A strong defense is necessary to win a championship on the field. It’s not necessary in fantasy football.
As mentioned with the kicking position, there’s no reason to reach for defenses. Sure, Seattle is a sure-fire bet at always being a top-tier defense, along with Arizona, Carolina and Denver. But if owners in your league decide to make a play on those defenses early in your draft, don’t worry.
There’s plenty of solid defenses available in the final rounds of your fantasy football draft. The top 13 defenses from 2015 were separated by 45 points, with Denver leading the way.
In 2014, it was 52 points.
That works out to be a little more than three points per week. Sometimes fantasy matchups have a slim margin, but your team’s win/loss record won’t be predicated on a dominating defense.
That’s why sleepers matter when picking defenses. Here’s three defenses that could produce solid value in 2016.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Sometimes a decent fantasy football defense isn’t actually all that good in real life.
The Steelers own an average draft position of 10th among defenses, but they showed growth last season, and should only be better this season.
The Steelers finished last season with 16 or more fantasy points in three of the final five games, netting 15 sacks in those three games. In fact, Pittsburgh finished third in sacks, a great barometer of an emerging defense.
The Steelers may not be the most attractive pick, but they can rush the passer and that turned into several takeaways last season (tied for third with 30). Expect the same mindset this season with an explosive offense.
Minnesota Vikings
Despite having an above-average NFL defense, the Vikings just haven’t put up big numbers in recent years in fantasy football.
The Vikings have finished eighth and 14th in the last two years in points scored for fantasy defenses, despite having a top-five defense on the field.
However, that makes the Vikings a solid value-based pick with an ADP of 11. The production from a fantasy viewpoint hasn’t necessarily been there, but there’s enough pieces on the team that could add an interception, fumble and sack here or there.
Minnesota showed in the last three weeks of the regular season what it was capable of doing, netting 10, 17 and 19 points respectively in the final three games. During those games, they rushed the passer better than they had all year, going for 14 sacks in three games.
I’m expecting more of that this season, especially with a little more trust on the offensive end.
Miami Dolphins
Miami’s defense has to be better than last year. Right?
The defense underachieved mightily last year, allowed 24.3 points per game and was one of the worst teams against the rush in the NFL.
But there’s just too much talent on the defense to be that bad against the run and have no sacks again this season.
The Dolphins’ pass rush should be better with Mario Williams and Cameron Wake on the ends and Ndamukong Suh on the inside. As long as the secondary can hold up and the Dolphins make an attempt at stopping the run, Miami could be one of the most improved defenses in the NFL.
They are a deep sleeper, with an ADP of 18th among defenses, but they could pay major dividends as a final pick in fantasy drafts.
But knowing the best value at each position only helps you for the first few rounds of the draft — at some point you have to switch your focus to the rest of your squad, so after Round 5 I filled in roster holes based on a mixture of strategies, including selecting the best player available while preserving overall roster balance and taking chances on high-reward players later in the draft.