Fantasy Football Rankings 2020: Half-PPR tiers for each position

Fantasy Football Rankings: Defenses/Special Teams

1. San Francisco 49ers
2. Baltimore Ravens
3. Pittsburgh Steelers
4. New England Patriots
5. New Orleans Saints
6. Minnesota Vikings
7. Chicago Bears
8. Buffalo Bills
9. Los Angeles Rams
10. Los Angeles Chargers
11. Philadelphia Eagles
12. Kansas City Chiefs
13. Seattle Seahawks
14. Tennessee Titans
15. Indianapolis Colts
16. Denver Broncos
17. Cleveland Browns
18. Houston Texans
19. New York Jets
20. Dallas Cowboys

Fantasy Football Rankings: Kickers

1. Justin Tucker BAL
2. Wil Lutz NO
3. Harrison Butker KC
4. Greg Zuerlein DAL
5. Matt Prater DET
6. Robbie Gould SF
7. Zane Gonzalez ARI
8. Michael Badgley LAC
9. Mason Crosby GB
10. Jake Elliott PHI
11. Ka’imi Fairbairn HOU
12. Ryan Succop TB
13. Brandon McManus DEN
14. Dan Bailey MIN
15. Jason Myers SEA

Please, if you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: don’t be the one to take the first Team Defense or Kicker in your draft. Doing so means foregoing solid value at other positions in your draft.

Astute fantasy football managers will wait until the last two rounds to fill these two gaping holes in their lineups and choose to “stream” these two positions. They save draft capital for positions that matter most and seek the best matchups available via free agency or the waiver wire each week.

Wasting bench spots on kickers and defenses instead of taking flyers on players when upside will hurt when nagging injuries and bye weeks start showing their ugly mugs. Ideally, only two spots on a fantasy football roster should ever be dedicated to kickers and defenses, two fantasy football positions whose rankings are subject to more weekly volatility than any other, given the changing relative weakness of opposing defenses and offenses, respectively.