The Los Angeles Rams move to the No. 1 spot in overall DVOA as well as both offense and defense with their big 34-7 victory over Tampa Bay this week. Seattle drops into the No. 2 spot, and the Seahawks are closer to the Rams than you might expect because of special teams but would be significantly behind without special teams. Indianapolis, Detroit and Kansas City still round out the top five.
For the Rams to finish the season No. 1 in both offense and defense would be quite a feat. Other teams have been on top in both categories during the season but only one team in the current version of DVOA has finished the season No. 1 on both offense and defense: the 2001 version of the Rams, which lost to the Patriots in a big Super Bowl upset.
What’s particularly remarkable about the Rams is their amazing consistency this season. The Rams have the lowest game-to-game variance in the league. This week against Tampa Bay had 80.8% DVOA, but the Rams have only one other game above 50% (Week 4, 27-20 over the Colts). However, the Rams have been above 20% in every single game, including their two losses. They come out and play well every single week. No stinkers yet, and not even any average performances.
Best Total DVOA Through 11 Games, 1978-2025
YEAR
TEAM
W-L
DVOA
2007
NE
11-0
69.3%
1991
WAS
11-0
51.3%
1998
DEN
11-0
51.2%
1985
CHI
11-0
50.2%
2024
DET
10-1
47.5%
1995
DAL
9-2
47.1%
2018
KC
9-2
46.1%
2023
BAL
8-3
43.1%
2002
TB
9-2
41.8%
2025
LAR
9-2
41.6%
2007
DAL
10-1
40.4%
2025
SEA
8-3
40.2%
2009
NO
11-0
40.1%
The Seahawks are also in the top five for both offense and defense and I thought this would be a rare occurance, to have two teams rank in the top five for both sides of the ball. But it is not. Every few years we end up with two teams this good and balanced. After Week 12 of 1980, there were three teams that ranked in the top five for both! (In case you are curious, they were 11-1 Philadelphia, 8-4 San Diego and 8-4 New England.)
We still have some teams that are historically low given their win-loss records. Carolina evened out a bit by losing last night and dropping to 6-6. However, Chicago now has the lowest DVOA ever for a team at 8-3, while the Patriots have the second-lowest DVOA ever for a team at 10-2 (ahead of just the 2022 Minnesota Vikings).
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the league we have a couple of very, very bad defenses. The Cincinnati Bengals had a reasonable game against the Patriots but still maintain their “lead” as the worst defense ever tracked by DVOA, just barely ahead of the 1979 San Francisco 49ers.
Worst Defensive DVOA Through 11 Games, 1978-2025
YEAR
TEAM
W-L
DVOA
2025
CIN
3-8
27.5%
1979
SF
1-10
27.4%
2013
SD
5-6
27.2%
1981
BALC
1-10
26.7%
2002
KC
5-6
26.2%
2000
SEA
4-7
23.2%
2005
HOU
1-10
23.1%
2004
STL
5-6
22.9%
2001
ARI
5-6
22.8%
2019
MIA
2-9
22.5%
1998
CIN
2-9
22.4%
1990
CIN
6-5
22.2%
Meanwhile, the Giants got run over by Jahmyr Gibbs this week, which puts their run defense back down near the bottom of history as well. Only the 1978 Bills had a worse run defense by DVOA through 12 games.
Worst Run Defense DVOA Through 12 Games, 1978-2025
YEAR
TEAM
W-L
DVOA
1978
BUF
3-9
20.1%
2025
NYG
2-10
19.9%
1983
HOIL
1-11
19.7%
2007
OAK
4-8
19.3%
1993
CIN
1-11
18.2%
2006
BUF
5-7
16.9%
1979
NO
6-6
16.6%
1998
WAS
3-9
16.6%
1992
LARM
4-8
16.5%
2005
ATL
7-5
15.8%
1996
WAS
8-4
15.8%
2019
CAR
5-7
15.5%
* * * * *
These are the FTN DVOA ratings through 12 weeks of 2025. Our Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system breaks down every single play and compares a team’s performance to the league average based on situation in order to determine value over average. (Explained further here.)
OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted for performance indoors and consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season. As always, positive numbers represent more points so DEFENSE is better when it is NEGATIVE.
WEIGHTED DVOA represents an attempt to figure out how a team is playing right now, as opposed to over the season as a whole, by making recent games more important than earlier games.
RK
TEAM
TOTAL
DVOA
LAST
WEEK
WEI.
DVOA
RK
W-L
OFF.
DVOA
OFF.
RK
DEF.
DVOA
DEF.
RK
S.T.
DVOA
S.T.
RK
1
LAR
41.6%
2
42.1%
1
9-2
25.5%
1
-19.3%
1
-3.2%
25
2
SEA
40.2%
1
40.4%
2
8-3
17.5%
4
-15.6%
3
7.2%
2
3
IND
34.7%
3
33.3%
3
8-3
25.0%
2
-4.7%
11
5.0%
4
4
DET
27.9%
4
25.9%
4
7-4
15.1%
6
-9.8%
6
3.0%
10
5
KC
20.4%
5
19.9%
5
6-5
19.5%
3
-3.7%
12
-2.8%
24
6
GB
17.3%
7
17.6%
6
7-3-1
13.7%
8
-5.9%
9
-2.2%
23
7
DEN
13.6%
8
15.3%
7
9-2
-0.7%
15
-15.0%
5
-0.7%
18
8
PHI
13.5%
6
12.9%
8
8-3
8.3%
10
-6.8%
8
-1.6%
21
9
HOU
12.8%
10
12.7%
9
6-5
-5.3%
23
-19.0%
2
-0.8%
19
10
BUF
10.1%
9
10.8%
10
7-4
15.3%
5
6.4%
22
1.1%
15
11
SF
7.7%
12
8.7%
11
8-4
14.4%
7
6.7%
23
-0.1%
16
12
JAX
5.3%
15
4.2%
13
7-4
-2.5%
20
-2.3%
14
5.5%
3
13
BAL
3.7%
11
6.0%
12
6-5
3.7%
12
3.3%
20
3.3%
8
14
PIT
2.8%
14
3.5%
14
6-5
-0.8%
16
-2.3%
15
1.3%
14
15
TB
0.9%
13
2.0%
15
6-5
-1.9%
19
-7.5%
7
-4.7%
27
16
LAC
-2.5%
16
-3.5%
17
7-4
-0.8%
17
-2.2%
16
-3.8%
26
RK
TEAM
TOTAL
DVOA
LAST
WEEK
WEI.
DVOA
RK
W-L
OFF.
DVOA
OFF.
RK
DEF.
DVOA
DEF.
RK
S.T.
DVOA
S.T.
RK
17
NE
-3.6%
17
-1.9%
16
10-2
7.3%
11
10.3%
27
-0.6%
17
18
DAL
-3.9%
19
-5.2%
19
5-5-1
10.9%
9
16.8%
31
1.9%
12
19
ATL
-4.4%
18
-5.1%
18
4-7
-3.2%
21
-3.6%
13
-4.9%
28
20
WAS
-7.7%
20
-14.7%
24
3-8
-3.5%
22
9.1%
26
4.9%
5
21
ARI
-8.0%
21
-8.2%
22
3-8
-7.8%
24
-5.2%
10
-5.3%
29
22
CHI
-9.5%
25
-8.0%
21
8-3
0.5%
14
7.9%
25
-2.1%
22
23
NYG
-10.0%
24
-7.0%
20
2-10
-1.0%
18
10.6%
28
1.6%
13
24
MIA
-12.0%
22
-8.5%
23
4-7
-8.6%
25
7.5%
24
4.1%
6
25
MIN
-16.4%
23
-17.7%
25
4-7
-20.1%
29
-1.0%
18
2.6%
11
26
NYJ
-19.6%
27
-19.8%
27
2-9
-15.1%
27
14.0%
30
9.5%
1
27
CAR
-19.6%
26
-19.3%
26
6-6
-12.2%
26
5.9%
21
-1.5%
20
28
CIN
-23.7%
28
-20.1%
28
3-8
0.7%
13
27.5%
32
3.1%
9
29
CLE
-25.8%
31
-26.5%
29
3-8
-33.3%
32
-15.5%
4
-8.0%
31
30
NO
-28.2%
30
-26.9%
30
2-9
-17.9%
28
0.7%
19
-9.6%
32
31
LV
-30.5%
29
-30.7%
32
2-9
-26.7%
31
-2.0%
17
-5.8%
30
32
TEN
-30.9%
32
-30.0%
31
1-10
-23.9%
30
10.7%
29
3.6%
7
