2021 Fantasy Football Rankings: Defenses


These 2021 Fantasy Football Defense Rankings will be updated often throughout the summer, so make sure you check back from time to time. Also, be sure to check out my other 2021 Fantasy Football articles, including sleepers, busts, tons of 2021 Fantasy Football mock drafts and other material. Follow me @walterfootball for updates.

Updated May 2021


I don’t believe in drafting fantasy defenses until the final couple of rounds. In fact, I usually don’t even draft a defense, opting instead to select as many sleepers as possible and then eventually adding a defense the Saturday of Week 1.

Someone always reaches for a defense way too early in every fantasy draft. Don’t be an idiot like that. There’s a new top defense every year. Plus, you can play matchups with defenses. I’ll explain this later, but here are my brief 2021 fantasy defense rankings, which will be much different than most publications because of my matchup strategy:

  1. Washington Redskins. Bye: 9.
  2. Los Angeles Rams. Bye: 11.
  3. San Francisco 49ers. Bye: 6.
  4. Denver Broncos. Bye: 11.
  5. Miami Dolphins. Bye: 14.
  6. Baltimore Ravens. Bye: 8.
  7. Chicago Bears. Bye: 10.
  8. Buffalo Bills. Bye: 7.
  9. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bye: 9.
  10. New York Giants. Bye: 10.



  11. New England Patriots. Bye: 14.
  12. Los Angeles Chargers. Bye: 7.
  13. Cleveland Browns. Bye: 13.
  14. Indianapolis Colts. Bye: 14.
  15. Kansas City Chiefs. Bye: 12.
  16. Pittsburgh Steelers. Bye: 7.
  17. New Orleans Saints. Bye: 6.
  18. Minnesota Vikings. Bye: 7.
  19. Seattle Seahawks. Bye: 9.
  20. Green Bay Packers. Bye: 13.



  21. New York Jets. Bye: 6.
  22. Arizona Cardinals. Bye: 12.
  23. Philadelphia Eagles. Bye: 14.
  24. Dallas Cowboys. Bye: 7.
  25. Las Vegas Raiders. Bye: 8.
  26. Atlanta Falcons. Bye: 6.
  27. Detroit Lions. Bye: 9.
  28. Cincinnati Bengals. Bye: 10.
  29. Carolina Panthers. Bye: 13.
  30. Tennessee Titans. Bye: 13.
  31. Jacksonville Jaguars. Bye: 7.
  32. Houston Texans. Bye: 10.


Rotating Fantasy Football Defenses:

As I said, I love to rotate fantasy defenses based on matchups. I’ll identify several teams as having probable crappy offenses that you can go against once the schedule releases.


Terrible Offenses:

  • Detroit Lions – We’ve seen Jared Goff at his best. Goff without McVay is going to be much worse than Goff with McVay.

  • Green Bay Packers – This obviously assumes Aaron Rodgers will be traded to Denver.

  • Houston Texans – Tyrod Taylor will be playing behind a terrible offensive line. Sign me up to play against that!







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    2021 Fantasy Football Rankings: Defenses - 6/9 (Walt)
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