Pass-rushing is the key to great defense in the NFL. The Chiefs have taken the ball from their opponent just four times. Turnover Differential is calculated by subtracting the total number of giveaways (interceptions & fumbles lost) from the total number of takeaways (interceptions & opponent fumble recoveries). So why is Baltimore battling for its playoff life? More NFL coverage , The Dolphins have been great on defense and special teams, scoring a combined three touchdowns with those units this season. The cracks are showing for a DanCampbell regime that is high on charisma and likability, but still dangerously low on tangible success. Week 14 ranking: 3 Offense: 5 Defense: 8 Special teams: 11 It would have been much easier to identify the Saints' strengths if they hadn't just snapped a nine-game . League rank: 20th, The Texans are allowing 5.1 yards per carry and have allowed 688 total rushing yards, the second most in the NFL. The lone bright spot on offense is running back James Robinson, who became the fourth undrafted rookie in NFL history to rush for more than 1,000 yards. 1 after a dominating Super Bowl victory. -- Mike Reiss, This is what everyone anticipated entering the season: The defense would have to lead this franchise, and it has. Even that's a reach, as corners Darius Slay (forearm) and Avonte Maddox (right ankle) are expected back soon. The Niners' defense has been mostly dominant for the season's first month, but the win column doesn't reflect just how good it has been. But they're going to have to rush the passer more effectively if that is going to continue. Exclusive Premium Content For Subscribers Week 1. One of this year's most intriguing defensive backs prospects is @AlabamaFTBL 's Brian Branch. --Brooke Pryor, Defensive efficiency: 36.3 A home game in good conditions against the winless Texans? Week 3. Should they be? New Orleans Saints (10-3). He also secured five of six targets . The results were as . --Courtney Cronin, Defensive efficiency: 54.3 That's why the Chiefs end the season as the top-ranked team in my Power Rankings and will be No. Well, not at the top. How far do the Vikings and Jets fall? Weno longer live in the days of endless summer in Foxborough, but you have to give the organization -- and specifically, Bill Belichick -- credit: If you come into New England and arent ready, you can still be embarrassed. It's scary to imagine what the Chiefs might be if they were playing well in the other phases. Dallas Cowboys (at Rams) The one to note here is the Cowboys they're on the road in LA, but that pass rush is so good! Defense: 13 From 2010-2019, the team never finished higher than 20th in points per game allowed and often finished in the bottom five in the league in scoring defense. He wouldn't say it. Find the most recent updates each day . The Seahawks are an entertaining team, but a consistently overmatched defense might stop them from being anything more than that. All Rights Reserved. They are committed to Tua Tagovailoa as quarterback, but now his health is the biggest concern. The quarterback, who had struggled mightily through the first four weeks of his second season, caught fire in the second half, finishing 12 of 13 for 135 yards and a touchdown in the final two quarters. The Bucs continue to trudge through the early portion of their schedule, winning more often than not but rarely looking like a team that's playing to its full potential. However, in the Week 4 loss to the Raiders, the Broncos were pushed off the ball far too often in run defense. League rank: 10th. Buffalo Bills. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File) There are usually three schools of thought when . Visit ESPN to view 2022 NFL stat leaders. We feel you, big man. The Jaguars have to figure out what went wrong because they faceDameon Pierce, Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley the next three weeks. Outside of rookie Roger McCreary, all of the Titans' primary cornerbacks have been beat for explosive plays. I trust the Eagles, who are consistent, balanced and armed with an ascendant young quarterback. They're currently sixth in the league in that category. Detroit will use itsbye to examine everything, including fourth-down decision making: The Lions went for it on fourth down six times on Sunday and failed to convert even once. That's not exactly ground-breaking news, because teams know all-too-well, how important it is to have a powerful pass rush. That the special teams are ranked in the top 10 despite using six kickers is surprising. The Rams were without cornerbacksTroy Hill(IR),David Long Jr. andCobie Duranton Monday night against the 49ers, although they did get safetyJordan Fullerback. Printed from TeamRankings.com - 2005-2023 Team Rankings, LLC. What is the NFL pecking order heading into the final week of the regular season? The best kicker in NFL history was at it again on Sunday night, booting a 58-yard field goal in the third quarter, then the game-winner as time expired to lift the Ravens to a critical 19-17win over the rival Bengals. Every NFL season is a mystery that slowly reveals itself. Right now, we're not playing complementary football.". But instead it was Mahomes lighting up the Eagles' vaunted defense -- the top-ranked pass defense in the league -- in the second half. Can't say I'm totally on board with the Never Cover Travis Kelce strategy deployed by the Raiders on the goal line, but the Chiefs weren't complaining after their star tight end gobbled up all four of Patrick Mahomes' short touchdown passes in a 30-29 prime-time win at Arrowhead. Buffalo Bills (3-1) Week 4 ranking: 2. It's one of the many reasons they're winless, and it has made them vulnerable in the play-action game, too. The Kansas City Chiefs are champions after Super Bowl LVII. That kind of production places the fourth-round pick firmly in the Offensive Rookie of the Year discussion. They improved in a big way this past season. Take a look at ESPN's thoughts on . Does any team have a higher ceiling than the red-hot 49ers? Last week, the Bills felt like a juggernaut that had transcended the accepted bounds of the NFL Power Rankings. Could the Raiders turn the backfield over to RB Zamir White? Cincinnati has one of the best defenses in the NFL. The Packers survived a scare from Bailey Zappe and the Patriots in Week 4, but Brian Daboll's Giants made them pay with a humbling loss in London. Special teams: 22, The Browns' offense has been spearheaded by arguably the top rushing attack in the league, powered by the running back duo of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt and one of the NFL's most improved offensive lines. Sometimes a loss can feel like a win. Watt is the cog in the defense that makes everything go, and without a formidable pass rush, the rest of the defense isn't succeeding in picking up the slack. Instead, hes held them back with inconsistent play and costly mistakes. As if getting gashed by Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon wasn't enough to have the Bears licking their wounds after a Week 2 loss at Green Bay, Giants running back Saquon Barkley totaled 145 yards on 31 carries and earned 94 of his rushing yards after first contact in Week 4. After dropping three straight, there are plenty of issues to point to on the defensive side, but the root of it stems from Watt's absence. Beasley was released, and Clowney is on injured reserve. In the meantime, the Chiefs have made the most of their four turnovers. Fantasy football rankings from Matt Bowen, Mike Clay, Tristan H. Cockcroft, Daniel Dopp, Eric Karabell, Liz Loza, Eric Moody and Field Yates. Its never a comfortable watch with Carson Wentz. The Jets closed out Sundays 40-17 win over the Dolphins like a young team thats starting to believe in itself. The Jets aren't just bad -- they're historically bad. Check out the full rundown, 1-32. Sunday against Green Bay showed that the effort is there, but the skill level is in question. The offense went cold, and Minnesota allowed Chicago to crawl back in the game and even take the lead in the fourth quarter. Dan Hanzus takes stock of the Power Rankings hierarchy. The guy that bettors are scrambling to back for Most Valuable Player threw for an average of 149.5 yards per game in 2022. In this edition of the Power Rankings, Dan Hanzus has a brand new team in the top five. TeamRankings.com is solely responsible for this site but makes no guarantee about the accuracy or completeness of the information herein. That's been costly for a team that continues to lose close games, and fatigue might be a problem. They will almost certainly put the franchise tag on Lamar Jackson to keep him around. His final touchdown, a breakaway 60-yard jaunt with less than six minutes to play, was the difference-maker, as New Orleans snapped its three-game losing streak. Neither has a sack this season. To make College Football Playoff: 0.6%. The biggest issue on defense is the nickel package. -- Ben Baby, Through conversations with former players, coaches and key figures, Peyton Manning gets to the heart of football history and its cultural impact. The concerning part for Washington is that it lacks corner depth and its starters are both established vets -- Kendall Fuller and William Jackson III. The Titans have had rotten injury luck all season, and you could see the cracks along the offensive line in a 21-17 win over the Commanders. Week 2. Don't forget to check out the NFL Power Rankings Podcast with Dan Hanzus and Colleen Wolfe. He completed 13 of his 14 passes in the second half with two . Jalen Hurts showed on the biggest stage that he is their franchise quarterback. The result was an average Dolphins attack that all but disappeared in the fourth quarter, when the Jets reeled off 21 unanswered points to turn a tight contest into a laugher for the home team in green. Check. --Katherine Terrell, Defensive efficiency:21.8 A big reason for this is the absence of linebacker Shaquille Leonard, who made his short-lived season debut on Sunday, only to leave with a concussion in the second half. KEY: Gms = Games Played, Tot Pts = Total Points Scored, Pts/G = Points Per Game, RushYds = Rushing Yards, RYds/G = Rushing Yards Per Game . If the Raiders want to get back to being a playoff contender in the AFC, they have to improve their defense. Even though this team has just four wins, Herbert has saved the season and given Chargers fans something to look forward to next season. The Ravens have lost two games this season in which they have led by 17 points or more because they can't stop teams late in games. Until it wasn't. --Josh Weinfuss, Defensive efficiency: 29.6 1 team for the second week in a row. Kelce remains at the center of everything, a prodigious producer who always seems to deliver his best moments when the lights are brightest. League rank: 29th. -- Mike Triplett, Sean McVay took a risk when he hired unknown and unproven defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, who served three previous seasons in the NFL as an outside linebackers coach. Coach Kevin Stefanski said Garrett could return next Sunday following last week's single-car crash. There are also 15 teams this week that have a 2-2 record. That's why they rank 31st in the defensive FPI rankings. -- Tim McManus, Offense: 18 In this edition of the NFL Power Rankings, the Giants and Jets soar to new heights, while the Buccaneers and Panthers tumble down the board. It's remarkable how ordinary the Buccaneers' defense made the Chiefs look on offense. This calls for an updated set of rankings. There is a lot of young talent on the roster. As the NFL Power Rankings get into crunch time, we checked in with our Football Power Index (FPI) friends to see how powerful each team really is. League rank: 28. Los Angeles' defense, which ranked second in Football Outsiders' rush DVOA going into the Week 4 matchup, ranks significantly worse against the pass (23rd in the NFL). And even with that subpar stat, he currently has more bets to win NFL MVP . All-in approach pays off for Rams Honestly, there's very little to nitpick the Bengals' defense about. NFL defense rankings: Offseason outlook for all 32 teams. Find out who the leaders are in standard scoring formats and see which players are available in your fantasy football league. 4-1. The defense has returned a takeaway for a touchdown in the past three games. Mix in a special-teams unit that features the league's most efficient returner in Andre Roberts, and you've got a team ready to make a deep playoff run. In five seasons, Mahomes now has five division titles, two regular-season MVPs, two Super Bowl MVPs and the two rings. Per The Athletic, Quenton Nelson had this to say after the 12-9 overtime conquest: Awins a win, but Im kinda also like how?The Colts can thank their defense for keeping the team above water during a brutal opening stretch for an offense that has averaged a league-worst 13.8 points per game. Bills, Titans, Bengals, and Ravens this week all have a claim for the best team in the AFC. Or will it be Trey Lance? Crosby has four of the Raiders' five sacks -- cornerback Nate Hobbs has the other -- and while that's a good early return on Las Vegas' four-year, $98.98 million investment via the extension Crosby got this offseason, the Raiders need more from the defensive line in general, Chandler Jones in particular. That's not to oversimplify what's gone wrong for Seattle's defense, which has had all sorts of issues during another awful start. Check out the full order, 1-32. Brooks was asked if he thought he and Green played a similar game and Brooks . Kansas City is totaling 115.9 rushing yards per game on offense, which ranks the team 20th in the NFL. San Francisco also finished the game without star pass rusher Nick Bosa (groin) and kicker Robbie Gould (knee). With five first-round picks along the defensive line and the No. Losing Chandler Joneshas taken a greater toll on Arizona's pass rush than expected. Will Brock Purdy come back from his elbow surgery next season? But the defense is why Detroit is in a hole at the moment, getting ready for a complete regime switch in the offseason. -- John Keim, It speaks volumes about the 49ers' coaching staff that they have been able to squeeze these types of rankings out of a team that has been ravaged by injury all season. They needed to make a change at defensive coordinator, which they did. It's always that way with franchise quarterbacks. View defense & special teams stats for the 2022 NFL season. The Browns are quietly having an absurd season. League rank: 23rd. The big offseason talk is whether they can land Aaron Rodgers. Its been a mess, and now it becomes the responsibility of defensive passing game coordinator/secondary coach Steve Wilks, who was elevated to interim head coach. "Satisfied with the effort? the coach replied to a reporters query. In a recent piece by ESPN, the named the Raiders the worst defense of the decade as they allowed an average of 26.2 points per game during that period. At 1-4, Washington finds itself buried in last place of a division with two 4-1 teams and one 5-0 team. Previous rankings: 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Preseason, Jump to: --Brady Henderson, Defensive efficiency: 37.6 ET. Week 4. The Aaron Rodgers saga hangs over this team's offseason. Our power panel -- a group of more than 80 writers, editors and TV personalities -- evaluated how teams are stacking up through four weeks and named a new No. 2021 NFL defense rankings espn. They did it with a strong defensive effort against the Jaguars, harassing Trevor Lawrence into two interceptions in a 13-6 victory. Mahomes became more patient, became a better passer. Getting Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator is a great move. The Eagles were overdue for a bad game, which is a fair classification of Monday night's 32-21 stumble to the Commanders at the Linc. Defense: 23 ESPN: ESPN scoring combines PPR with unique kicker and defense scoring. Below, we checked in with NFL Nation reporters across the league and asked what the biggest issue faced by each team's defense is. Their point differential is minus-210, second worst in team history. Itsnot too early to panic. League rank: 21st. . League rank:12th, The Rams have their best cornerback healthy (Jalen Ramsey) but have been dealing withseveral injuries in the secondaryearly in the season. They don't have an edge rusher with more than one sack and have called the third-most blitzes (57) so far this season. The biggest issue on defense is defending the pass. With Joe Burrow and that passing game, they will be in the Super Bowl mix again next year. With explosive offenses coming up, the D-line better healthy fast. Roger Goodell allegedly knew about $55 million bank fraud committed by Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder and refused to investigate. The turnovers are the red-alert number. The biggest issue on defense is getting pass rush from someone other than Maxx Crosby. They are well-rounded enough to win games based on their passing game, running game, defense or special teams when needed. Who has the most career 200 receiving yard games? What will define Eric Bieniemy's success. The biggest issue on defense is effectively rushing the passer. Without either, the Browns couldn't get pressure, while the Falcons ran the ball at will. It didn't help that they spotted the Chiefs 14 points with two lost fumbles in Week 4. League rank: 7th. Injuries have impacted the defense at times, but it has kept the Cardinals in games as the offense continues to figure itself out. Russell Wilson and the Broncos' offense delivered another anemic performance under the prime-time lights, a 12-9 overtime loss that fully exposed to the football-viewing public how broken Denvers attack appears to be five weeks intothe season. Will the Dolphins get a veteran QB? Special teams: 19, The Giants' worst unit is their offense? It's a break the Bucs won't apologize for and they shouldn't. Check out the full league pecking order, 1-32. JAX | KC | LV | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN Reed and rookie Sauce Gardner are holding up nicely on the outside, but they're giving up too many chunk plays in the middle of the field. The following are the turnover differential statistics for the 2022 NFL season . "Every win isn't easy," Jalen Hurts said. League rank: 24th. We try not to look at what happened the last couple of games and what's ahead. Opponent Time of Possession Percentage (Excluding OT) Opponent Seconds per Play. TheDolphins have cooled off after their hot start, and injuries at the games most important position help to explain why. --DJ Bien-Aime, Privacy Policy and Safety Information / Your California Privacy Rights. The browser you are using is no longer supported on this site. But instead it was Mahomes lighting up the Eagles' vaunted defense -- the top-ranked pass defense in the league -- in the second half. League rank: 1st. CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND Defense: 26 Bills. If they do, this is a team that can push the Bills for the AFC East title. We hope the Ravens and their fans never take for granted the unprecedented greatness of Justin Tucker. The big offseason moves will be bringing back Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley.