The Ringer NFL Show - Ranking the Top 10 NFL Defenses for the 2026 Season!

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Diante Lee get together to share, analyze, and debate their respective power rankings for the top 10 defenses in the NFL as we approach the upcoming season. (00:00) Ranking the top 10 NFL defenses for the 2026 season (3:12) Buffalo Bills (9:26) Indianapolis Colts (13:42) Kansas City Chiefs (19:01) Tampa Bay Bucs (25:30) Los Angeles Chargers (31:50) Baltimore Ravens (39:14) New England Patriots (44:19) Minnesota Vikings (51:15) Denver Broncos (56:28) Pittsburgh Steelers (1:01:57) Philadelphia Eagles (1:06:49) Los Angeles Rams (1:13:15) Seattle Seahawks (1:19:30) Houston Texans Upgrade Your Performance with Orgain Creatine. Available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart & Whole Foods. Try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE at https://ziprecruiter.com/RINGERNFL The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand, the high-protein yogurt, Oikos Pro, is there to feed your strength and help you turn every challenge into a smash. Oikos Pro helps build strong muscles and support muscle recovery with high protein and contains no added sugar. Because true strength isn't about being able to take the hits. It's about being able to bounce back. Oikos Pro, feed your strength. Visit oikos.com.com for more details. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia.

Today we are projecting the top 10 defenses in the NFL. We did the offenses last week. I love doing this exercise every summer just to see. Where do these teams rank? When you have to rank them, you're like, all right, who do I actually believe in if I had to choose this team or this team? Who would I go with? So went through that exercise here over the last couple of weeks.

So did my guest, Deonté Lee, from the Ringer. We agreed on some of the top ones. but a lot of these we disagreed on. So there are some certainly in 5 through 10 that we did not have on both of our list. So we'll talk it all out. Maybe we convinced each other. Maybe we didn't. But let's take a break.

We'll come back. We'll talk top 10 defenses for the 2026 season. This episode of the Ringer NFL show is presented by Orgain. Organ-Createne helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine. Plus, it's certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports. Upgrade your performance with organ creatine available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. These statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All right, we are back here. on the Ringer NFL show doing top 10 defenses with my friend Deonté Lee from the Ringer, Deontay, easier exercise or harder exercise for you to whittle it down to 10 than last week when we did the offenses? I would say easier in the sense of dismissing teams that I know are just not in the conversation at all, right? I think we kind of talked about this at the beginning of last week's episode that doing the

defenses, it is much easier to just set your threshold and see which teams like, oh, they don't have the ad-rushing talent. They don't have the coverage talent. I don't trust the coach. You know, or the regression says that this X, Y, or Z thing might be happening this upcoming season. Offense, it's a little tougher to kind of sort through, but I feel pretty good. I would say one through 15 or so was where I have each defense ranked. Okay. Yeah, I was, I felt like I could find 17, 18 offenses I felt pretty good about, and then I could find like five defenses. Yeah. I felt really good about it. And then I'm like, all right, let me just, I'm going to have to just pick from the rest here and see what I come up with. So I think we're going to have

some duplicates. My prediction would be we're going to have duplicates near the top, like top fiveish or so, but five to ten, we might have some differences. So let's see if I'm right about that or not. All right, we're going to count down 10 to one again. This is our projections for the best defenses in the NFL in 2026. DeAte. Get us started with number 10. Who do you got number 10 and i think that this is right around that range where you start having to ask questions about how good you feel about whatever this team x team strength is i'm going with buffalo right i'm going to buffalo here is number 10 this is me really calling my shot with jim lennert as a defensive play caller this is me i think crossing my fingers that ed oliver and christian benford are going to

be available for this defense and be playing at peak capacity which you really only had an opportunity to see in spots for like the last two, three seasons because they've been banged up or not had the right amount of supporting cast around them to really maximize their skill sets. And I think that just changing the way that they approach things defensively, if I'm to assume that Jim Lerner wants to borrow from some of that Vance Joseph, really going back to Rex Ryan-esque approach to defense, where we're just trying to make plays in the backfield as aggressively as possible. We're going to play tight coverage and trust Benford and Maxwell Hirsten to be our speed guys who can run in one-on-one coverage with all these guys, and that Leonard being a really good safety in

his playing days and somebody who maybe not to the same level of Christian Parker, who I'm sure we'll get to in Dallas at some point, whether they're in or out of your top 10, I think that he has also built up a reputation as a great teacher, a great developer of talent, and I'm trusting that he will be able to impart some information to their young safeties to kind of help them even out some of the issues that they were having over the last two to three seasons. All right. So I love this one. I don't have in my top 10. But again, it was, I honestly, number 10, I was like, I have no idea who to pick here. And I'll tell you in a minute who I landed on. But I started ranking the defenses,

and I thought, you know what, I'm probably going to have the bills pretty low because I'm looking at the depth chart. And I don't love the depth chart. And then as I'm going through other teams, I'm like, well, do I like them more or less than the bills? And I kept going to the bills over a lot of the other team. So I definitely got to the point where I'm like, I think they're better than I thought they were going to be

when I started this exercise. I had them kind of in the middle group around 15, 16, not too far out of it. But it was interesting because there's such an interesting defense because I felt like with McDermott, you could kind of hand them any personnel, any injuries, and he's going to get you to at least like the 15th best defense

in the NFL or maybe the 20th. It was going to reach a level of, competency, where you're going to win a lot of games because you have Josh Allen. But then in the playoffs, I mean, they just have gotten cooked in a lot of these playoff games with Sean McDermott. He hasn't had answers. And that's why they haven't gotten to the Super Bowl. So now you bring in Jim Leonard and tell me, Deont, it feels like the hipsters and not just the hipsters. Like kind of just people I trust in our space really like Jim Leonard. And what is that? I know you just mentioned it a minute ago, but what's that sort of family?

on? Is it just, hey, in some circles, you hear good things about this guy. Hey, I liked what he did at this stop. He was really creative. Like, where is the confidence in Jim Leonard? Because I do think that was kind of an under the radar hire by Joe Brady where people thought, hey, that could actually be pretty, pretty interesting and pretty creative in Buffalo. I think that a lot of it comes from, like, your lineage in coaching, right? Like, he followed a, this goes back to his time in college, really, following up Dave Miranda, you know, with Dave Miranda left Wisconsin for LSU. I think that's really the first time that people started having conversations about Jim Litterd. And I think that, you know, he probably has a good agent that was doing a great job keeping his name in the mix of like,

hey, this guy is down at the college level now coaching well, but we know that eventually he's going to end up in the NFL. And then I think being in Denver and really overseeing what I think has been one of the most consistent teams in spite of their style of play, right? Like they are very aggressive. They play a bunch of man coverage. They do blitz a lot. They are, you know, they have a kind of reckless abandon to their style of play at times that you don't typically see in a stable defense, right? Like when I think about a Mike McDonald defense or a Vic Fangio defense, they're aggressive too, but everything is built around we're not giving up explosive plays. Whereas, you know, that Vance Joseph, Rex Ryan, and now I'm assuming we'll be Jim Leonard's style of

play is built more on, hey, what can we take away in the backfield from an offense? How can we play the game on our terms? So I think that that's really what it is, is people just being excited about a different stylistic approach or maybe just kind of retrofitting a defensive approach to make it work in today's context because we have seen Denver be successful with that. So I think that that's what's at the heart of it.

And, you know, like he is a guy who's a former NFL guy, which probably means there are people in the media who have known him since he was a player and really like him a lot too. Like, you're one of the best people that pointing that out of being like, hey, let's be wary of people who have these meteoric rises.

This guy was nice to me. Yeah. Exactly. You know, he gave me an extra 10 minutes after practice when nobody else would, right? Like, I think that that's part of it. But really, I think there's a lot of excitement about what, whether or not he can bring that Vance Joseph Rex Ryan-esque approach to defense to a spot like Buffalo, which really, I think, needs a facelift and approach to the game on both sides of the ball.

Man, I don't want to set Bill's fans up for heartbreak. But if they have a top 10 defense, you know, they're going to be right where they've been every year. and maybe this is the year they would get over the hump. Yeah, the talent, you know, you look at the talent a little bit and you wonder, all right, is this talent good enough? Huge turnover, Deont, I was looking at it. I think 10 players who played at least 300 plus snaps for them last year are gone. So this is just like, we are moving away from Sean McDermott and his guys.

They would just bring back the veterans who had played for him. That was often their answer on defense. And again, it worked pretty well in the regular season. It didn't work so well in the playoffs. So, yeah, I'm looking at my notes here. and I have bills, and then in parentheses, not sure where to put them. And then my first sentence is, I'm not sure what to make of this group. So they were a difficult one.

I'm glad we got to talk about them because, I mean, a guy like Maxwell Hirsten at Corner just could have a huge impact on whether this defense is good and whether the bills are Super Bowl contender. So nice, nice little surprise there from Deontay at number 10. All right. Let's see if I surprise him with my number 10 because my number 10, there was a team that made a big, trade in the middle of last season, and I ripped the trade, you know, pretty vehemently. And I stand by everything I said. Yet I kind of think their defense has a chance to be pretty good this year.

I went with the Indianapolis Colts, Deonté, at number 10. So here's the case. Mediocre defense last year, 15th in DVOA. However, DeForest Buckner played 10 games. Charverius Ward played seven games. Sauce Gardner played four games. And so I feel like injuries to some of their key players and that trade again happened in the middle of this season were really a factor here. I kind of like their draft a little bit.

You know, I know C.J. Allen, I think, is injured. But I like some of the picks they made. I could see those rookies playing for them right away. And Anirumo, I've been more on the side of like, you know, he's pretty good. But let's not get carried away. He's only produced, I think, a top 10 defense once in his career. That's in seven NFL seasons. Now, he hasn't had great talent to work with, really, at either stop.

So I was looking at a bunch of teams here, and I don't want to give them all away because you might have them elsewhere in your top 10. But ultimately, I was like, I think the Colts will be able to cover. They've got Lato. They've got a good pass rusher. They've got Buckner, you know, a defensive tackle. It's like there might be enough here for them to kind of just sneak in to the top 10. What do you think about the Colts chances of fielding a good defense this?

year. I think it really rests on the shoulders of Arden Key and La Yatou Latu, right? Like, knowing what we know about a Luanoimo defense and then just knowing what we know about the way that this roster is built, they've addressed the cornerback position. That is really where their super strength is, and those corners in order to be maximized, I think, have to trust that, you know, Latu, key, and really, I guess, all rotating around DeForest Buckner being healthy too, right? That that trio is going to force enough quick pressure in the aggregate to not risk giving up explosive plays, right? That's really been the problem,

if there is one or a critique I would have had, of the Luanna Robeau defense at the end of this time in Cincinnati and without Sauce Gardner last year after, you know, he started missing time post-trade. It's that when they haven't had, you know, when he hasn't had a peak, Trey Hendrickson, Sam Hubbard, tearing off the edges to really, disrupt quarterbacks when he did when he lost you know bj and dj as defensive tackles right um that

their run defense started to crater a little bit and then offenses really just started kind of having their way with the style of play not because he's calling the wrong things he just hasn't had the people in order to you know maximize what he wants to do schematically is very similar to matt eberfluse in chicago right where everybody was talking about hey this is a guy that has been you know reputed reputed to have this great approach to defense and we're looking up and he's He's ranking 26. He's ranking 19. Where's this great defense you're talking about? And a lot of it is more jimmies and Joe's and exes and O's. And I think that for me, I need to see Latsu really kind of turn that corner and be a Pro Bowl week to week major impact level edge rusher. I think that that is probably the straw that would stir the drink for this defense. I had them out of the top 10. They're really in that kind of 14 to 16 cluster for me because I just don't know what I can count on from them. right, especially because they're not a defense that's really leaned on forcing a ton of turnovers in the same way we've seen from Jacksonville

and some other teams that we may get to later on down the line. I just kind of have to see it with them first. And until I see some of these young guys really punch through, especially up front, I think I'm just going to exercise some caution with this group. It's hard to get to 10. I'm telling you, there's probably Bill's fans and Colts fans listening to this being like, what? No, I don't think we're going to have to talk 10 defense.

Listen, go through yourself, do the extra. exercise, try to get to 10. You're going to have to fill out those last maybe two or three spots with teams that you're really not sure of. So I'm taking a flyer on the Colts. Deontes taking a flyer there on the Buffalo Bills. All right. Number nine, Deontay, who do you have?

The same way you couldn't quit this team when we were talking about offenses. I can't quit this team on the defensive side of the wall. I'm going with the Kansas City Chiefs set number nine. Oh, another surprise, not in my top 10. I honestly felt better about saying that the bills would have a top 10 defense just knowing that they're going to really prioritize stopping the run and playing tight coverage and trying to get a bunch of sacks than I did about Kansas City because you have to just talk about what people are in what spots and how much you trust some of the young, more unproven commodities, especially on the back end. And, you know, I could be falling victim to just A, how I feel about players and B, just what the buzz is out of training camp. but we've heard a lot of good things about Peter Woods so far as a defensive tackle. And I think that for me, when I think about what the elite builds of defense have looked like over the last three to four seasons,

having a pair of dominant defensive tackles is something that continues to come up or having someone who cannot be denied in terms of stopping the run as a defensive tackle to allow you to play more split, you know, there's more split safety looks where you can play lighter boxes, you know, that will allow you to prioritize stopping the play action, without necessarily risking giving up chunk gains in the run game. I think that was what was at the heart of bringing Woods in. And if he and Chris Jones are locked in as a tandem that I think they can be, that alleviates so much pressure from guys like George Carloftus from this linebacker core, from, you know, young corners like Noel Williams and Mansour Delane to have to be stud-star pieces. And I really just have a lot of trust Steve Spagnolo, right?

Yeah. He was able to make it work with Dan Sorensen. You know, he's been able to make it work. with all manner of guys. You know, he's gotten Nick Bolton and Drew Tranquil to look like, you know, much better linebackers now than they did earlier in their careers on a year-to-year basis. And I just have a lot of baked in trust on that side of the ball. I don't think it's going to look anywhere near as dominant as it did in 2022 and

2023, right, where they were showing up in these high leverage games and just erasing whatever the strength of their opponent was, immediately taking it away, right? You think about the Super Bowl against the 49ers after the 2020-season. and it was like everything that made that San Francisco offense world beaters all year long, they couldn't access any of it and is because of how well Spags was calling that defense. I don't know if they have the people to be able to access that height, but I do just trust that his baseline, if his bodies are healthy, will still be in that 8 to 10 range.

He definitely sets, he feels like he's earned the benefit of the doubt of setting the floor of the defense. It's kind of like what we talked about McDermin in the regular season. and now Spax has obviously been better in the postseason he has maybe. I don't even think maybe he, well, no, maybe the one of the best postseason resumes of any defensive coordinator. I was going to say definitely. And then I'm thinking buddy Ryan. I'm thinking, you know, Belichick. Right.

You got Belichick. Yes, there's other great, you know, great coordinators or great defensive coaches who have had masterful game plans in the postseason. But he's right there with a lot of them. They're tough. I mean, so much turnover on this defense. I mean, they lost Trent McDuffie, Jalen Watson, Brian Cook, Charles O'Manehue, Leo Chenal, Mike Dana, Jerry Tilleri. I know all those players are not great players, but that's seven of 15 players who really played for them last year. And they're really just, it feels like an organizational philosophy that we can do more with less with Steve Spagnol.

Now, I thought they were really going to lean into that. And then they spent two first round picks on defensive. players. So it wasn't quite, you know, they spent their first pick on a cornerback. So it wasn't like, oh, we can just draft anybody on day three that he likes and they'll play. So they did get him some talent because I'm always a little bit wary when they're like, oh, we can do, you know, we can do anything with these day three picks. It's like talent. You might be able to, but talent still matters. So it's just such a transition period for them that I'm not sure what to make of them. But to your point, I mean, their defense is under Spags. I mean, 12th, 5th, 15.

18th, 19th, 18th, like, they're never really going to be in that bottom quartile. And so I think you're right. These young players, and that's a theme with a lot of these defenses where you're like, hey, if this one rookie who they spent a lot of draft capital on can actually play, that fills a big hole. Now, if you do that for every team, you're going to be wrong about probably over 50% of them. You know, that's kind of a trap we all fall into in the summer that like, oh, they were bad at linebacker, but they drafted this guy in the second round.

and they're fine now. They're probably not going to be fine. But I don't know, with a guy like Delane, with a guy like Woods, if those guys can be good players for them, they don't have to be all pros, but good players for them. Maybe they have a chance to overachieve. So yeah, I had them kind of right in that middle ground, probably around 15-ish.

I had them, I think, a couple spots below the bills. But they were one that I looked at and I considered it. And I thought maybe I just give Spags the benefit of the doubt that they'll figure this out. But I couldn't quite get there with the talent on the roster. So Deontes got the chiefs there at number nine. An inspired pick. I like it from Deontay there at number nine.

All right, my number nine pick. I actually felt good about this one. You know, the cold tell. It's like, I don't know. Do I actually feel good about this one? I feel good about calling my shot here. Let's see if they're in your top ten. I got the Tampa Bay Bucks in my top ten.

I had them just outside, but I think there's an interesting reason for us to have that conversation. I like their talent. I'm just looking at their talent going, all right, Colagia Cancy was injured last year, played, I think, three games. He's back. Vita Vail. Let's assume something, whatever gets done with his contract. Ruben Bain Jr. I like that draft pick in the first round.

Yaya Diabi. I mean, he was top ten pressures last season, not necessarily a household name unless you're a Bucks fan but has been very productive. They got some depth with Al-Qadine Muhammad who had kind of an outlier season last year but was very good for Detroit there. And I'm just looking at it like,

all right, I like their front quite a bit. they're talented in this secondary, unproven where I'm like, I'm not, you know, if this ends up being a stupid pick, it'll be because, all right, your secondary,

actually wasn't that good. But just looking at, you know, the depth chart and who are the 11 guys who are going to be playing the majority of the snaps if everyone's healthy for some of these other defenses.

I was like, I kind of like their group better than a lot of these other groups. And so I think there is sneaky, potentially sneaky good defense this year. What did I, what are you more skeptical of with this buck?

defense. I mean, it's not like just anything major because I had them at 11th ultimately, right? So they were right, you know, a hair's edge away from being in the top 10 for me. I think that really my biggest question is just what can I expect from Todd Bowles as a play caller, right? Because I think that while they've never been bad and I think that it's almost impossible for a top bull's defense to be bad because of its tempoles and trying to stop the run, you know, playing zone coverage, all of those things, right? I think that the way that he runs his defense almost insulates it from being bad and also limits it from being elite, right? Because you don't always see that high level performance from them in terms of coverage.

Now, some of that I think is personnel dependent, right, because they just haven't been able to find since Carlton Davis left another corner that they can genuinely trust to be in one-on-one coverage on a snap-to-snap basis. And maybe that's Benjamin Morrison, right? And I think that this continues to come up, right? Who are the players that you were going to be putting? you know, a lot of weight on whether or not this team turns a corner on. And I think that Benjamin Morrison is that. I think if Keontay Scott is able to punch through and become a starter

in the slot, he may need to be that for them as well. And then I think that Yahya Diabe is another guy who needs to kind of repeat what we saw last season, right? He did have, you know, he was great in terms of generating pressure. Can we get him to finish even more of these pressures with QB hits and sacks? Can he really become a household name? Somebody we think about maybe not in the tier one of edge rushers, but that guy that's outside of Tier 1, but you feel confident if the circumstances are right can go turn in 12 to 15 sacks. If he turns into that player and you get the kind of play that I'm talking about from their defensive backs, then yeah, this could just, this might not just be a top 10 defense. It can be a top five defense because I think it's pretty well balanced all three

levels in a way that we haven't really seen from a Tampa Bay defense in a little bit. I think that for me, though, I just keep falling back on. Do I trust that Todd Bowles is going to be able to address some of the issues that these offenses are throwing at defenses on a week-to-week basis, and we have absolutely seen some teams get after a Todd Bulls defense over the last few years. So I'm fascinated to see if the personnel here is good enough to overcome some of the schematic issues that I think gets presented to the way that Bulls likes to call his defense. Yeah, it's like, does he have a second pitch or a third pitch? Because, you know, for many years there, it was like Todd Bulls established one of the best defensive coaches in the NFL.

and then kind of the Shanahan tree guy started kind of carving them up and it just got ugly. It felt like every time you face those teams. And even if you just look at it overall, the last three seasons, 17th, 18th, and 19th, the Bucks in terms of EPA, their defense. So they've been more mediocre than good. Now, if they can get that pass fresh going, maybe, you know, any defensive coach will tell you that makes life a little bit easier. But I'm with you. He has to prove that he's got kind of, you know, some wrinkles, not as predictable maybe. or, you know, some of his defenses of the past.

When I was Deonté, when I was a young buck reporter and Eagles fire their defensive coordinator, Todd Bulls takes over. It's that dream team season. It's a disaster. As you know, I'm in the locker room after a game and Bulls is, you know, surrounded. I forget what game it was. I forget how much they got carved up. But there was a big play where Namdi Asima, who was having a nightmarish season.

Awful season there here. Just got toasted. And, you know, I'm like, all right, how do I? kind of fragilly ask Todd Bowles about that play. So I'm like, you know, on that, whatever it was, 37-yard touchdown, was it like, you know, complicated coverage or, you know, trying to basically act. I don't want to be like, did Domdi just get toasted,

but kind of tell you what happened. And he just looked at me and goes, nothing complicated about it. That was high school cover three. I don't think he's happy with Domdi Asawa on that play. So, yeah, that was always, I was like, After that, I never heard like just the defensive coordinator be that direct right after a game with like, nope, I'm not giving any excuses for that guy. He just got burned on that play. So yeah, anytime I think of Todd Bowles, I think a high school cover three for the last decade or so because I'm an old man.

And, you know, that's a core memory for me as a young reporter. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We will get to our top eight defenses for 2026. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. You can tell when someone is really passionate about something like football, my friend Deontay Lee here, at the Ringer, loves the NFL.

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That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Ringer NFL. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. So far, only disagreements. Deontes got the Chiefs and Bills in his top 10. I've got the Bucks and Colts number. Deontay, who do you got? Going with the team that has been in the top 10 for each of the last two years, even though they've made a coaching change.

I'm keeping the Los Angeles Chargers here and I've got them at number eight. Okay. I don't have them in. I feel, now, I've kind of made a habit of being like they're not going to do this again and been wrong because like you said, they've been in the top 10. The last two years, I worry that losing Jesse Minter that we will see, this roster is flawed and they might not be top 10, but I could be wrong,

make the case chargers at number eight. I think the case starts with the fact that the new defensive coordinator, Chris O'Leary, had worked under Jesse Mentor for a while, right? And that they were pretty well connected going back to the time where Mentor was coaching in college, right? So there's that piece of it. So a lot of, I think, the skeleton, the bones,

the DNA of this defensive scheme, Chris O'Leary was there, you know, putting his fingers on that just as much as Mentor was, maybe not as much, but was certainly present, you know, with Mentor in that process. And, you know, going to training camp and talking with reporters there and, you know, sitting in those fresh conferences and asking questions of my own, I think that what I've come away with is the fact that they're not going to try to reinvent the wheel, right?

I don't know if it'll be a one-to-one replica of what we've seen over the last two years with Jesse Minter calling the defense, but they're not going to stray from what works, right? And I think that what made this defense work, there was obviously some ingenuity from mentor in terms of the simulated pressures and all the creative ways to manipulate protections and manipulate blocking schemes to get plays in the backfield. But at its heart, what makes this defense work is that Tully Tully-Piluilu-O-2 has been, you know, a huge win for them as an edge. It's that Killeel Mack continues to be ageless. It's the Derwin James continues to be, you know, one of the three best slot defenders in the NFL. Those are like the tent poles that they built,

you know, what was a successful scheme around. And I, I have no reason to believe that those guys are taking a step back until I see it myself, right? Now, what I feel even more strongly about it, if we got a news report while we were on this podcast at the Charger somehow consummated some trade for Vita Vaya, yeah, of course. You know, I think it would be much easier to stamp this thing, right? If they had, you know, a bona fide number one corner that we knew was it had all pro potential, right? Yes, I will feel a lot more comfortable about it. But we've seen this team be able to apply, you know, more aggressive.

of man coverages, more match coverages, these simulated pressures, with less than household names at these spots, because they've been able to lean upon their superstars to do the heavy lifting and the scheme to put them in positions to be able to manipulate offenses to the defense's benefit. While I don't think that Chris O'Leary could ever reach what Mentor did, I think I'm just going to keep leaning back on the fact that I trust that they'll find a way to replicate at least what we've seen in pieces, if not, you know, wholesale one-on-one.

one comparison. You know, I was on a group chat earlier this week, and you know, you're batting around teams. All right, who's more likely to get to the Super Bowl, this team or this team? And I forget the chart, I think it was the Chargers and the Texans. Someone brought up. Who's more likely to get to the Super Bowl? And I said Texans, and it's hard for me because I like Harbaugh. I like McDaniel.

I like Herbert. There are things I like about this Chargers team quite a bit. Even like you said, you know, O'Leary, he could, like, I kind of. I kind of like what they did there. He was in the building. He left, was a DC in college, came back. Like that hire makes sense to me. I have no issue with the process there and maybe he'll be good.

I just don't know that the Chargers have a Super Bowl caliber roster. And that's why I have him out of the top 10 on defense. I'm just looking at the names here. And to your point, I'm just like, why were we not more aggressive in some of our decision making him the offseason? I know we've both been on the same page with their offense, but we're like, They could have done something, and it's the same thing with their defense. Like, this feels like a time, a year where they could have said, we have Harbaugh,

we have Herbert in his prime, we kind of, you know, embarrassed ourselves in the playoffs last year. We have McDaniel for a year. You know, I don't know that you're going to have him for three years. If it goes well, you might not have him for that long. Like, let's kind of, I'm not saying you have to put you, you don't have to turn into the Rams and forego, you know, give up your three first round picks or whatever. But you could have done more, I feel like, than what they've done. because I just look at spots on this roster.

And you're right. Some of the personnel on defense is really good. 2y to a below 2 is very good. Khalil Mack was good, but he's 35. Like I would rather have, and maybe a key mess at door, they're like, hey, that's our insurance policy. Okay, we'll see. Derwin James is 30.

They signed Dalvin Tomlinson. He's 32. Tony Jefferson, I don't know if he's going to start for them or not. He's 34. When I start getting to three, four guys over 30 who might be playing a key role for you, and now I add in a new defensive coordinator. And now I look at some of the other positions and I go, I don't know, was Minter kind of doing a really good job

and doing more with less with that defense? Because that's kind of how I felt the last two years. Some of these defenses we'll talk about, I'm just going to be like their talents overwhelming. I like the coordinator, but they're not, they're winning because their talents overwhelming. This team, this group of players, I think if you just handed to, you know, your league average defensive coordinator,

They're not a top 10 defense, in my opinion. So you're kind of really relying on the coordinator to do more with less, and maybe he'll be able to. But I couldn't get, that's why I couldn't get there with this Chargers defense. Where'd you have them rank? I'm curious. You know, I kind of did my top 10 and then sort of, I didn't put a number, but it looks like here I have them between 15 and 20.

Okay. So, yeah, I have them actually in a similar range with the bills and the cheese. So I don't think they're going to stink. I just think they're not going to be as good as last year and I have some concerns about them. But again, it doesn't mean I'm right. I could probably, honestly, someone could probably find a clip of me last year

saying something very similar and they still had mentor and they found a way to get it done. So maybe I'll be wrong once again, but that's kind of where I landed with the Chargers. All right. It's a good segue here, Deonti, because my number eight team is the team that

Minter went to. And you might come at me with the same argument. and being like, have you seen you don't like the Chargers talent? Do you really like the Ravens talent? So maybe you will go that far. But Minter now back-to-back seasons, I thought he had to do more with less with with that Chargers defense. And to your point, they were top 10 both years. This Namdi Matabuken use is among the biggest headlines of the summer so far. I don't know. I think it's going under-discussed, if I'm being honest with you. Absolutely. So this is, I mean, it was a really scary situation. He had a neck injury. and Harbaugh and the Ravens were kind of just not giving any details about it.

And they don't have to. Hopefully that's Madabike's decision. But it looked like it could be a career ender for a guy who had been emerging as one of the best. You know, he went from sort of the hipster. Hey, you got to watch Madabuque, man. I'm telling you he's good on the Ravens. Then he's a free agent or he approaches free agency and he gets a big contract. And then we all agree, nope, he's not no longer a hipster under the radar defensive tackle.

He's like one of the better defensive tackles in the NFL. to then having that injury. So I think adding him to this defensive line and then adding Trey Hendrickson to this defensive line to me is a big, big deal and kind of an easy explainer for why they can be better than they were last year, which they were 15th last year. And if you look at any pass rush stat, pressure rate, sack rate,

I mean, we're talking about one of the five worst teams in the NFL. So in my head, you're adding Matabuque, you're adding Hendrickson, you're adding Minter that feels like enough for them to be better than last year. Now, maybe I'm going too far. Maybe they'll be 12 instead of 8th. But I looked at it and I felt good about those pieces combined with some of the pieces in the secondary with Nate Wiggins, with Kyle Hamilton. I felt like they could be a pretty good defense this year.

Do you have the Ravens in the top 10, Deont. I do. I have them sixth. So we're in similar ground with them. and it's two things that really make you feel confident about Baltimore, in spite of how badly they struggled over the last two years defensively, before bringing in Jesse Mentor. I think number one, they gave him all the ingredients that I think he's most interested in

in terms of building his defense. And those ingredients also look very similar to what was in Seattle this past year, really the past two years, right? I think that especially, I would say that a lot of this hinges on Namdi Matabiki being the version of himself that they need him to be. If he can be this team's version of... Right. To be fair, it's great. I'm glad that he's back playing, but yeah, you're...

And Baltimore has been... Baltimore has really emphasized that they're taking their time, letting him ramp up slowly, that they're going to let him kind of find his way as a player first, make sure that he's not, you know, skittish or unsure of what his health is going to be. But it seems like the arrow is trending upwards, right? I think I just saw a tweet that, you know,

Travis Jones has been dealing with the peck injuries going to be returning her practice soon. And I think that that combination, if you're telling me that Travis Jones and Namdi Bke is going to serve as their version of Leonard Williams and Byron Young, I like that starting point. It's a good thing. I really like that starting point. You know, I don't think that, I think that you're really banking on Trey Hendrickson being

maybe not the 17 and a half sat guy that he was, you know, at the peak of his time in Cincinnati. But if he can be a 10, 12, 13 sat guy, there's your speed rusher, which is exactly what I think. This defense is looking for it, too. We want one guy who we can really count on being able to win those one-on-ones, and we'll let the scheme handle the rest in terms of pushing the pocket and we'll send, you know, creative blitzes to make sure that he gets his one-on-ones. So they have that piece as well.

And then I think that what I'm most confident in, and this comes, this goes back to Minter's time in Los Angeles, what he was able to get out of guys like Tar Heap Still, what he was able to get out of Dante Jackson, what he was able to get out of unproven young commodities at corner and then veteran guys who have bounced around a bit. That is, he's kind of bought carte blanche for me in terms of trust with developing this position. And when I look at a guy like Nate Wiggins, when I look at, you know, Chidobie Uwusei,

when I look at Marlon Humphrey, these are guys who are still talented enough to serve an important purpose for a defense, but we have just seen these wild fluctuations over the last two years and how they play. You know, Wiggins has been banged up. Humphrey's been banged up. Chonovay Uwseye is just not the same as he was. when he was younger and more closely tied to his athletic peak.

But I've seen Mentor figure out a way to get aggressive, matchy, taking away these passing lanes and the intermediate areas that offenses want to attack. He's bought my trust in that way, and I think that he can get that out of him. And then they've got maybe the greatest chess piece

on defense in the league in Kyle Hamilton. And we saw with, I would say, a subpar defensive play caller in Zach Orr, they were always able to say, hey, 14, we've got a problem out in this area of the field, we're going to put you here and you're going to fix it. And lo and behold, the problems will get fixed. It's an annual tradition, week six, week eight.

All right, our Ravens defense is a good. We're giving up too many explosive plays. Okay. You know? Must be nice. You know, they go through two months. Okay, we give up too many explosive plays. So Kyle Hamilton's going to play deep.

Okay, we're giving up too much in the run game. So Kyle Hamilton's going to play closer to the line of scrimage. We're not getting enough out of our past rush. So Kyle Hamilton is going to be more of a blitzer. And, I mean, just inevitably, he ends up being the most impactful player on the field in that way. And, you know, Derwin James was that for Jesse Mentor in Los Angeles. So again, like, if I'm just kind of stacking up, do you have something that looks like what you were doing when you were successful most recently, which he does? And do you have some pieces that

kind of fit the current meta of championship level defenses across the league? And I think that they do. Now, it hasn't all coalesced yet. And this is not the first time that we have talked about anything with Baltimore and said, hey, well, they've got all the pieces that you need to be a contender. and we're expecting them to turn that corner. I just trust that what Jesse Mentor did in his two years under Jim Harbaugh as a defensive coordinator for the Chargers that he'll be able to replicate that here. And if they do, this can be 100% a team that is right back

in what I think they believe is their right-hole position as one of the Super Bowl front runners. I like the Deonté defensive tackle theory here. You know, maybe just, all right, let me go through, let me rank who are the best defensive tackle pairings on these teams? those might just end up being the best defenses because it kind of feels that way sometimes

when you look at it. Who are the defensive tackles? Who can kind of control the game both against the run and provide disruption as pass rushers? You know, that's a nice foundation to build a defense off of. And again, the Ravens is not guaranteed

that they have that, but maybe. Hopefully it would be a great, nice feel-good story if Domdi Matabuque can come back and play well for them this season. All right. So when I was given the explainer to Deonti, Couldn't tell if he had him higher than me or if he's like, no, are you crazy? They're not even going to be in the top.

He did have them higher. I'm improving. I'm improving on my poker face because I typically give away exactly how I feel. I'm about to get ripped. He's going to be like, DeKyric DeCostis on a terrible job putting this defense together. But no, he's with me. He's got him at six. I had him at eight.

All right. Number seven, Deontay. Who do you got? Again, this is all comes back to this theme of how much do you trust the team's strengths. and what I saw in the postseason from New England has bought my trust, especially on the back end defensively. I've got them at number seven.

They're my number seven defense on this list. I do not have the Patriots in my top 10. All right, now, again, your defensive tackle theory works here, and there's other stuff working in their favor. It was an impressive postseason. What else has you bullish about the Patriots? Well, it's really that, right? You have Nelson Williams.

You have Christian Barmore. They were really, effective. All season, I would say, in terms of pushing pockets. And then I think as the season went on and they kind of found themselves in terms of what personnel they wanted to use, really being able to stop the run with those two guys as your interior pieces too. And then I'm looking at their edge combo, which is nothing really to write home about between Draymont Jones, Harold Landry, and then you look at his backup, maybe top backup will be Gabe Yacchus, right, who's a rookie. I think that there's maybe, if there's one spot where you're left wanting, it's probably there because there's nothing that really

screams to you high-end production, right? But they were able to get away with that last year because Carlton Davis and Christian Gonzalez are maybe outside of Houston the best, you know, man coverage duo in terms of cornerbacks in the league, right? Like I would say specifically with Christian Gonzalez, and it's funny, I was just working on a piece about cornerbacks, which I'm hoping is out not too long after, you know, people are listening to this podcast. But you look at Christian Gonzalez on a snap-by-snap basis, and then just the trajectory he's

been on early in his career. And I feel like we say this with every young corner, but maybe he really is the next best guy after Patrick Sartan, right? Like, he's right up there with Quignan Mitchell. He's right up there, you know, with Derek Stingley. Like, and I would say that his playoff performance really, I think, kind of cemented that for me. And then having Carlton Davis as a number two, even though he is aging a bit, you still see that he can ramp it up and be a great press man corner. He can still play the ball really well. he wasn't a big problem, a huge problem with penalties the way that he was at times in Detroit. And him being healthy, I think makes a big difference for this team as well.

So again, another team that has some of the component pieces I'm most interested in, run-stopping defensive tackles and guys who can push the pocket. You can play tight coverage out on the perimeter. And the one thing that they are missing, I think, is an ability to be extra multiple in terms of what defensive backs they can put on and take off the field to match up or get advantages on offensive personnel. But again, they're able to kind of butcher set by the fact that they're one and two in terms of their corner room is near, if not at the top of the NFL. I'm having such a hard time this summer deciding whether I think the Patriots are going to be good or not in 2026 because I know, I'm sure if you're a Patriots fan, you're tired of hearing about the schedule strength stuff.

But just to cover your ears or hit the fast forward 15 seconds if you want to. But Deonti, their defense last year faced the easiest schedule of opposing offenses, and it wasn't even close. Like I was looking at DVOA, the difference between them and the Bills, who had the second easiest slate of opposing offenses, that was the same as the difference between the Bills and the chiefs who had the eighth easiest. So difference between one and two, same as the difference between two and eight. So I'm just like, huh, well, I, in the playoffs, you know, they face some not like unbelievable offenses, but some decent offense. and they completely... I think that you're being generous in that, too. Yeah, I mean, I don't...

Well, the quarterbacks is like, all right, kind of like the quarterbacks, but those were not good offenses. Offensive lines were bad. Offensive lines, yeah. So it's just like, how much do I believe what I saw? You know, you got the schedule. They had the fifth healthiest defense last year

when you look at adjusted games lost. Yet, to your point, two defensive tackles who I really like, two corners who I really like. So now that's a nice foundation. Now, can the edge group be good enough? Can the lineback group be good enough? Can the safety group be good enough? Those guys don't have to be all pros,

but if you're coaching it up and it's like, all right, everyone knows what their job is, then I do think there are the bones there for a top 10 defense. I just wasn't quite there, but I wasn't far up. I had them between 10 and 15, so I had them above the bills.

And a lot of, you know, the other defenses, you mentioned, chiefs, bills, chargers. I actually had the Patriots above all those defenses. So they were kind of right outside my top 10. They were a team I can.

considered. But ultimately, I'm just like so much of the defensive statistics, which I, you know, I like defensive, I like statistics, but it's like, what quarterbacks did you play last year? When the quarterbacks are good, your stats aren't going to be as good. When the quarterbacks were bad, your stats are going to be a lot better. So you have to do more than just statistical analysis when it gets to the defenses. And I was just kind of on the fence a little bit there with that Patriots team. All right. Deontes got them number seven. I like this. So we're going to have at least four different teams in our top 10 because you've got Patriots, Chargers, Chiefs, and Bills. I don't have

any of them. My number 17, 17 is just a hand this coach, any 11 players. I know where this is going. In a year where I can't find 10 defenses and I'm just going to throw them in the top 10.

If I get burned, so be it. But that's how much trust I have in him. And that's Brian Flores and that's the Minnesota Vikings, Deiante. Did he, they make your top 10 or did you look at that depth chart and go, I can't do it. I can't do it with the depth chart. I have them at 14 in this exercise.

So, you know, not like I expect this defense to totally fall off a cliff. But I think last year, while it wasn't bad, I think kind of left me wanting a little bit, right? Like I just found myself watching a Vikings defense that was very competitive, right? But still, it's like, man, imagine if they actually had, you know, a tier one, tier two player at this position here, how much more they'd be able to get out of it. Imagine if they had X. Imagine if they had Y with all the other heavy lifting that the scheme

is doing for them. I just keep coming back to that and that's probably why I have them outside my top 10. I mean, I feel pretty strongly without doing a full analysis here that they are probably the least talented defense in either of our top tens. I would say so.

I think that Brian Flores, if you were like hey, you can swap. Now, you know, he might be like loyal to his guys, but you know, I think maybe if you got the lie detector on him and we're like, you can swap your personnel with any of these other defenses that Sheila and Deonte had in their top 10, do you want to do it? I think they would probably have to say yes. This depth chart is not close to a top 10 depth chart, in my opinion, in terms of just the talent, you know, the names on the piece of paper. So it's going to take a great coaching job from Brian

and Flores to get them to the top 10. Now, the last two years, they've been, I'm with you, and last year you watched it, and there were certainly games where they got exposed, and it's not like they felt like a juggernaut defense, and yet you looked up at the end of the year, and they were, what, third in defensive DVOA, I believe. So I'm just like, man, and that was a better defense, but that wasn't the most talent, you know, nearly the most talented defense in the NFL. So they lost Jonathan Grenard.

They traded him this offseason, so they lose some pass rush. Harrison Smith, his status is kind of uncertain. Is he retired? Is he going to come back? I think that remains unclear as of this recording. They swapped out some older defensive tackles in Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, and they used draft capital to draft defensive linemen. A lot of uncertainty, you know, Dallas Turner is a big, big player for them.

I think they, you know, he had a better year. Last year, they need him to be a big time player for them. But, yeah, this isn't going to be a defense where even if they're good, we're looking up at the end of the year going, oh, they had three all pros on this defense. I just don't think that's going to be the case yet. I'm going to give Flores the benefit of the doubt. I think that's fair, right? Especially with the way that our conversation is gone today because a lot of this outside of the top five has been, you know,

checks on, we're checking on trust. We're checking on, you know, what's been proven on a year-to-year basis. And there's nobody who checks that box more than Brian Flores, right? So much so that whether it's been in Miami or of a lot of, the last few years in Minnesota, when people leave his defenses, they typically don't play as well anymore, which is like the greatest sign that you could look for that the scheme is what's really unlocking what these guys are as players. They don't check a lot of my boxes. And I think that that's why I left them off, right? They don't have a dominant defensive tackle duo, at least to my eyes,

right? I think Jalen Redmond is interesting. I think a healthy Caleb Banks in theory can be dominant. We saw that in his college tape coming out of Florida. And I'd like to believe that his foot, you know, his feet injuries are going to be a thing of the past and they'll be able to depend on him to play, you know, 15 plus games in his pro career. But it's just not something that's been demonstrated yet. And I'm not ready to, you know, bank or bet on that. They don't have edge rushers, I think, to make up for that. I think the Dallas Turner has certainly started to turn a corner in his career in terms of being more consistent because there was a moment in a first year, year, or so of his career where I found myself asking like, so when exactly is it the Dallas Turner

supposed to take over? And they traded a big trade for him. Yeah, there was a lot invested in him. They called their shot on that guy and he just hasn't turned out quite yet. Now, maybe, you know, down the second half of last year when things were more thrust in his lap and he just had to be their lead rusher, maybe that's a sign of what's to come. And maybe that was just volume goes up. So production goes up because the opportunity is there. I don't know really what to make of that quite yet. And then after that, you look at the rest of the back seven, and it's just a lot of stuff that's being taped together, right, with, you know, toothpicks, glue, et cetera, et cetera, right? I think that there's a lot that you're really hoping on in terms of Byron Murphy still being

able to play at a high level. Isaiah Rogers being able to play at a high level. These are boom and bust guys that we're talking about right now. Players are when they're not forcing turnovers, not blitzing and getting sacks, not jumping routes. You're not going to get high level snap to snap play. I just don't know if I'm going to bet on that because there's just nothing really undergrading this in case they don't force turnovers, in case they don't scheme up on a bunch of snaps.

There's nothing outside of Brian Flores' scheme that makes me feel like, oh, okay, we can look up in mid-October, and this team might be, you know, pushing in the top three, you know, or even in the top eight and more stable defensive metrics. I just can't project that right now.

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. And yet I looked at the other teams and I said, all right, who do I want to bet on here? And I said, let me just bet on, you know. That's the right approach. It may be a dumb approach where we're like, why did I think, no, you know, coaching is great, but no coach, you could put together the 10 greatest

defensive coaches of all time and they can't get this to be a top 10 defense. I will say if there is one guy who you won't get Yodd after being wrong on, I feel like Brian Flores is on that short list. You can understand it. They could be the 25th best defense. But if you say, hey, I see Ryan Flores, I hit the top 10 button. I don't think anybody is going to protest that one too hard. Well, listen, nice job by him getting that raised this offseason

because he probably looked at the depth chart and I was like, all right, and I'm not going to say this out loud. I'm running my money. I'm running everybody here. Now's the time to cash in because he's looking at some of these other defenses that we're probably about to get to. And he's like, oh, my gosh, if I were to go to a team that had that kind of talent, Look out.

You know, we're going to be the best defense in the NFL. All right, let's take one more break. We come back. We already have Deontes number six team as the Ravens. I'll tell him my number six team, which I think he's going to have in the top five, but maybe not. Maybe he'll surprise me.

We'll get to those when we come back. All right, back here on the ring of NFL show. Like I said, Deontay had the Ravens number six. My number six team, Deontay, the Denver Broncos. Do you have them in your top five? They are in my top five. They're number five for me. Number five.

Okay, so we're pretty much on the same page here. You know, this one's a pretty, I think a mostly easy analysis. We can get to maybe why we don't have them top three. Broncos fans might be yelling. What do you mean? Five and six, they're going to be better than that. So top five in consecutive seasons. Very good roster, you know?

Again, this is one where Flores is probably looking at it going out, calling out Van Gogh, you know, you got some dogs over there. You know, I would love to have bats or tan as my number one. one corner. So they just, you know, the pressure, the upfront, the pass rush was very good last year, sack rate, pressure rate, whatever. You know, they still play that aggressive style, which I like, I like that not everybody's moving to a specific scheme. You have a team that's saying, no, we're going to play a man coverage. And Vance Joseph is saying, we're going to blitz. And he's coached a lot of good defenses over the course of his career doing it this way. And they've got the, you know,

one of the best groups of corners, I would say, in the NFL. I think there's a case that they're the best, but certainly top three. So pass rush, great corners, good scheme, aggressive play caller. You're going to be in a good place, Deante. That's really what it came down to for me with the Broncos. I think this is probably the first team we've come across where I'm like, I actually don't think I have to pitch that hard to make this and make sense. We have a proven track record of great defense.

Continuity is there. Outside of John Franklin Myers departed for Tennessee, right? A lot of the other component parts are still there. I mean, Dre Greenlaw left. go back to San Francisco, but he was banged up in Denver, and it's not like they got the best version of him anyways, because he was still recovering, I think, from the Achilles injury and trying to find out what his, you know, career in his 30s is going to look like, because he's just not as explosive a player as he was in his athletic prime. Everything that matters most to this team is still

basically in place. They still have Zach Allen, who's performed at a high level for them. You've got Nick Benito and Jonathan Cooper, one of the better edge-rushing duos in the league, Nick Benito, specifically, being one of the most unique, you know, a past, rushers, effective pass rushers in football, you know, being able to play as a relatively undersized guy in terms of weight and really winning almost exclusively with speed, you know, and a great getoff. That's been one of the, one of the things that I really enjoyed watching about this team. And then I've got the best cornerback in football, right? The best cornerback with a bullet, in my opinion, in football, and Patrick Sertat in the second. And I think that the only

thing that can really disrupt what we've seen in terms of them being stable on a year-to-year basis is if offenses find a new way to feel like we never have to throw the ball at CERTAN ever, we can just attack their safeties and Riley Moss. They kind of already try that. Exactly. That's on the table. That's on the table. But if you're able to force offenses to work through such a narrow lens,

that speaks to all the things you're doing well schematically and in terms of building your defensive roster. I don't know if it's because of their aggression. I don't know if it's because of their aggression on a, you know, play-to-play basis that I'm just not comfortable saying that a team that blitzes, a team that plays as much man coverage, the way that the Broncos do are going to be the number one defense. But they most certainly could be.

And I would say that every team that I have in my top five, you know, you could flip a coin to me and lay out, you know, and I can lay out the case for them being the top defense in football. Denver definitely meets that requirement for me. So the only thing I really looked at, well, I guess there's two things. One, very healthy last year, third and ingested games loss. So maybe your depth gets tested a little bit more this year, but I sort of feel like they're built to handle that.

The big thing to me was they were second pressure rate and first and sack rate last year. And you mentioned it. They lose John Franklin Myers, which is, you know, it's not like losing Miles Garrett, but very good player, John Franklin Myers. And then Jonathan Cooper has this legal trouble. He's facing this from the AP was arrested. multiple charges that he violated a protection order filed against him after his initial arrest stemming from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend.

So this is obviously troubling off-field news for Jonathan Cooper. This was in June, and is he potentially facing a suspension? Because if you're talking about losing Cooper and Franklin Myers from that pass rush, now all of a sudden I'm thinking, all right, that's not as deep or as quality of a group. as they had last year. So that was the only thing I could really look at. So that's something to keep an eye on this summer about, you know, how that situation plays off the field and then obviously how it affects the Broncos on the field.

So that's the only reason I had them down there at six and not higher. Deonté had them at number five. All right, Deonti, you ready for my biggest surprise here? I'm kind of afraid now, just looking at the list of available defenses. I think that this is going to be you calling a pretty big shot. if I'm just looking at what's available here. I would say so. I think our top four, I would imagine,

are the same four teams, maybe not in the same order. Number five, Deante, I got the Pittsburgh Steelers at number five. You know what? That's not as wild as I thought it was going on. Okay. All right, he's not ready to be like,

I'm signing off this pod. He didn't throw his headphones down and be like, get me out of here with this bozo. All right, so here's the case for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Patrick Graham may, I don't know what kind of wizardry he was working last year with the Raiders. They were 14th in defensive DVOA last year.

This was with probably Pete Carroll telling him for half the year. We got to do some of my stuff, so he didn't have full autonomy. And then a defensive depth chart that just, I mean, we were saying the Vikings were top 10. I mean, all due respect, there's all professional football players. So I'm not, you know, dogging them. But just comparatively to the other defenses, is not even close to my opinion to top 14 talent.

And so now he goes to Pittsburgh. He's working for an offensive head coach in Mike McCarthy, so he will presumably have full autonomy. And this is a guy, Patrick Graham has a long track record in the NFL. I mean, I'm not saying he's like a top five defense everywhere he goes, but I've kind of liked him everywhere he's gone, where I've always looked at it at the end of the season and been like, he's gotten the most out of that talent that he's had.

So now he's got what I think might be the most underrated front. in the league. I mean, I really like this group up front. I think it's a great blend of vets, T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Cam Hayward. You have Nick Herbing in there. And then you have young players who I like Keanu Benton. Derek Harmon is another sort of X-Factory. Like if we might be talking in week eight, like man, Derek Harbin looks like one of the best, you know, players on this defense. So I really like the front quite a bit. And I think they're deep where if one of the two of those guys gets injured, guess what? It's not going to all go out the window because they're pretty deep there. So you've got that. And then listen, I'm not telling you the secondary is a sure

thing, but Joey Porter Jr. I thought it had a pretty good year last year. You've got Vats, Jalen Ramsey, Jamel Dean, Jaquan Brisker. These are all guys who have played a lot of football, a little edge to them where I can see them fitting well together in that Steelers secondary. And I looked at it, and the Steelers last year were 11th in defensive DVOA. So 11 to 5 If you look at it that way, is not the biggest leap in the world. So I'm putting faith in Patrick Graham. And then this is just, I like the talent here on this defense. So every year I try to, you know, call my shot with a little surprise in the top five.

Some of them miss. Some of them hit. But the Steelers are kind of my big surprise for the top five this year. So I had them in that same range between like 12 and 16 or it's like, I just don't know what to do with you as a team. And like one of the notes I had was like awesome depth in the front seven. no depth in the back, right? Like, and that is just very, it's just been very concerning for me, right? Like, I'm assuming that Jalen Ramsey by the time the season gets around that he will be totally

available. I think that he started doing some field work at training camp recently, which I think is, you know, a positive sign. I think that he'll be fine. I think the safe for Joey Porter Jr., right? Like, you get these guys available, their top 11 should be able to square off with any top 11 in the NFL and feel like we can stop just about anybody, especially I would say. if Joey Porter Jr. is able to replicate what we saw last year at his peak where it really seemed like the physical, you know, the physical nature of his play, you know, kind of having that height, having the long arms, having just enough speed to be able to match up with receivers.

It all started to seem like it was starting to click for him and the game was starting to slow down and you weren't seeing the holding, the illegal contact, the defensive pass interference penalties, or giving up, you know, these catches where you feel like a player of his stature and his ability should be a little bit more competitive at the catch point. You're starting to see that corner get turned. So I can definitely buy the fact that he can continue to play at a high level. But I look at Jaquine Bristker, that's somebody I'm really concerned with from a health and injuries, long-term perspective. Jamel Dean has been banged up throughout his career because he is one of those smaller guys who is just like, no problem throwing his body in the mix, right? Like he will definitely lay it all on the line. He's dealt with quite a few lower body injuries. Nothing that's really been significant, but he just is that kind of guy that is going to have to miss some games here or there.

because he is going to be banged up. And you just look at the bodies that are behind some of these players that we're naming. And you're really going to be clenching on Sundays if you're a Steelers fan hoping, hey, if it's third down and it's an obvious passing situation, let's please get some good pressure quickly so this quarterback doesn't start picking on, you know, some holes that we might have in the secondary, especially if the guys are banged up. So not quite sure if I'm ready to take the top 10 leap for them.

I do think this is a playoff quality defense, though. and I think that they're really going to be relying upon their offense to set a proper game script that is not going to ask this very veteran-laden starting 11 to have to be, you know, not perfect, but playing an A game every week

because I don't know if they can access that as often as some of these guys used to be able to in their primes. All fair concerns, yeah. The front has to make up for deficiencies in the back end and sometimes good defenses they're able to do that

and other times they're not able to do that and all of a sudden the flaws are exposed there a little bit. So let's see if I'm right with that Steelers prediction or if I'm wrong. All right, we're at the top four. I would be pretty stunned if we did not have the same top four, but they might not be in the same order. Deonte, who do you have as the number four defense? Got it.

This almost feels like I want to go 1A, 1B, 1C, D, right? Just to be a total coward about this. Can't do it. Got to rank them. Sorry. No copping out here. The number 14 for me would be the Philadelphia Eagles. That's who I have at four.

And I think that, again, we've been talking about common threads all the way around. And this team checks all the boxes that I've been talking about this episode. And then they have the thing that would otherwise give me caution with other, you know, strong young defenses, which they actually have depth. They've got the defensive tackles. After adding Jonathan Gernard, you look at their edge room and you say, hey, if the worst, you know, if you're number three guys, Nolan Smith and the worst guy in your. week-to-week edge rotation is going to be some mixture of Arnold Ebucketty or AJ Epinessa. There are a lot of teams that I think that will be beaten down the door

to say that that's their four to five-man edge rotation. You think about Zach Bond, you know, maybe he's not going to access that first team all-pro level that we saw, you know, during the Super Bowl run. But even last year, I thought that he was good against the run. Maybe he made a few more mistakes in past coverage than usual, but that was also just the defense took on a bit of a different shape because guys were banged up and he didn't have the best version of Jalen

Carter playing in front of him. I think the training camp reports about Jahad Campbell starting to maybe get a better grasp of the defense, playing a little bit faster, not having to split his time between learning linebacker and edge. And maybe most importantly, he's not entering training camp nursing a peck injury the way that he was coming into last year. So I think that that helps big time. And then I think that this is a player that you might be just as excited about as I am to see what it turns out to be. Having Rick Wollen as your number two corner instead of the mixture of Adory Jackson and all the other guys that they were bringing in, you know, Jacorri and Bennett, et cetera,

all those names that they were rotating opposite of Quinyan Mitchell. A Rick Wollin, even I think at his C plus B minus level, is an upgrade there. And because of his athletic potential, right, he could very easily have, you know, a Trevon Diggs-esque, you know, big pop this year where because he knows he's protected and all these different ways. He's playing aggressively. He's jumping routes. You're playing with another elite defensive coordinator and a team that I think wants to see him play his best, even if they can't retain him, if he does play like, you know, a Pro Bowl level player because it would help Philadelphia remain as contenders in the NFC and in the NFL outright. So they've got all those pieces. You know,

they've got two great young players in Mitchell and Dijin in the back end, two great young players in Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis on the front end. You've got young edie. You've got young drushers. Again, all those boxes are checked. The depth is there. I can definitely see this being the best defense in the NFL. And I think more importantly, they are set up well to not be, you know, any worse than a good defense, a top eight defense in the league. I think the top four teams, you could definitely make the case any of them as the best defense in the NFL wouldn't surprise me, whereas it would actually kind of surprise me if the teams below our top four, if one of them ended up being the best. Now it's crazy. Anything can happen. And there are always surprises. That's why.

we watch, but I'm with you. I was out at Eagles training camp last week and you just kind of look around and they are loaded with talent and not only are they loaded with talent and is on defense, loaded with talent on defense, but every player, the arrow should be pointing up or pointing sideways at the worst. Either at their peak or ascending. Yeah, exactly. Every guy is basically between 22 and 27 years old. I think Zach Bond might be the only exception there. But I mean, those corners, Cooper DeGine, Quinyon Mitchell, Rick Woolen. Jehann, Campbell, very interesting player to watch on this Eagles defense in year or two. You know, he could end up being a household name where we're like, oh,

Jehad Campbell's a top 10 offball linebacker in the NFL by the end of the season. Like, I don't think that would necessarily shock anyone. Jalen Carter was playing injured last year. He could have more of an impact this year. You mentioned the edge group, Jordan Davis. So it's just like you look up and down and when you have that much talent, and when you have a tremendous defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio, you know, kind of what you said earlier.

You don't have to work too hard to convince people that this is going to be a very, very good defense that can withstand some injuries. You know, they have some depth. Safety is probably the biggest question mark, but that's what the money's for for Vic Fangio. You know, sorry, you can't have an all pro at like every position. You're going to have to figure it out at some of these. So yeah, Grenard is an injury to keep an eye on.

He's been injured this summer where I really like that. pick up for them, but he's got to get healthy for them to kind of give them. I think, you know, enough pass rush there. So I actually had the Eagles at number three. So we're in the same ballpark there. I had him in three. Deonti had him at four. I have the Rams at four. Deonti, how high did you go with the Los Angeles Rams? The Rams are two. Two. Okay, you went with the Rams at two. I went, again, these teams, we could just move on. We could end the podcast on here are top four. Everyone gets it. Honestly.

Man, Miles. You know, the thing about the Miles Garrett edition, I think we did talk about it at the time, but it can't be overstated that this is such a different situation than he had in Cleveland when you look at the supporting cast. I mean, the Rams last year, without Miles Garrett, ranked fifth in pressure rate and ninth in sack rate. And now you're adding Miles Frickin Garrett.

So it's just like, you know, to a group that has Byron Young, who had 54 pressures last year, that had Kobe Turner, who had 52 pressures last year, Braden Fiske, Puna Ford, like they've got other guys where it's just, I know teams are still going to go in and say, we have, you know, and I know how offensive coordinators think. We cannot let Miles Garrett wreck the game. We cannot let Miles Garrett wreck the game.

But now those other guys are really positioned to take advantage of it. And they just look at the corners. It's like, they looked at their weakness from last year and we're like, screw it. Let's just go get some, you know, a great quarterback. Okay, you can say we overpaid, whatever. Trent McDuffie, come on down. And then Jalen Watson, that's going to be an improvement. Because last year, I think those pressure rate numbers and the sack rate, it's like pretty impressive because they were vulnerable at corner. And when, you know, sometimes the passports just can't get home because the coverage isn't good enough. And so now you tie it all together.

And as of this recording, this is important to say, Aaron Donald has not signed with the Rams. By the time you listen to this, he may have signed him with the Rams. It just feels like it's happening at some point this week. And even if you don't know what you're getting from him, it's like they don't even need to have Aaron Donald to be a top five defense to me. And if you add him, easy ceiling to be the best defense in the NFL, Deante. What did I miss there with the Rams breakdown? Nothing.

I mean, you checked all the boxes, right? Like, I think that one of the things that's interesting for me, and I got to see the Rams practice. at training camp didn't necessarily get to talk to anybody in depth about it, besides, you know, check it in with, you know, some of our reporter buddies about just what the feeling has been in the building as I'm watching from the sideline. But you can infer, right?

You can always infer what messages teams are sending based off of how they approach the off season. And there was two major messages that I think that Los Angeles was sending. One was that they felt like they needed closers, right? That's why you go out and get a Miles Garrett. And then I think about Trent McDuffie in the chief. Chiefs 2020 playoff run, which led to them beating San Francisco in the Super Bowl, you think about what his postseason looked like then when he's locking up guys like Debo

Samuel, you know, who was the skeleton key for the 49ers offense that year. He played really well against Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle when they had their wild card game, you know, in Kansas City. Obviously it was freezing, which was a disadvantage for Miami. But he was playing very physically at that time, too. Played great against Buffalo. This is a guy that does everything for this defense, right? He played great.

he's usually played great against Baltimore in the AFC championship game that year as well. It was really, you know, in Zayflowers' shirt and Shad Bateman's shirt throughout those games. I think that you look at adding players like that and Jalen Watson, you're bringing in guys who are physical, who are closers, who in high-levered situations have a proven track record of being able to rise to the occasion.

And then there's something else that I think that they're messaging to. I think that Sean McBae probably spent all spring and summer re-watching his games against Seattle and then watching the way that Seattle played the rest of the season and saying, we were talented enough to say that we could beat them, but they had a little extra oomph that we were missing in terms of physicality, in terms of making the game look like it hurt on the defensive side of the ball. And I think that that's what some of these additions are signaling as well,

that they want guys that are the kind of guys that throw the first punch, right? I think that that's really what they're looking for. It's not a surprise to me. It would not be a surprise to me, I should say. if they show up and say the way that Seattle played last year, the way the Philadelphia played two years ago where they've got their set best 11 personnel grouping and no matter what you do as an offense,

you're going to have to deal with our best 11 defenders and we're just going to try to put a dent in everybody's face masks, I think that that's going to be the style of play that they're really going to try to embrace and wrap their arms around. And I would not be surprised at all if, whether they have Aaron Donald back or not, if we're looking up and watching the Rams

be one of the two or three toughest DHS, defenses to deal with on a snap-to-snap basis from a physicality, tackling, and being fundamentally sound perspective. I mean, the other thing about those matchups with Seattle is McVeigh has to feel like we, you know, it's McVeigh's offense versus McDonald's defense. They actually won that matchup. They won those matchups. He's the only T, he's literally him and Stapper were the only guys who were able to figure

out how to put points up and move the ball and put yards up against, see the Seahawks defense, which was the best in the NFL. And it wasn't enough because, you know, you can look at you look at Sam Darnold. And it's like if he doesn't just shred that Rams defense, you know, in the NFC championship, they don't win the Super Bowl. And, you know, who knows what conversations were having, you know, after the way last season played out. So he's looking at it, going, man, we just, if we need to be better defensively, I'll figure it out offensively. They went out. They were aggressive. By the way, overall, I know there were times. I just mentioned, at NFC championship game.

There were other times, specifically in the second half of last year where the Rams defense didn't play well. If you add it all up, they were 10th in EPA per drive and fourth in DVOA last year. So they faced a tough schedule. They were an above average defense by any metric.

And now they added Miles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, Jalen Watson, and they're even better positioned this year. So I know, listen, I'm sure people are tired of the Rams hype. But like we said before, go get your team to go get trade for Miles Garrett and we'll talk about them a lot, you know, in the off season.

So, all right, you've got the Rams too. I've got the Rams four. I had the Eagles three. You had the Eagles four. Who do you have number three, Deonte? Number three, I have our reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Okay. And I think that I think that there are a lot of Seahawks fans that will probably be MIFT, A,

that there is this Rams hype train, B, that the Rams are again ranked ahead of Seattle who won a championship and beat this team, you know, in two of the last three games that they played, in two of the three games that they played last season. And I totally get that. This is really of no fault of Seattle's. They did such a great job building this roster

and maximizing every corner of it last year that it was almost impossible for them to maintain or improve upon what was already there, right? And then Kobe Bryant leaves, Rick Wollen leaves. You lose some talent. It doesn't mean that they're going to be worse off for it. I actually think that they have the depth to be able to survive that. But the team is relatively static and I can't give them credit for the same things that we mark as potential

concerns for other teams. And we're talking about Denver. Continuity is both, you know, a feather in their cap and something to watch for in case guys go down because that means that you probably aren't adding a lot more depth if you're trying to hold your starting 11 together as much as possible. So I'll just have an eye on what the health of this team looks like, what the interior your depth looks like if guys do go down or have to miss time and then what some of their new additions in the back end looks like right if no egg monogony has to go because nicky minoree is banged up this year i'm interested in what that does that mean more devon witherspoon in the slot in the slot which means less proven guys playing out on the perimeter and not worked great for josh job last year right like

they maximized having job going from you know a practice squad fringe roster guy to being a you know magnificent contributor really out on the perimeter in Seattle once he got there. I'm just interested to see if you can do it again. And that's not really a challenge. It's not me saying that I have any doubt. It's not me saying that they can't do that. But this is just the nature of the league. Once you're a champion, there's some attrition.

You know, it's been in small amounts for Seattle. But I am fascinated to see if they can kind of line up what was clearly just the best defense I'd being able to put their best 11 guys on there and just being better than anybody else that they were matched up against. don't know if you can do that back-to-back years. Yeah, I think you said it well. I mean, they were great last year, but they did lose guys and they do have injuries this year.

I mean, it doesn't have to be that complicated to drop them out of one and you're not dropping them to 10. You're dropping them to number three. So, yeah, they lose Kobe Bryant, Rick Wollen, Boye-Moffey, and then the even Worry injury is bigger than kind of probably any of those things where it's just, who knows? Maybe he'll be fine. But, you know, are you watching hard docs?

on tire or no. Haven't gotten to it yet. Okay. I just watched the first episode last night. And Mike McDonald basically says this much. They're like in a meeting with the medical staff. And he's like, if we don't have that guy, it's like a big, big deal for what we want to do on defense. So yeah, it's not us saying it. It's the head coach saying it. By the way, Mike McDonald just comes across is like one of the most likable NFL coaches of all the time. He's just talking to players like a normal human being. He's just to be easily the most normal person that has come across on hard knocks. Yeah, and listen, NFL coaches are not going to be normal people.

But on the scale of NFL coach, it's just like, you know, he's like going up to them after a fight and like kind of talking it out and then like making, you know, joking around. I'm like, what a breath of fresh air from a lot of the NFL head coaches we've seen on hard knocks or just in our lives over the year. So, yeah, episode one, Mike McDonald to me, I already likes Mike McDonald, but he was just like the big, big winner, I thought, from having the camera on him for an extended period of time. I appreciate the fact that there's a coach who can embrace the fact that, like,

yeah, I'm kind of a dork about some of this football stuff. Like, I don't have to cosplay as, like, one of these historically great men, right? Because that's, you know, the kind of, you know, rarefied air I view other football coaches in. Like, yeah, he's like, I'm kind of a weird dude, man, kind of awkward. I got to see some of the clips. Like, I'm pretty normal. I try not to, you know, he does a lot of the things that I think that you recommend most people who listen to our podcast do. Get outside, you know, breathe some fresh air.

Try not to be, you know, a total slave to your, you know, cell device, cellular devices. And, you know, just be you. I think that that definitely emanates. And I think that that's why they respond in spite of the fact that sometimes he is talking to the team. And I'm like, man, I have to recalibrate myself because I am so used to, you know, coaches who want to give you the fire. brimstone. Right. Oh my God,

I have to, I got to inspire you to walk and shoot gum at the same time. You know, like I appreciate the fact that he can kind of change gears for me and be a little bit more well adjusted. Yeah. He doesn't have to go like full, tough guy,

hard though. Yeah, he is Jack, Deontay. So, you know, 100%. He's showing off the guns.

You know, he's wearing that. I don't know what size t-shirt he's rocking there, but he's been putting in the work in the offseason. So, you know, he's got that. But he doesn't,

He doesn't have to show it off. So, yeah, I enjoyed Mike McDonald quite a bit. I have them number two. Now, from a content perspective, I think I should have had them one because then Seahawks fans could be like, no one had us one except for Shield Capote. I did have one going into last year. Okay. So listen, don't look at where I had their offense.

We don't have to talk about that. But I did have their deep. So that was one of the shots that I called last year. And I do put McDonald in that florist mold where basically hand them anybody. and they're probably going to make my preseason top 10 list. I mean, he's done in four consecutive seasons, Ravens, Seahawks. He's been first twice, by the way, in the last four seasons with two different franchises, which is pretty impressive.

But just some of the talent there that they lost in the offseason, again, we're not saying it's a huge deal. We're not dropping them to 10, 12, 15. We're just dropping them out of that top spot, which means, I assume, barring something that would be the biggest surprise ever. on the Ringer NFL show, Deonti. I assume we both have the same team number one, and it's making me a little bit nervous

because I feel like this team is generating quite a bit of preseason bus. Who is your number one defense? Number one defense is probably my favorite one to watch. Anybody who I feel like has followed my written work or what we talk about on podcast, they know how I feel about this unit. It's the Houston Texans.

Yeah, me too. I wasn't going to get cute here and throw Cincinnati or Dallas or some team, another team that has some hype because they added new players, but were overall bad the year before. Like, this again, I don't have to sit at a pulpit and tell you why Houston is great on defense. Yeah. This is actually probably the one team that needs the least amount of sales pitching in order to get you to believe,

because they play a very straightforward style of football. It's four down, it's cover one. We're going to mash you, right? We've got better edge rushers than you have tackles. We've got better corners than you have receivers. And they just play aggressively in a way that I think, scratches the itch of the linebacker in me, right? Like, that's what I like to watch.

I can just turn on the All-22 and be like, man, this is what it looks like, getting 11 hats to the ball. This is what it means to fire out of your stance and put your hands on somebody, right? Like, they check all those boxes. And the reason why they're number one for me over teams like the Rams,

over teams like the Seahawks and the Broncos, is because they addressed the one thing that I think would have kept them out of this conversation before, and that's adding fresh new bodies to serve as their depth behind their starters. This has been something that they really haven't had to concern themselves with because they've actually had a great stretch of health across their defense.

Since Domingo Ryan's has been there, but there's always been that question of, hey, if the wrong defensive tackle goes down, this is already a team that's not the greatest on a down-to-down basis defending the run, right? Or at least if there was a chink in the armor, it would have been that. They go out and get Logan Hall, 2-90-pound defensive tackle, you know, flex guy to be your fourth D-tackle,

and right above him is rookie Caden McDonald, who was like that 320, 330 pound nose tackle, right? Like, that's exactly what they needed. You look at Will Anderson and DeNeal Hunter and say, we need one more guy who can play for us on rundowns and at least keep us stable in case one of these guys pull a groin or hurt their biceps. You go out and get you Davian Clowney,

who's like the ultimate mercenary in that, right? And somebody who you don't have to ask to go play 70% of the snaps. He can just be a bit player for them. And then you go out and you address a free safety spot with two guys. Reed Blankenship, who obviously for you, you know being in Philadelphia, and I know as an Eagles fan, doesn't always pop, but is rarely, if ever, in the wrong spot and typically finds himself making great plays because he just knows where to be on the field. And then Kamari Ramsey, who is, you know, a former USC Trojan,

who I've watched very closely and believe that he fits what this team likes to do really well. So up and down the roster, you just check every box in terms of having all the people, And then I think maybe the most important thing is outside of Seattle, L.A. and Philadelphia, this is the kind of group and the type of play style that I truly believe will rise in playoff moments, right? And we've seen it. We saw them erase the Steelers offense last year, made it really a non-competitive game. In spite of the fact that Houston's offense couldn't score, we saw them erase the Chargers offense the year before. They were the best unit on the field.

You know, I would say on a down-and-down basis when they played the Patriots. It's just that their quarterback kept throwing the ball away to New England's defensive backs, right? Like, they were one of the, they've been one of the best units. Every playoff run, they really just needed the support of their offense. Really, most times you just get them like 17 to 20 points. It's not even like they've got to light up the scoreboard. I imagine that they're going to be very similarly positioned this year. And I think if their offense can keep this defense where it needs to be in terms of game script,

they can 100% ride this group all the way, all the way to the Super Bowl. I think if you're looking at, hey, who's the version of the 2025 Seahawks or the 2024 Eagles, where it's more the defense leading the way? They've got that formula. Now, whether that offense can be good enough or not, I do think that's a big question, but the defense certainly can be good enough. And I love what you said about just kind of the way they play. You know, we talk a lot about scheme and everyone, oh, too high, and this coordinator's doing that.

when you talk to, I found this, at least in my experience, I don't want to generalize all, but when you talk to retired NFL defensive players, they're generally like you're overcomplicated. Defense is about inflicting pain on our opponent and having them feel, they're going to know on Monday when they played us versus when they played another team and having them think twice about when they're running that route over the middle or, you know, having that quarterback when he's holding on to that ball for that extra split second, be like, I don't want to do that against these guys. And I really do believe that just from my time as a fan to then covering the league to

to then talking to defensive players. I like learning about the new schematic wrinkles and we're playing too high in zone. But I really do believe that that's what defensive football at its heart is actually about. And I just think, you know, you can almost hear it when you know when you're watching a Texans defense play. You can kind of feel it. You can hear it. You can see it. The teams that play them, I'm sure know during the week that we're going up to that game, this is not going to be a good time. Whether we win or lose, this is not going to be a good time when we face these guys. And that's what I really like about them more so than really any other defense on this list. And then,

of course, the talent. I mean, listen, all these teams in the top five are just loaded. I thought before they signed you Devi and Clowny, I was like, I think Will Anderson might be the most indispensable defensive player. Yeah. Lode bearing. You know, it was him and Danielle Hunter, and he still is up there, but I was like, that clowny signing made sense to me where it's like, all right, if he's out for a month

or something, you can withstand it because he really is one of the most complete defensive players in the entire NFL. So you got the edge rush, you got the corners, you've got the personality, you've got the coach, it's just like, you know, they were second in pretty much every statistical category last.

here behind the Seahawks. And I think they're going to be right up there again this year. So the Houston Texans, we agree, are the number one projected defense in the NFL. Okay, so we got, let's see, we got six teams that are the same, Deontes. We got Texans, Rams, Seahawks, Eagles, Broncos, Raven. So six out of ten are the same. You had the Patriots, the Chargers, the Chiefs, and the Bills in the top 10. I have the Steelers, Vikings, bucks, and cults in the top 10.

So there you go. I think this is good. We didn't agree on all of them. We agreed on top four. Listen, I think most people are going to have the same top four. Maybe it's a little bit of group thing probably, but it's also there's a reason. If you don't have them in the top four, I would love to hear what the analysis is for a team other than them. And I'm not saying you're wrong.

There's probably a good zag to be had out there for somebody. I got close with the Steelers, but I'm like, nope, I'm not putting the Steelers above any of these teams. So it'll be fun to watch. These are fun defenses to watch. Those are our top 10 defenses for the 2026 NFL season. Deiante, what did you say? You got a piece on the ringer.com coming up this week. Coming up, we're going to be talking about corners, not necessarily a straight ahead ranking,

but I think that's something that people who like to debate this type of thing will really enjoy. There you go. defensive heads. Deante's got you covered there on the ringer.com. Check that out. All right. Thank you to Deontay Lee. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins

and Arjuna. Ramigopal. I'm Sheila Capade. We will talk to you later this week on the ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800-Mai reset. Call 1-88-7-8-8-8-9-7-77. Or visit ccppgagbling.org in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.m.m.m.m.m.m.M.A. dot org. Or call 800-3-2-7-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1-877-8-N-Y or text Hope N.Y in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-7-7-7-7-7-7.