Fantasy Football 2018: Ranking the top 15 defenses

There are plenty of fantasy football drafts that come and go without a defensive being selected. However, owning the top defense could help you get a small edge.

One of the major keys to ensuring you properly value fantasy football defenses is knowing your league’s scoring. There are some leagues where the defense can score points for different things like return yards.

However, most of the leagues tend to reward points for sacks and turnovers. There’s also scoring levels based on the amount of points allowed by your defense.

A lot of the leagues I belong to count kick off and punt returns for the defense. This is an important piece that is often overlooked. There are some really talented kick returners in this league that can help your fantasy team.

Years ago, the Chicago Bears defense was extremely valuable thanks to the added punch provided by Devin Hester.

My overall strategy when it comes to a fantasy defense is wait until the end of the draft. The streaming option is usually what works the best. I’m someone who hates to roster two defenses so drafting one early would be a waste.

There are some leagues where you are forced to draft a defense. In the drafts where you don’t have to fill every starting spot you can get your defense on the waiver wire. I typically use this strategy when my draft is earlier in the preseason.

This allows me to use those last few picks on high upside sleepers.

However, some of the defenses at the top of my rankings are very intriguing. This year might be one of those rare occasions I’m willing to take a defense a little earlier than usual.