2011 Fantasy Football Rankings: Team Defense

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While not nearly as bad as kickers, fantasy defenses are often times hard to gauge at the beginning of the year. Because of that, it’s never been a good idea to reach for the top-rated defense in your drafts. In fact, I’ve had a great deal of success ignoring the quality of my fantasy defense and instead focusing on the quality of their opposition. In most leagues, only 12-14 defenses are owned at a time, leaving half the available options in a given week in free agency. Treat that stable of defenses as your own Wheel of Doom, picking up and dropping units on a weekly basis while playing matchups, and you’ll have a good shot at getting just as much value as the owners that grabbed an elite name early. Obviously strategies shift based on league settings — in fact, I was the second guy to take a defense in my 32-team league (went with the Packers, our co-leader). If you can’t fight the urge to roll with one defense and one only, review our rankings below.

QB | RB | WR | TE | PK | DF | IDP