A defensive approach in which fantasy football managers select an entire team's defensive players to score points. In this case, the offense is most likely stocked with individual studly players, but the defense will be in the hands of one team's entire defensive squad. The opposite of team defense is called individual defensive player (IDP). A potential downside of the team defense approach is that the team's defensive skills are difficult to predict.

Team defense is designed to simplify the fantasy football game by allowing owners to concentrate on the more exciting offensive aspect of football.