Chasing fumble recoveries with fantasy defenses seldom pays off. There's not a ton of separation (more than half the league's teams finished within 2 of each other last season), and results are sometimes illogical (the Rams last year finished 3rd in sacks but 3rd-worst in fumble recoveries). But if you want to use them as a tiebreaker between close defenses, give an edge to the Colts.
Linebacker Darius Leonard is unusually productive in this regard, and the Colts added another such player last month. Leonard led the NFL with 8 forced fumbles last year; his 17 during his four-year career is 2nd-only to T.J. Watt. And the Colts just traded for Yannick Ngakoue, who for some reason doesn't stay anywhere long -- he's now with his fifth team since 2019, if you can believe it -- but he's also very productive in this area. He led the league with 6 forced fumbles in 2017, and in the last four seasons has 10. That's just outside the top 10 in that same time period.
| FORCED FUMBLES, 2018-2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | FF | FR |
| T.J. Watt | OLB | 62 | 21 | 7 |
| Darius Leonard | OLB | 58 | 17 | 7 |
| Chandler Jones | DE | 52 | 17 | 6 |
| Aaron Donald | DT | 65 | 14 | 4 |
| Khalil Mack | OLB | 53 | 14 | 6 |
| Marlon Humphrey | CB | 57 | 12 | 3 |
| Josh Norman | CB | 52 | 12 | 3 |
| Shaquil Barrett | OLB | 59 | 11 | 2 |
| Robert Quinn | DE | 61 | 11 | 1 |
| J.J. Watt | DE | 47 | 11 | 3 |
| Yannick Ngakoue | DE | 63 | 10 | 1 |
| Dee Ford | OLB | 34 | 10 | 0 |
| Myles Garrett | DE | 57 | 10 | 3 |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | DE | 55 | 10 | 4 |
| Vonn Bell | SS | 61 | 9 | 9 |
| Lavonte David | OLB | 58 | 9 | 6 |
| Justin Houston | OLB | 59 | 9 | 9 |
| Malcolm Jenkins | FS | 64 | 9 | 3 |
| Haason Reddick | OLB | 64 | 9 | 2 |
| Logan Ryan | CB | 61 | 9 | 3 |
| Joey Bosa | DE | 51 | 8 | 2 |
| Frank Clark | DE | 59 | 8 | 4 |
| Jadeveon Clowney | OLB | 50 | 8 | 5 |
| Bud Dupree | OLB | 54 | 8 | 1 |
| Trey Flowers | DE | 44 | 8 | 2 |
| Dante Fowler | OLB | 59 | 8 | 3 |
| Randy Gregory | DE | 36 | 8 | 2 |
| Terrance Mitchell | CB | 53 | 8 | 1 |
| Jason Pierre-Paul | DE | 54 | 8 | 3 |
| Kyle Van Noy | MLB | 61 | 8 | 7 |
Search tools at pro-football-reference.com were used in compiling this table. The Colts aren't the only team with two players among the league leaders the last few years. The Chargers (after trading for Khalil Mack) have a pair, as does Dallas; Tampa Bay -- if it brings back Jason Pierre-Paul -- would have three. So give a slight edge to those defenses, too. But the Colts have two of the very best.
--Andy Richardson