Defense vs position › TE

NFL Defense vs Tight Ends — 2025 Rankings

The most generous defenses to tight ends in 2025 were Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Cardinals. Full 32-team table below — season and last-4-games rates, TDs, yards per target, explosive plays. 🔒 marks defenses whose TE 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	Rec yds/gm	Last 4	TD/gm	Y/tgt	Expl/gm
32	Cincinnati Bengals 🔒	84.9	46.5	0.94	8.8	1.2
31	Indianapolis Colts 🔒	69.8	73.5	0.35	8.4	0.8
30	Arizona Cardinals	68.6	92.8	0.65	8.2	0.8
29	Miami Dolphins	66.7	61.8	0.47	8.1	0.9
28	Pittsburgh Steelers	65.9	75.8	0.65	7.8	0.7
27	Seattle Seahawks	63.2	36.8	0.35	7.5	1.0
26	Washington Commanders	61.2	60.5	0.71	9.1	0.8
25	New England Patriots	60.7	45.5	0.38	7.2	0.7
24	Carolina Panthers	59.9	47.2	0.41	8.8	0.8
23	Denver Broncos	59.7	46.8	0.35	7.1	0.6
22	Jacksonville Jaguars	59.1	39.5	0.47	6.8	0.6
21	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	57.0	83.2	0.71	7.4	0.4
20	San Francisco 49ers	56.9	71.0	0.59	6.6	0.5
19	New York Jets	55.8	85.8	0.59	7.4	0.5
18	Tennessee Titans	55.7	68.0	0.53	7.9	0.6
17	Detroit Lions	54.8	67.8	0.47	7.1	0.6
16	Dallas Cowboys	51.7	46.5	0.29	7.6	0.4
15	Chicago Bears	51.5	37.0	0.35	7.0	0.6
14	Cleveland Browns	51.5	64.5	0.24	7.4	0.5
13	New Orleans Saints	51.1	47.2	0.35	7.0	0.5
12	Atlanta Falcons	48.0	81.0	0.18	7.8	0.6
11	Kansas City Chiefs	47.6	51.5	0.24	8.0	0.6
10	New York Giants	47.5	53.0	0.29	7.1	0.6
9	Baltimore Ravens	46.5	42.2	0.24	7.1	0.5
7	Houston Texans	45.6	70.0	0.47	6.3	0.5
8	Los Angeles Rams	45.6	43.2	0.41	6.1	0.4
6	Green Bay Packers	44.6	41.8	0.35	5.9	0.3
5	Minnesota Vikings	42.3	13.0	0.35	6.5	0.4
4	Los Angeles Chargers	42.2	38.2	0.35	7.5	0.4
3	Las Vegas Raiders	38.6	42.2	0.35	6.8	0.4
2	Buffalo Bills	31.5	21.0	0.25	6.6	0.4
1	Philadelphia Eagles	29.8	19.8	0.24	4.8	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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