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As we all know, the NFL is an offensive league this days. But defenses have been fighting back over the past couple of years, and even if your offense is elite, you still need your defense to be, well, not a disaster to be able to really compete. And if you can get elite play on the less glamorous side of the ball, that’s all the better.
But because defense is less consistent year to year, there’s not as much certainty about which units will be the best in the league in any given season. For that reason, rather than go through every team from 32-1 on this side of the ball like we did on offense, we’re once again grouping the teams by how likely they are to finish the year among the league’s top 10 defenses, based on the quality of their personnel and coaching.
Among last year’s top 10 defenses in FTN’s DVOA, we had three (Cowboys, Patriots, 49ers) in our “most likely” category and three (Ravens, Jets, Steelers) in our “somewhat likely” category. The Browns, Jaguars and Chiefs were also listed in “possibly,” while the surprising Raiders were all the way down in “most unlikely,” so, whoops. Still, a 60% hit rate on our teams that were some degree of likely is pretty darn good, and having 9 of 10 teams considered as at least possibilities is, as well.
(Note: Teams within each section are listed in alphabetical order.)
Without further ado …
Most Unlikely
Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers
Arizona checked in dead last in DVOA last season, while Denver was 30th and the Chargers were 26th. Then when you take a look at these teams’ depth charts, it gets really tough to see the upside of becoming a top-10 unit. That doesn’t necessarily mean these will be the four worst defenses in the NFL, but there are just too many holes and not enough firepower for them to reach a high enough ceiling to get into the top 10. Of the three, the Chargers probably have the best chance to get…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-2024-nfl-defenses-browns-jets-chiefs-among-teams-most-likely-to-crack-the-top-10/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-05-24 17:50:20
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