Search results
Mar 12, 2024 · Which team has the best defense in football? What about the worst? Find out where each franchise fits in our 2024 NFL Defense Rankings. March 12, 2024 | 9:50 AM EDT. Written By Dakota Randall. High-flying offenses are all the rage, but it’s hard to make deep postseason runs without good defense.
- NFL Defense Rankings: Worst NFL Defenses Entering 2024
- Miami Dolphins
- Tennessee Titans
- Los Angeles Rams
- Minnesota Vikings
- New Orleans Saints
- Buffalo Bills
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Detroit Lions
- Jacksonville Jaguars
32. Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers have the worst NFL defense in 2024. Trading away edge rusher Brian Burns wiped away the one highly effective outside pass rusher Carolina had and we don’t have much confidence in Jadeveon Clowney and D.J. Wonnum can get the job done. If you can get after the passer, every other part of the unit will struggle. For as much as we love Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and defensive tackle Derrick Brown, there just isn’t much else to believe in here. Related: 2025 N...
31. Atlanta Falcons
When the Atlanta Falcons had the worst pass rush in football, they sat near the bottom of our NFL defense rankings. We see no reason to move away from that process for 2024. Ryan Nielsen is gone and while Atlanta added some intriguing rookies – Ruke Orhorhoro, Bralen Trice and Brandon Dorlus – to pair with Grady Jarrett, that also means a lot of unknowns. Jarrett and A.J. Terrell our nice, but there are some glaring weaknesses on the Falcons defense that we don’t have a ton of confidence in d...
30. Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos didn’t have many draft picks to work with in 2024 and they used a majority of them on offensive skill players. Maybe Jonah Elliss provides a minor boost for Denver’s pass rush, but that unit looks like it will rank bottom five in pressure rate and sacks next season. Plus, outside of Patrick Surtain II, the Broncos secondary is one of the worst in football. Already an uphill climb to move up in our NFL defense rankings, a below-average offense that can’t sustain drives will...
The Miami Dolphins will have to work their way back up the defensive order during the 2024 season. Bradley Chubb is returning from an ACL tear in December while Jaelan Phillips faces a long recovery from a torn Achilles. To make matters worse, Christian Wilkins is gone. We will credit Miami for the sneaky-good additions they made at bargain prices ...
It’s certainly surprising to see the Tennessee Titans be this aggressive in improving their defense in a single offseason, considering they were previously viewed as more of a retooling team. However, new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson now has a top No. 1 cornerback in L’Jarius Sneed to pair with a very solid started opposite him in Chidobe A...
The retirement of Aaron Donald dropped the Los Angeles Rams considerably in our NFL defense rankings. If one of the best defensive linemen in NFL history stuck around, Los Angeles would have a top-12 defense in 2024. Instead, we see a secondary that we love and some exciting, young talent (Kobie Turner and Byron Young). There just isn’t a game-wrec...
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores delivered one of the best single-season turnarounds in the NFL last year. While he lost pass rusher Danielle Hunter, the additions of Jonathan Greenard, Blake Cashman and Andrew Van Ginkel more than make up for it in an improved Vikings’ front seven. Still, we’d like to see Minnesota improve at c...
Age is really starting to catch up to the New Orleans Saints. Cameron Jordan will be 35 in July, Demario Davis is 35, Tyrann Mathie is entering his age-32 season and Marshon Lattimore hasn’t played like a No. 1 cornerback in the last two years. We also have to provide a reminder that turnovers aren’t always reliable. If the takeaways (fourth-most i...
We’ve increasingly warmed up to the Buffalo Bills defense this offseason. They did lose Tre’Davious White, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde, but it’s not like this Bills defense isn’t used to being without those veterans. While we feel confident saying Von Miller has lost a step, he should be better with a full offseason of training than he was coming o...
From Weeks 4-18 last season, opponents averaged just 210.6 passing yards per game with a 14-13 TD-INT rate and an 83.4 QB rating. Maxx Crosby was dominant, leading a front that averaged nearly 3 sacks per contest. Now, the Raiders have added defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. Las Vegas already boasts the best defensive line combo in the NFL and th...
The Detroit Lions needed to make some improvements after what transpired in the second half of the 2023 season. Heading into the 2024 NFL Draft, mission accomplished. Carlton Davis III will provide the desperately needed assistance this Lons’ secondary needed on the outside. As for the pass rush, Aidan Hutchinson and Alim McNeil are now supported b...
The addition of defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen is monumental for the Jacksonville Jaguars defense, arguably one of the biggest moves in the NFL across the offseason. He transformed the Falcons’ pass rush (3.6% sack rate and 14.6% pressure rate) in a single year (7.1% sack rate and 23% pressure rate). If adding Nielsen wasn’t enough, Jacksonvill...
- 22 min
2 days ago · The Eagles fell apart on defense last season, but replaced Sean Desai and Matt Patricia with Fangio, added multiple corners (Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean) in the draft, signed Bryce Huff ...
- San Francisco 49ers. In allowing the lowest first-down rate on run plays (19.8), the 49ers forced offenses to play one-dimensional football. They were tied for the league-lead in interceptions (20) and tied for sixth in forced fumbles (16).
- Dallas Cowboys. EDGE Micah Parsons may grab the headlines, but the Cowboys had another five players ranked in the top 30 at their positions according to PFF.
- New York Jets. If you blinked, you may have missed it – the Jets defense is legit. In his first year, CB Sauce Gardner earned All-Pro honors, and interior stud lineman Quinnen Williams was special in 2022 after a disappointing 2021.
- Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles collected 70 sacks in 2022. That’s 15 more than the next-best team. There has been a ton of turnover via free agency, but they’ve seemingly already restocked the shelves with two first round picks: George DT Jalen Carter (ninth overall) and Georgia EDGE Nolan Smith (30th).
- Sam Monson
- Lead NFL Analyst
- Los Angeles Rams. The league’s No. 1 defense a season ago is sure to see some regression, in part because of losses in both personnel and coaching, but they should still be an elite unit.
- New Orleans Saints. The Saints always have plenty of turnover given their approach to the salary cap, but their defense is still loaded with talent.
- New York Giants. The Giants had a defense that seemed to consistently play above the level of expectations in 2020, but it might be time to just give them the credit they deserve this year.
- Arizona Cardinals. Arizona’s defense has the potential to be a lot better than this ranking. They have made a lot of interesting moves over the last year or so, with the additions of linebackers like Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins – both rare athletes – as well as the addition of J.J.
May 1, 2024 · May 1, 2024 at 1:05 pm ET • 1 min read. Kim O'Reilly, CBS Sports. Free agency and the NFL Draft have come and gone, so it's time to truly start looking ahead to the 2024 season, which means a new...
Mar 19, 2024 · Eric Edholm takes stock of the NFL hierarchy from 1 to 32 in his post-free agency frenzy Power Rankings. How much will Kirk Cousins help the Falcons? Which teams have failed to add the right ...
