Sportsnaut
Our weekly NFL defense rankings examine every unit across the league to determine the best defenses in the NFL. With the preseason wrapped up, let’s dive into our evaluations for the worst and best NFL defenses this season. We’ll update our NFL defense rankings, with analysis on all 32 teams, every Sunday night each week.
Our NFL defense ranks are updated as of Sunday, September 28. You can find an analysis of all 32 defenses immediately below for how each team fared in Week 4. We’ll have our Week 5 fantasy defense rankings on Tuesday along with NFL defensive stats from the first four games.
In a revenge game for Micah Parsons at AT&T Stadium, you can bet the Green Bay Packers‘s defense will try to match the All-Pro edge rusher’s energy level on Sunday Night Football. This is an even more favorable matchup for Green Bay’s defense because of the CeeDee Lamb injury, which makes the game plan much easier for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley as George Pickens becomes the only deep threat to account for. While the Cowboys’ offensive line might give Dak Prescott a few chances, the depth of the Packers’ pass rush and its play at linebacker is far too much to overcome.
Mike Macdonald needed a little time to create something great with this Seattle Seahawks defense. The work, time and investment of cap space and draft capital has paid off. Since the Week 10 bye last season, a 12-game stretch, Seattle’s defense to a 37.5 percent third-down conversion rate, 17.8 points per game and 4.8 yards per play. In that same span, opposing quarterbacks have an 18-14 TD-INT while averaging 205.8 passing yards per game and average just 5.81 yards per pass attempt versus Seattle. Keep those numbers in mind ahead of a Week 5 date versus Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers, who will be without Mike Evans.
The Los Angeles Chargers defense continues to perform at an elite level and it will need to maintain that given the state of the offensive line now protecting Justin Herbert. On Sunday, the Chargers defense held its opponent under 3.7 yards per play for the second time in four games and the best red-zone defense in the NFL held to its 40 percent red-zone touchdown rate. It still wasn’t enough to win and now Los Angeles faces Jayden Daniels in Week 5. Realistically, the Chargers will likely need to allow fewer than 23 points to win.
The numbers are too hard to ignore at this point with the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. Through four games, Jacksonville has generated 13 takeaways (most in NFL), at a time when only two defenses (including the Steelers) have more than eight. Jacksonville’s red-zone defense also continues to stand out, with opponents scoring a touchdown on just 44.4 percent of their red-zone trips this season. It’s a four-game sample of...
