense.
58:37Otherwise, they'd be top 10 in both. And so they might also be in the mix there.
58:42But that's not so wide open if you have these juggernaut teams with top 10 offense and defense out there.
58:48Just got to mention here, over in the NFC, if you go like top 13, the Vikings and the Buccaneers both might
58:54sneak in here as just like, all right, a lot of paths for things to possibly be good there.
59:00And I know we joked all these rankings about squeezing the Bucs in.
59:03I had to do it one more time here, but not so far off.
59:07That's a pretty good group of teams for the Vikings and Bucs to be part of there.
59:12So the three teams then I think about because you have them top rated defenses, but we trash them from an offensive standpoint.
59:19I'm thinking the Texans, the Seahawks, the Eagles. What do we do when we have three teams that really lead from a defensive standpoint?
59:26Like, do you feel like there's a cap on their ceiling of how much noise they could truly make to go to a Super Bowl?
59:33Because, I mean, we just watched the Seahawks do it.
59:36Could the Texans and Eagles potentially do it as well?
59:39Because the Eagles, again, another team, won a Super Bowl in recent years.
59:42Just like that. Yeah, exactly. My notes here. The Seahawks just won the Super Bowl defense first.
59:47The Eagles honestly did it the year before. But both of those teams did have a top 10 offense or fringe top
59:5310 where elite defense can lift your offense. You force turnovers.
59:57You put them in good field position. You're setting them up to succeed a little bit better.
60:01So that can help. But look, that's the case with these three Seahawks, Texans, and Eagles.
60:06We all had them. We had them all at offense 16th or lower.
60:10So league average or worse for those three. So we're going to have to see it.
60:14You have these three juggernaut defenses, but none of them paired with an elite offense.
60:19The Rams are the closest one there. What about some other teams?
60:22How about the Steelers where they end up top six?
60:25We're talking about how much average did we say offensively for them.
60:28But what if you're average plus an elite defense?
60:31Could that be good? How about the Saints? How about one of those New York teams, the Giants or the Jets?
60:37A little further down the rankings. But if they get better, if they're like a top 10 defense and take a further
60:43leap, not a lot of offense there, but could one of those teams step up.
60:48So I think you maybe find some sleepers there.
60:50Sometimes those deeper sleepers, those tend to be the teams you immediately turn around and bet against round one.
60:56But that's all right. You can still make some money in the meantime.
60:59I'll leave it to you to somehow shoehorn in the Steelers again.
61:03I just cannot get on board with that one, but we'll see how it goes.
61:07I asked about this when we did the offensive podcast about these divisional clusters that you have in your rankings.
61:13Because I think there could be some opportunity that leads itself to maybe even an actionable bet here.
61:18Like Broncos and Chiefs just inside the top 10, AFC West.
61:21Then like the NFC North, you kind of have them all clustered like 10 through 15.
61:26Like what is that opportunity that would we take advantage of with those divisions?
61:30Yeah, I think opportunity is the word there. When things are clustered, it means opportunity.
61:34It means long shots can step up. Remember, defense is unpredictable.
61:37So it might mean that maybe it's just the offense that stands out here.
61:41But AFC West, you've got Denver a slight step back offensively.
61:44Chargers a slight step back defensively. The Chiefs are the only one that is up on both of those two.
61:50So maybe that's the balance you're looking for. For NFC North, you said 10 to 15, but not the Packers.
61:56Not the Packers, especially early. So to me, that might be the takeaway.
61:59It's like, man, you don't – if everything – like that was a group we said was clustered offensively too.
62:05Everyone's top 15 offense, top 15 defense, except for the Packers defense.
62:09In a division that's going to be close, that might be really bad for Green Bay.
62:13Well, but then the Green Bay part, like you have them like – let me just double check.
62:18Okay, tier seven, which is in that 22 to 25 range with the Colts, Bills, and Bengals.
62:23Is it the Packers that you'd be most worried of of those four?
62:27Is it the Bills? Which one? Yeah, look, I think the Colts are just happy to be included there among the contenders supposedly.
62:33We know the Bengals are going to be bad.
62:36They just need to be a little better to be in the mix.
62:40The Packers, at least early, are going to have to be worried.
62:43But they do get Micah Parsons. You have to believe at some point.
62:47To me, the big one is the Bills. Just a huge red flag, bottom 10 defense for me.
62:52We already talked about not the best receivers. Maybe a slight dip offensive line, unproven coaching staff.
62:57We didn't get to do the top 32 special team rankings.
63:00But here's a spoiler. I had Buffalo bottom five special teams also.
63:03This actually comes out for me even as my number two offense, even as important as offense is, bottom half of the league.
63:10This is the sort of red flags I saw last year with the Kansas City Chiefs, and I didn't pull the trigger.
63:16But could this year the Buffalo Bills maybe miss the playoffs?
63:19Oh, my God. Okay. We're going to save that for another pod because that's going to be a bombshell if they don't make the playoffs here.
63:27All right. Before we get out of here, it's time for our segment presented by DraftKings.
63:32Brandon, we talked about team defenses here for the last hour.
63:35So give us a play you like to go along with what we've discussed today.
63:39Yeah, let's keep it very simple all the way back to the top.
63:43The Houston Texans had the number one defense, number one last year, number one again this year in the rankings.
63:48Talked about Jacksonville falling off, Indy falling off a little bit.
63:52So number one defense in the AFC South, pretty easy choice.
63:55You can take the Texans to win the division.
63:57Seems like the easy option here. Okay. All right.
64:00Texans to win the division, AFC South. And for all the Houston Texan fans listening in the low star state, if you
64:06want to join Brandon here for the Texans to win the division, remember the DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states.
64:13So go download it today. Don't forget that DraftKings game day is coming up on September 2nd where you'll find some amazing
64:19offers whether you're in Texas, California, Florida, or any state.
64:22So that'll do it for today's episode of the Action Network podcast.
64:26Thank you for tuning in. And don't forget to leave us that five-star rating review wherever you listen to the podcast and
64:32download the free award-winning Action Network app. You can save $20 off of an annual pro account by using code POD20 at ActionNetwork.com slash pro.
64:39So for Brandon Anderson, I'm Gilles Gallant. Thank you again for listening to the Action Network podcast.
64:44Bonne chance. Action Network reminds you, please gamble responsibly.
64:46If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is available 24-7 at 1-800-8-7-8.
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