The D/ST position in fantasy football Sherrick McManis Jersey is wildly misunderstood. Some owners overvalue it and draft a defense way too early, effectively rendering the pick completely devoid of value while robbing themselves of vital depth elsewhere. Others disregard the position entirely, doing little to no research and just grabbing the highest-projected available defense from week to week. But in fantasy, just as in life, succe s comes from finding a balance. Heading into the season, a good way to find that happy medium is breaking down our 2022 fantasy defense rankings into tiers in order to devise the best draft strategy.The elite defenses from the previous season should never be regarded like the top-tier players at other positions. For one thing, its impo sible to predict which squad will finish in the top five of D/ST fantasy points from year to year, never mind No. 1. As we will remind you plenty this preseason, no team has ever scored the most D/ST fantasy points two years in a row since FantasyPros started collecting data (2002).2022 STANDARD RANKINGS: | | | | | | | Another reason to avoid springing too early for a defense: Theres no real positional scarcity to speak of with D/ST in fantasy. Its not as if owners clamor to get depth at D/ST most people just grab one late in the draft and utilize the rest of their roster spots for offensive depth.2022 PPR RANKINGS: | | | | | | | So, why freak about it? Youre going to get better value if you wait to grab an above-average-but-not-nece sarily-elite squad. And honestly, the drop-off in production between tiers is usually negligible.2022 FANTASY SLEEPERS: | | | | | Dallas came out of nowhere to lead the fantasy world with 180 points last season. The Cowboys had 23 points more than New England, which equates to 1.35 more points per game. The Patriots scored 1.29 more points per game than Miami and New Orleans, who tied for No. 5. The Dolphins and Saints averaged 0.88 Charles Leno Jersey more points than Green Bay at No. 10. You get the point even if you do succe sfully gue s the best defenses, youve only marginally improved your team over the majority of your competitors.2022 AUCTION VALUES (Standard PPR): | | | | | | Predicting the top defenses also happens to be as easy as gue sing lottery numbers, by the way. As we mentioned, no defense has ever gone back-to-back as the top-scoring D/ST in fantasy. Quite often, defenses with the earliest ADPs at the start of the year look completely different than the final D/ST leaderboard after Week 17. Lets dive deeper.2022 RANKINGS TIERS DRAFT STRATEGY: | | | Look at the top six D/ST by ADP at this time last year:Team'21 ADPLos Angeles Rams103Pittsburgh Steelers106Tampa Bay Buccaneers108Washington Commanders118Baltimore Ravens122San Francisco 49ers134Now take a look at the highest-scoring D/STs between Week 1 and Week 17 of the 2021 season.Rank/Team'21 Fan. PointsDallas Cowboys180.0New England Patriots157.0Indianapolis Colts137.0Buffalo Bills136.0New Orleans Saints135.0Miami Dolphins135.0Notice anything? Each of the first six defenses drafted last year often as early as the ninth, 10th, 11th, and 12th rounds (depending on league size) failed to finish in the top six in Mike Singletary Jersey scoring at the position. The average fantasy output by those first six squads with the highest ADPs: 101.5. Thats 33.5 points lower than the team that finished sixth best in 21 and 78.5 points lower than the No. 1 D/ST.You could have bagged a positional advantage without even sacrificing an early pick, whether you waited until the last three rounds, like we so often suggest, or maybe you did the extra research to find a strong sleeper. You also could have employed a full-season streamer strategy, like the kind of strategy Survivor Pool entrants devise each year.No matter your strategy, its imperative to have one for every position in fantasy football. To truly be prepared, youll want to have a concrete idea of which D/STs yield the most value and at which levels. The tier system works perfectly for this kind of research especially for defenses. Plain and simple, Tiers 1 through 5 can be viewed as preseason grades of A, B, C, D, and F.Just remember: Acing D/ST doesnt hold nearly as much weight as acing RB, WR, TE, and QB. Nobody wins a scholarship off an A in health but Ds in the rest of their courses. Grab the B or C, and focus on getting straight As on the rest of your draft report card.We'll continue to update the rankings below throughout the preseason, so check back for updates.DOMINATE YOUR DRAFT: 2022 Fantasy D/ST Tiers: Who are the best fantasy football defenses?Tier 1:1. Buffalo Bills2. Dallas Cowboys3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers4. San Francisco 49ersYoull rarely hear a Sporting News writer advocate for being the first to pick a D/ST its just bad practice, and it generally results in a ton of lost value. But if youre going to be one of the misguided members of your league to grab a defense early, you better make sure its a strong one. You cant get much better than this pack.Buffalo seems to get better each year thanks to good roster construction Kyle Fuller Jersey and continuity between defensive head coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. Josh Allen and the offense controlling the time of po se sion all season never hurts either.Dallas has done a complete 180-degrees flip from its woeful defensive run a few years back. Reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year Micah Parsons has already established himself as one of the best defenders in the game, and stud cornerback Trevon Diggs is an interception and run-back machine. The Boys might not lead the league in fantasy points for a second-straight year that has never happened in the 21st century but they also shouldnt regre s out of Tier 1 if their core stays healthy.Tampa Bay and San Francisco both have stacked defenses and should be much healthier for the start of the regular season. These teams both rack up sacks and takeaways when healthy two important elements of a top-tier D/ST.These squads all have great schedules for D/ST if you combined the 2021 win-lo s records of all Roquan Smith Jersey 17 of each of their opponents, youd have a collective winning percentage of .471. The Cowboys, specifically, have the second-easiest schedule in football, as their opponents had a collective .452 winning percentage last season.If youre gonna buck the advisable trend and grab a D early, grab a great one with an even greater road just dont do it before Round 11 in a 12-team league. Chances are, at least a couple of these D/STs will be gone by then, but thats fine. There are other good-to-great options in the next tier.2022 CONSISTENCY RATINGS: | | | 2022 Fantasy Draft Strategy: When should you draft a defense?Tier 2:5. Denver Bronco