Top five defenses in the league

[JAF-N72EX]

20 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Before ppl take issue with the rankings, by the eye test, CHI is obvious for all to see, but CLE is certainly deserving of a top 5 D label.  Ward has been a great cover CB (still gets burned, but that's his style), with ballhawk skills that really transform that D's potential for big plays.   Garrett (generational level talent like Mack/Von) & Ogbah's supporting work along with Ogbujoni's being a terror inside, mean that they win in trench battles and get after the QB really well.   And Peppers' run support as a SS (how they thought he should learn Year 1 as a FS is beyond me, his skill set screams SS) really has helped them in a big way.  They could still use another ILB force and more CB depth, but they have the $ (no longer the early picks) to get those shored up, they don't need elite guys, just strong support guys now.   Then they'll be right up there with any of the big D's IMO.

JAX still belongs at the top with CHI, but I'd put CLE and BAL as legit D's as well.   BAL & NYJ's only issue is that I don't know that they can keep up their success in pass rush, while I have nothing but love for Suggs, he's getting up there, so I don't know if he can hold up for 16 games, and he's simply not at the same level as Mack/Garrett/Von (who ironically, is suffering from what Mack did in OAK - no other guys who can make the D's lay off double teams / moving play away from him - Chubb's still learning the game, and the concerns that he's not an alpha pass rusher seem spot on at this time, while he is showing a very well-rounded game).   So I see JAX/CHI/CLE as built to last....NYJ/BAL are great D's, but vulnerable to keeping that when they face good OL's, because I don't think their pass rush is nearly at the same level as CHI/CLE (and even JAX) can generate (JAX isn't quite as good as what CHI/CLE can bring now pass-rush, but their coverage is just that much better to make up for it).

The one D who could move up quickly - LAC once Bosa returns, and Liuget is just back.   The key there besides Bosa is how well the LB's play in run support, that's been a weakness of theirs b4.  Perryman upping his game as the Mike would make a huge diff this year to making that run D better. 

This is an overall solid take and I agree with most of it. But the bolded above regarding the Bears defense, I'm not so confident in just yet. They need to start making more plays in the second half. A majority of their plays are coming within the first 2 quarters and are dropping big time in the 2nd half. This can't keep happening throughout the season in order for it be sustainable. 

Edit: Just to illustrate my above point

First 4 weeks vs the league

Team	First Qtr	Rank	Second Qtr	Rank	Third Qtr	Rank	Fourth Qtr/OT	Rank	First Half	Rank	Second Half	Rank	Late & Close	Rank	Total	Rank
CHI	-123.70%	2	-124.40%	1	7.90%	18	176.40%	32	-124.20%	1	76.50%	32	102.50%	31	-7.40%	13

First 5 weeks vs the league

Team	First Qtr	Rank	Second Qtr	Rank	Third Qtr	Rank	Fourth Qtr/OT	Rank	First Half	Rank	Second Half	Rank ▾	Late & Close	Rank	Total	Rank
CHI	-5.90%	13	-130.00%	1	-39.80%	2	26.60%	29	-72.90%	1	-1.60%	20	-59.30%	1	-31.50%	1

[Broncofan]

19 hours ago, JustAnotherFan said:

This is an overall solid take and I agree with most of it. But the bolded above regarding the Bears defense, I'm not so confident in just yet. They need to start making more plays in the second half. A majority of their plays are coming within the first 2 quarters and are dropping big time in the 2nd half. This can't keep happening throughout the season in order for it be sustainable. 

Edit: Just to illustrate my above point

First 4 weeks vs the league

Team	First Qtr	Rank	Second Qtr	Rank	Third Qtr	Rank	Fourth Qtr/OT	Rank	First Half	Rank	Second Half	Rank	Late & Close	Rank	Total	Rank
CHI	-123.70%	2	-124.40%	1	7.90%	18	176.40%	32	-124.20%	1	76.50%	32	102.50%	31	-7.40%	13

First 5 weeks vs the league

Team	First Qtr	Rank	Second Qtr	Rank	Third Qtr	Rank	Fourth Qtr/OT	Rank	First Half	Rank	Second Half	Rank ▾	Late & Close	Rank	Total	Rank
CHI	-5.90%	13	-130.00%	1	-39.80%	2	26.60%	29	-72.90%	1	-1.60%	20	-59.30%	1	-31.50%	1

Yeah the D definitely has faded a bit as the game has progressed but I think there are 3 factors at play:

1.  Mack is only now getting into full game shape.   So he’s wearing out sooner, which matters since he’s the straw that stirs the drink.  

2.   The O hasn’t held their end of the deal except vs. Tampa and kept the D off the field to be fresh.   3 and outs or 5-6 play drives just wear even great D’s.   I certainly saw that with Den 2015.   

3.   In Tampa’s case, the blowout was on so they let up a bit.  Plus Jameis made about 5-6 SMH plays to evade the rush that Fitz can’t make.   They still got 2 TO’s off tipped balls in the 2H but there was plenty of context to their meh #'s there.   

If the O can do their part I think you will see the D 2H performance improve - which  frankly is a scary thought for the rest of the O’s who have to play CHI.    Trubisky is the key there.   Except for TAM game he’s held the O back and by extension worn the D down.  A game in the MIA heat vs. a very good secondary should show a lot on where he really is at (because let’s face it TAM secondary doesn’t pose a great test).

[JAF-N72EX]

Rankings after week 5. Added a second chart separately below to show the DVOA of each defense in each quarter, half and close/late games. (Late/Close are considered one score games--8 points or less)  

*Note 1: The average and median rankings found at the end of the list are simply the averages of rankings under each category combined. Ultimately, these have very little significance for various reasons (i.e All of these stats are already accounted for in the overall DVOA rankings and are basically being counted for or against each team twice). So then why did I add them at all? Because I can. The median may or may not have some significance in determining an overall pattern moving forward throughout the season but I can't prove that because I nothing to base that on whatsoever lol ---that is simply a hunch.

*Note 2: The pressure %. Keep in mind, this data is from SIS who are still pretty new to NFL data with a relatively small group of individuals ranging from former scouts and coaches. So mistakes will be made in the charted data and corrected with revisions. Unlike PFF, they use all-22 data to go back and correct their mistakes throughout the process. Just a quick FYI is all.

*Note 3: These are the things considered when judging the pressure percentages and how they are charted.

Pressure rate accounts for all pass plays including scrambles but not including spikes. Plays cancelled by Defensive Pass Interference are also included. Plays count as having pressure in the following situations:

a) any pass or scramble charted with pressure by a specific defender, or "overall pressure",
b) any sack charted as "rusher untouched," "blown block," or "overall pressure",
c) any sack charted as "coverage sack" or "failed scramble," but only if these sacks are also charted with a specific defender giving pass pressure. (For example, a "coverage sack" can also have pressure if a specific defender forces the quarterback out of the pocket immediately, but the sack takes a lot longer because of the coverage.)

TM	DEFENSE DVOA	RK	PASS DEF	PASS RK	RUSH DEF	RUSH RK	VAR.	RK	SCHED	RK	Red Zone	RK	Takeaways	RK	Scoring %	RK	TO/Drive	RK	Sack %	RK	INT %	RK	Press rate %	RK	AVG	MED
CHI	-31.50%	1	-33.50%	1	-28.10%	3	1.60%	3	-3.50%	24	27.40%	25	11	2	24.4	31	24.4	1	11.6	1	5.8	1	30.8%	9	8.5	2.5
CLE	-20.00%	2	-19.60%	2	-20.60%	8	1.50%	2	3.50%	8	-36.50%	6	15	1	25.6	30	19.2	3	5.9	21	3.6	5	24.8%	24	9.3	5.5
JAX	-16.90%	3	-12.90%	3	-21.90%	7	1.80%	5	2.20%	11	-67.10%	2	5	23	33.3	24	7	31	6.3	14	1.8	22	31.1%	8	12.8	9.5
BAL	-15.90%	4	-9.60%	4	-26.40%	4	5.50%	21	-9.50%	30	-57.50%	3	6	17	23.1	32	9.2	24	7	10	2.5	10	30.2%	10	14.1	10
MIA	-12.40%	5	-7.00%	5	-19.00%	9	3.80%	15	-2.20%	23	-45.90%	4	11	2	35.1	19	19.3	2	4.2	28	5.5	2	23.2%	28	11.8	7
NYJ	-9.30%	6	-6.90%	6	-13.10%	15	6.40%	24	-5.40%	29	-5.10%	15	11	2	27.3	29	16.7	6	6.5	12	3.5	7	21.8%	31	15.2	13.5
BUF	-9.00%	7	-6.30%	7	-13.20%	14	8.20%	27	4.20%	7	56.10%	32	9	7	39	13	15.3	10	6.1	16	1.6	26	26.4%	20	15.5	13.5
ARI	-7.10%	8	0.30%	12	-13.70%	12	1.90%	6	3.30%	10	2.70%	19	9	7	36.4	16	16.4	8	7.3	8	2.3	17	27.4%	15	11.5	11
SEA	-7.10%	9	-3.50%	8	-11.10%	17	2.90%	9	0.10%	17	-14.90%	11	3	32	39	13	5.1	32	5.7	23	5.4	3	27.4%	15	15.8	14
HOU	-3.30%	10	20.50%	25	-33.00%	2	4.20%	17	-5.00%	27	43.50%	30	7	15	39.3	12	9.8	21	6.7	11	1.7	24	24.5%	25	18.3	19
PHI	-2.90%	11	6.60%	15	-22.70%	6	10.40%	29	-1.30%	20	-38.70%	5	5	23	34.5	20	8.6	25	5.7	23	1.5	27	35.5%	3	17.3	20
TEN	-2.90%	12	1.40%	13	-7.70%	20	4.20%	16	-14.60%	32	-91.60%	1	6	17	32.7	26	10.9	17	7.3	8	2.4	13	25.3%	22	16.4	16.5
IND	-1.20%	13	7.80%	17	-13.40%	13	1.70%	4	1.10%	13	10.30%	21	8	10	42.1	8	14	12	7.9	6	2.5	10	25.3%	22	12.4	12.5
LAR	-0.80%	14	-2.20%	9	1.20%	28	7.30%	25	-0.90%	18	18.10%	22	7	15	36	17	14	12	5.6	25	2.4	13	40.3%	1	16.6	16
DAL	0.00%	15	18.80%	24	-22.90%	5	3.60%	13	-1.60%	21	-14.80%	12	4	31	35.2	18	7.4	28	8.1	5	0.6	30	36.6%	2	17.0	16.5
PIT	0.00%	16	6.50%	14	-10.70%	18	12.00%	30	6.00%	3	-0.60%	18	8	10	34.3	22	11.9	16	8.5	4	2	19	34.5%	5	14.6	16
GB	0.00%	17	0.00%	11	0.10%	27	14.00%	32	-11.90%	31	24.80%	24	6	17	30.5	28	10.2	20	9	3	2.5	10	31.8%	6	18.8	18.5
LAC	0.50%	18	6.60%	16	-7.50%	21	2.60%	8	1.90%	12	-30.00%	8	8	10	37.3	15	15.7	9	6.2	15	3.6	5	34.9%	4	11.8	11
NE	1.70%	19	10.30%	21	-11.10%	16	4.70%	19	-5.10%	28	-16.00%	10	10	6	33.3	24	16.7	6	3.4	32	3	8	31.2%	7	16.3	17.5
CIN	3.50%	20	10.00%	20	-6.40%	23	5.80%	22	0.40%	16	-4.90%	17	8	10	41.1	10	14.3	11	5.9	21	2.4	13	26.0%	21	17.0	18.5
SF	3.60%	21	15.90%	23	-15.00%	10	1.20%	1	5.30%	5	34.20%	28	11	2	34.5	20	19	4	4.5	27	0.5	32	27.9%	13	15.5	16.5
DEN	3.80%	22	8.20%	18	-1.90%	26	3.60%	12	3.40%	9	18.30%	23	5	23	40	11	8.3	26	6	18	1.7	24	26.8%	18	19.2	20
WAS	4.20%	23	-0.60%	10	10.90%	30	3.70%	14	-1.20%	19	29.90%	27	6	17	31.8	27	13.6	14	6.1	16	2.2	18	27.1%	17	19.3	17.5
NYG	5.40%	24	12.00%	22	-2.00%	25	5.50%	20	0.50%	15	-5.00%	16	5	23	46.3	2	9.3	22	3.5	31	2.4	13	27.8%	14	18.9	21
NO	6.50%	25	34.50%	31	-36.50%	1	8.90%	28	-1.70%	22	-5.70%	14	5	23	42.6	7	9.3	22	6.5	12	1.2	29	24.1%	26	20.0	22.5
MIN	8.90%	26	23.20%	26	-10.20%	19	12.20%	31	-4.90%	25	-35.00%	7	6	17	43.9	5	10.5	19	7.8	7	1.8	22	28.6%	11	17.9	19
CAR	8.90%	26	23.30%	27	-14.30%	11	2.40%	7	1.10%	14	46.50%	31	9	7	34.1	23	18.2	5	6	18	5	4	26.8%	18	15.9	16
KC	13.30%	28	9.30%	19	21.50%	32	3.50%	11	4.30%	6	2.90%	20	8	10	41.5	9	13.2	15	6	18	2.6	9	28.6%	11	15.7	13
OAK	15.80%	29	33.80%	30	-5.60%	24	8.00%	26	9.00%	1	-28.80%	9	5	23	43.3	6	8.3	26	3.6	30	1.9	21	18.3%	32	21.4	25
DET	17.10%	30	29.50%	29	2.70%	29	4.40%	18	-4.90%	26	-9.60%	13	6	17	44.4	4	7.4	28	10.1	2	1.3	28	22.9%	29	21.1	27
ATL	21.10%	31	28.40%	28	11.30%	31	3.30%	10	7.90%	2	27.50%	26	5	23	48.1	1	7.4	28	3.9	29	2	19	23.7%	27	21.3	26.5
TB	27.80%	32	48.60%	32	-6.70%	22	6.10%	23	5.70%	4	35.90%	29	5	23	44.7	3	10.6	18	4.8	26	0.6	30	22.2%	30	22.7	24.5

 

Team	First Qtr	Rank	Second Qtr	Rank	Third Qtr	Rank	Fourth Qtr/OT	Rank	First Half	Rank	Second Half	Rank	Late & Close	Rank	Total	Rank
CHI	-5.90%	13	-130.00%	1	-39.80%	2	26.60%	29	-72.90%	1	-1.60%	20	-59.30%	1	-31.50%	1
CLE	-38.40%	2	-19.90%	7	-3.30%	21	-18.40%	4	-28.10%	2	-13.50%	6	-11.00%	16	-20.00%	2
JAX	-14.50%	7	-25.60%	4	-5.70%	19	-23.70%	2	-20.10%	3	-14.10%	5	-22.00%	8	-16.90%	3
BAL	-7.10%	11	0.60%	16	-34.20%	3	-21.90%	3	-3.00%	11	-27.80%	1	-19.50%	9	-15.90%	4
MIA	-19.20%	6	-10.40%	12	-22.90%	9	6.50%	17	-14.80%	6	-9.80%	9	-31.60%	5	-12.40%	5
NYJ	-21.00%	5	-13.30%	11	-20.50%	11	12.30%	22	-16.20%	4	-3.10%	19	17.30%	26	-9.30%	6
BUF	8.80%	20	-13.30%	10	-42.10%	1	4.30%	14	-3.20%	10	-15.50%	3	-40.80%	2	-9.00%	7
SEA	-23.80%	3	-8.30%	13	-21.70%	10	25.20%	28	-16.00%	5	3.60%	24	8.50%	25	-7.10%	9
ARI	1.70%	15	-15.00%	8	-5.10%	20	-8.20%	11	-7.40%	9	-6.70%	11	-14.20%	12	-7.10%	8
HOU	27.20%	26	-25.80%	3	-29.90%	6	9.30%	20	-1.90%	13	-4.80%	15	-13.10%	14	-3.30%	10
PHI	-7.00%	12	11.20%	23	2.40%	23	-11.10%	7	0.30%	14	-6.00%	13	-17.40%	10	-2.90%	11
TEN	-4.20%	14	13.20%	24	-11.40%	15	-11.90%	6	5.80%	18	-11.60%	7	-10.00%	17	-2.90%	12
IND	2.80%	17	10.90%	22	-29.20%	7	10.90%	21	7.10%	20	-9.30%	10	-12.40%	15	-1.20%	13
LAR	27.50%	27	0.60%	15	15.90%	28	-52.30%	1	12.40%	28	-15.40%	4	-13.20%	13	-0.80%	14
DAL	2.10%	16	5.70%	19	-30.00%	5	15.10%	25	4.20%	17	-5.60%	14	-35.70%	3	0.00%	15
PIT	31.50%	30	-54.40%	2	24.00%	29	-1.10%	12	-12.60%	7	9.90%	27	18.40%	27	0.00%	16
GB	34.70%	32	-24.70%	5	-33.20%	4	5.30%	16	9.70%	24	-10.90%	8	0.20%	20	0.00%	17
LAC	30.20%	29	-24.50%	6	8.70%	27	-12.60%	5	1.60%	15	-0.70%	21	-4.20%	19	0.50%	18
NE	13.60%	23	3.70%	17	2.20%	22	-9.90%	9	8.20%	22	-4.20%	16	48.00%	31	1.70%	19
CIN	-23.70%	4	47.60%	32	-24.70%	8	-8.70%	10	19.40%	29	-16.20%	2	-32.10%	4	3.50%	20
SF	3.60%	18	20.70%	26	-16.10%	13	2.50%	13	12.10%	27	-6.20%	12	-30.30%	6	3.60%	21
DEN	4.60%	19	14.90%	25	-8.70%	17	4.40%	15	10.50%	26	-3.20%	17	1.70%	21	3.80%	22
WAS	25.50%	25	-6.40%	14	-15.50%	14	14.30%	24	6.80%	19	1.50%	22	19.30%	28	4.20%	23
NYG	11.20%	21	5.50%	18	-18.70%	12	15.60%	26	8.30%	23	2.60%	23	-4.90%	18	5.40%	24
NO	22.30%	24	-14.10%	9	6.90%	25	12.50%	23	3.20%	16	9.20%	26	4.10%	23	6.50%	25
CAR	-13.50%	9	31.00%	30	7.40%	26	8.60%	19	9.80%	25	8.00%	25	-15.10%	11	8.90%	26
MIN	11.40%	22	29.20%	29	3.70%	24	-10.00%	8	22.00%	31	-3.20%	18	-24.10%	7	8.90%	26
KC	-13.30%	10	21.10%	27	36.10%	31	8.00%	18	7.20%	21	19.20%	29	3.80%	22	13.30%	28
OAK	-45.90%	1	25.50%	28	31.90%	30	35.40%	30	-9.20%	8	33.80%	31	39.70%	30	15.80%	29
DET	-14.10%	8	7.50%	20	53.10%	32	18.10%	27	-2.20%	12	35.80%	32	37.00%	29	17.10%	30
ATL	34.40%	31	10.30%	21	-6.50%	18	38.40%	31	21.30%	30	20.90%	30	5.70%	24	21.10%	31
TB	27.60%	28	40.40%	31	-8.90%	16	39.30%	32	35.00%	32	17.50%	28	62.40%	32	27.80%	32

[JAF-N72EX]

My Top-5 as of now: 
1) Bears -- They're playing like the best in the league right now, but outside of Rodgers they have yet to really be battle-tested. Week 7 against the pats(who we usually lose too) will tell the real story.
2) Jaguars -- Despite the 30 points given up against one of the hottest offenses in the NFL. 
3) Browns -- It feels really weird putting the Browns in top-5 anything but the worst after this long--no disrespect)

After that, flip a coin. Your guess is as good as mine is. I could see Arizona, Bills, Rams, Philly and Seattle all coming on strong within the next few weeks, barring any more major injuries.

[RandyMossIsBoss]

This is the year of no great defenses... Just like the poster above, I probably would have said Bears, Jags, Browns are top defenses, but now all 3 are/are getting humiliated today. Who knows. Ravens have only had 1 slip up, and it was TNF, I think they jump to my clear #1 for the time being.

[SDotNova]

Until the Jets get a good pass rusher, we should not be in top 5 conversations. 

[Asciimo]

? _ ? 
what is consistent defense. shades of 2011. i bet even 2011 had elite defenses.

[NJerseypaint]

6 hours ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

This is the year of no great defenses... Just like the poster above, I probably would have said Bears, Jags, Browns are top defenses, but now all 3 are/are getting humiliated today. Who knows. Ravens have only had 1 slip up, and it was TNF, I think they jump to my clear #1 for the time being.

Seriously. It's seems the only defenses showing up are the ones facing either Peterman or the Raiders.

[The BILLievers]

Minus weeks 1 and 2, the Bills defense is holding teams to 13.8 YPG (Kirk Cousins, ARod, Mariotta, Watson) with 11 takeaways. Constant pressure too. 

This is the best Bills D I’ve seen in a while. Shame we’re wasting it with our offense. 

[BayRaider]

1. Jax (even after this week)

2. Balt (much closer now with Jax than previous weeks)

Gap

3. Phi

4. Chi

5. Mia

[TENINCH]

Top 5 defenses don't give up 70 points in 2 weeks.

[Nozizaki]

How is Dallas not on this list? They have an outright dominant front seven and Byron Jones and Jourdan Lewis have quietly been developing into solid starters. They're currently (I know they've played an easy schedule and only 3 decent offenses) 2nd in PPG and 5th in yards PG.

[The BILLievers]

Buffalo Bills Defense even after letting up 78 points of offense in the first two games... they've been the best defense in the league since week 2.

• 3rd in NFL in YPG
• 6th in NFL in Passing YPG
• 8th in NFL in Rushing YPG
• 3rd in NFL in sacks
• 6th in NFL in takeaways

[Calvert28]

1 hour ago, Nozizaki said:

How is Dallas not on this list? They have an outright dominant front seven and Byron Jones and Jourdan Lewis have quietly been developing into solid starters. They're currently (I know they've played an easy schedule and only 3 decent offenses) 2nd in PPG and 5th in yards PG.

You mean Chido, but I agree with this the Dallas defense has quietly been becoming an almost dominant and scary defense and while people may overlook Byron Jones as arguably the best performing CB this year or even DLaw as one of the top DE's in the league. The ones that have arguably been doing the most for this defense this year are these two guys. And I don't care what anyone says, Jaylon Smith has been all-pro since game 1 this year.

 

[SBLIII]

Not sure if Jaylon is an All-Pro level LB yet. That said he is definitely playing at a Pro Bowl level. Him and LVE could be the best LB duo in the NFL.