Welcome back to the Rankings File, an ongoing spring and summer series rating the best and worst units in the NFL. This week, we examine defensive front sevens. Why "front sevens" instead of breaking down defensive lines and linebackers in separate weeks? There are many reasons, starting with the simple fact that we can argue for hours about where a defensive end ends and an outside linebacker begins. Any rating of best defensive lines would be dominated by the four-man lines of 4-3 defenses, while linebackers in 3-4 would overwhelm their own "best of" lists. Then we have to worry about the hybrid defenses and "Leo" defenders. The final rankings would be full or arbitrary distinctions and a few silly results. By rating front sevens in their entirety, we can brush off the 3-4/4-3 one gap/two gap distinctions and concern ourselves with the major duties of a defensive front: run defense, pass rush and defending short passes, particularly to running backs and tight ends. When sifting through the mountains of Football Outsiders statistics, I focused on various evaluations of success at stopping the run and chasing the quarterback, including Power Success (stopping goal-line and third-and-1 rushes), Stuffed Rate (percent of running backs stopped for no gain or a loss) and Adjusted Sack Rate (which accounts for pass attempts and other factors, including the quality of the opponent). A few other statistical indicators got tossed into the stew. Broken tackle totals and rates were given some consideration. Football Outsiders also keeps track of the success opposing offenses have when throwing passes to running backs and tight ends, from completion rates and yardage on those plays to interceptions and third down conversions. The results are a handy indicator of whether a defense is doing a good job of covering backs and tight ends or perhaps generating such a massive pass rush that opponents must always keep those players into block. Great read - get the full article here - snapshot of the picks below. The Five Best Defensive Front Sevens 1. St. Louis Rams 2. Carolina Panthers 3. Buffalo Bills 4. San Francisco 49ers 5. Kansas City Chiefs Worth Mentioning Top Ten: Seattle Seahawks. Top Ten: New York Jets. On the Rise: Oakland Raiders. Adding Justin Tuck, Antonio Smith, LaMarr Woodley and Khalil Mack obviously upgrades the Raiders front seven. Tuck and Smith are over 30, Woodley blows out the candles...... On the Rise: Atlanta Falcons. Tackling is a pretty fundamental component of defending, and the Falcons were lousy at it last year: opponents broke 83 tackles against the Falcons last season, fourth worst in the NFL. Defensive backs did much of the damage.......... From the Ashes: Chicago Bears. The Bears front seven was as bad as a front seven could be last year. It was not unusual for opponents to rush for over 175 yards and average six to nine yards per carry against the Bears in the second half of the season, when seve....... The Five Worst Front Sevens 28. Miami Dolphins 29. New York Giants 30. Cleveland Browns 31. San Diego Chargers. 32. Dallas Cowboys
sick of hearing about football. ready to see some action. almost decided to watch the Arena Football game.
