D/ST rankings for AFC, NFC Championship Game fantasy football

Do you know how the tagline for Shark Week is that it is a bad week to be a seal? Well, this week is a bad week to be a defense. We are in the Championship Round of the 2022 NFL playoffs and the Divisional Round is already being regarded as the best weekend of playoff football ever. Three games ended on a field goal as time expired and the other ended in overtime. The Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers are playing for a spot in the Super Bowl and their defenses are in for a long weekend.

Let’s start at the bottom with the Bengals' defense. While they did well their best to slow down Derrick Henry in the Divisional Round, they now have to try to stop the Chiefs' offense and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns when these teams met in Week 17, but the Bengals had trouble stopping the running backs of the Chiefs.

The Chiefs' defense is next because quarterback Joe Burrow torched them for 446 yards and four touchdowns in their Week 17 game. Their defensive line should feast on the Bengals' offensive line, but Burrow and his wide receivers will look to air out the ball.

Sitting on top of the rankings are the 49ers and the Rams defense who both boast great defensive fronts with talent in the secondary. The reason that they are ranked so highly is really that they don’t have to deal with Mahomes and Burrow. Again, you aren’t feeling great about any of these options, but I think that the 49ers and Rams have the best chance at a semblance of value.