Tier 1: Denver, Seattle, Kansas City, Houston

Tier 2: New England, Arizona, Minnesota, Carolina, Cincinnati

Tier 3: New York Giants, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville

Tier 4: Baltimore, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Chargers, Green Bay, Miami, Oakland

Analysis:

The rankings above are straight forward, so there’s not much to expand upon here. Matchups always play a key role in terms of a defense’s standing from week to week, with only a few elite defenses serving as weekly plays. The strategy for drafting a defense depends significantly on your league’s scoring system. If the categories in your league provide for defenses to play a large role in scoring, then it’s understandable if you want to select a top team defense once your starting QB, WRs and RBs, along with a few key backups, are all in hand. Conversely, if defenses have tame scoring numbers in your league, then you should pick your team or teams towards the end of your draft. As referenced above, playing the weekly matchups game with defenses is advised.