Defense vs position › RB

NFL Defense vs Running Backs — 2025 Rankings

The most generous defenses to running backs in 2025 were Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants, Washington Commanders. Full 32-team table below — season and last-4-games rates, TDs, yards per target, explosive plays. 🔒 marks defenses whose RB tendency was two-year stable — our persistence testing found most single-season defense-vs-position ranks do NOT repeat, so the stable ones are the only ones worth planning around.

Rk*	Defense	Rush yds/gm	Last 4	TD/gm	Y/tgt	Expl/gm
32	Cincinnati Bengals	119.2	97.0	0.41	7.1	0.6
31	New York Giants 🔒	116.5	88.0	0.24	5.5	0.1
30	Washington Commanders 🔒	115.5	129.0	0.24	6.8	0.4
29	Arizona Cardinals 🔒	113.3	130.8	0.24	6.3	0.3
28	New York Jets	110.0	103.0	0.65	7.3	0.5
27	Buffalo Bills	107.3	104.0	0.12	4.8	0.2
26	Miami Dolphins	107.2	112.2	0.24	6.6	0.1
25	Carolina Panthers 🔒	106.4	108.8	0.12	5.2	0.1
24	Minnesota Vikings	105.1	104.2	0.00	4.7	0.0
23	Chicago Bears 🔒	104.2	107.5	0.24	5.3	0.2
22	New Orleans Saints	102.7	70.0	0.18	5.7	0.2
21	Green Bay Packers	100.5	137.5	0.00	4.7	0.2
20	Atlanta Falcons	99.8	100.8	0.24	5.5	0.2
19	Las Vegas Raiders	97.7	101.2	0.06	4.9	0.1
18	Pittsburgh Steelers	96.4	66.0	0.12	5.4	0.2
17	Cleveland Browns	96.4	120.5	0.18	5.0	0.3
16	Philadelphia Eagles	96.1	80.0	0.24	7.4	0.3
15	Dallas Cowboys	95.2	101.2	0.18	7.4	0.4
14	San Francisco 49ers	93.1	114.8	0.18	5.4	0.1
13	Tennessee Titans	91.4	70.5	0.12	6.3	0.3
12	Detroit Lions	89.1	118.2	0.06	5.3	0.2
11	Los Angeles Rams	88.6	120.0	0.18	5.9	0.2
10	Indianapolis Colts	86.8	100.5	0.18	4.4	0.1
9	Los Angeles Chargers	84.8	66.5	0.00	4.9	0.2
8	Kansas City Chiefs 🔒	83.1	106.0	0.24	5.8	0.2
7	Baltimore Ravens 🔒	82.1	61.0	0.18	6.3	0.4
6	Tampa Bay Buccaneers 🔒	78.8	81.5	0.24	9.4	0.8
5	New England Patriots	77.1	112.8	0.12	5.2	0.2
4	Houston Texans	73.4	72.5	0.12	6.0	0.4
3	Seattle Seahawks	72.9	80.8	0.12	4.9	0.3
2	Denver Broncos 🔒	71.8	65.0	0.35	5.0	0.2
1	Jacksonville Jaguars	67.7	77.2	0.18	5.4	0.2

*Rank 1 = fewest allowed (stingiest). Sorted most-generous first. 🔒 = two-year-stable tendency. Per-game rates, 2025 regular season.

Team pages: ARI · ATL · BAL · BUF · CAR · CHI · CIN · CLE · DAL · DEN · DET · GB · HOU · IND · JAX · KC · LA · LAC · LV · MIA · MIN · NE · NO · NYG · NYJ · PHI · PIT · SEA · SF · TB · TEN · WAS

Methodology: computed from nflverse play-by-play; a quarter's yards are the yards gained on plays snapped in that quarter. Averages use each player's games played, not team games. Updated 2026-07-28.

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