2024 Week 4: Getting Defensive

Team defenses are already a tricky position to predict from one season to the next. It’s not like gauging the value of a single player. There are 11 moving pieces on every defense. Those pieces change. Coordinators change. Schemes change.

Surprises at the position are nothing new. But in 2024 the surprise-meter has launched into overdrive – largely because the first three weeks of the season have just been cuckoo.

The NFL’s hottest team (and the top-scoring fantasy defense three weeks in) is the Minnesota Vikings – the same Vikings team that finished the 2023 campaign 24th against the pass and was 16th in fantasy points. The impact that coordinator Brian Flores has had on the Vikings defense has been nothing short of remarkable, especially when you take into account that the team lost its best linebacker and top edge-rusher in free agency.

The big names defensively – the teams drafted early? The San Francisco 49ers are 16th in fantasy points at the position in fantasy points after three weeks. The Dallas Cowboys are one spot behind them. The Baltimore Ravens are 19th.

Ay least the Washington Commanders are dead last. Something makes sense. Want to know why I have long advocated streaming team defenses based on matchups?

This. This is why. It’s still early, and some of those higher-end defenses may well rebound.

But team defenses are dart-throws. Just trying to gauge their value for a week is difficult enough.

Doing it for an entire season is a fool’s errand as often as not.

Gives you a ton of confidence about the rest of this column, huh?

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THE NO-DOUBTERS

San Francisco 49ers (vs. New England Patriots)

Wait, what? Did this writer not just bemoan the fact that the 49ers have underperformed this season relative to expectations? There’s no denying…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-week-4-getting-defensive-070305675.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-24 07:03:05

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