Rankings
Top 20 Defensive Backs: Dynasty Value Score
Brian Branch leads the points board and this one. After that the lists split — a top-3 name on the points board misses this Top 20 entirely.
By Kenny Flermoen · August 21, 2026
This is the companion to our Top 30 DB season projections — re-ranked by Dynasty Value Score (DVS) instead of next year's point total. Same Engine board that feeds the trade calculator, the IDP player hub, and the overall IDP / DL / LB DVS boards. How the score is built is in What Is Dynasty Value Score?.
Top 20 DB by Dynasty Value Score
| Rank | Player | Team | Age | Value | 2026 Proj | 2025 Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Branch | DET | 24 | 5,497 | 173.6 | 130.8 |
| 2 | Kyle Hamilton | BAL | 25 | 5,210 | 166.6 | 162.5 |
| 3 | Antoine Winfield Jr. | TB | 28 | 5,121 | 166.7 | 151.5 |
| 4 | Jessie Bates | ATL | 29 | 5,042 | 164.0 | 150.8 |
| 5 | Derwin James | LAC | 30 | 4,942 | 168.3 | 156.0 |
| 6 | Xavier McKinney | GB | 27 | 4,730 | 158.2 | 150.7 |
| 7 | Devon Witherspoon | SEA | 25 | 4,573 | 154.6 | 115.6 |
| 8 | Tre'von Moehrig | CAR | 27 | 4,528 | 155.6 | 166.6 |
| 9 | Budda Baker | ARI | 30 | 4,483 | 164.8 | 154.7 |
| 10 | Kam Curl | LA | 27 | 4,433 | 153.1 | 178.3 |
| 11 | Paulson Adebo | NYG | 27 | 4,348 | 137.1 | 114.3 |
| 12 | Nick Cross | WAS | 24 | 4,203 | 154.2 | 177.5 |
| 13 | Alontae Taylor | TEN | 27 | 4,195 | 150.0 | 153.5 |
| 14 | Kamari Lassiter | HOU | 23 | 4,163 | 151.9 | 166.7 |
| 15 | Tykee Smith | TB | 25 | 4,131 | 158.2 | 171.7 |
| 16 | Grant Delpit | CLE | 27 | 4,110 | 147.9 | 145.2 |
| 17 | Camryn Bynum | IND | 28 | 4,043 | 147.8 | 143.8 |
| 18 | Brandon Jones | DEN | 28 | 3,960 | 149.9 | 110.7 |
| 19 | Jeremy Chinn | LV | 28 | 3,957 | 148.5 | 155.3 |
| 20 | Geno Stone | BUF | 27 | 3,902 | 146.3 | 163.2 |
Base IDP dynasty format. DVS is a trade-value score built on age, past production, and the 2026 projection — not a raw scoring ranking. 2026 Proj is the live Engine overlay that feeds this score; a dash means there is no overlay row yet.
Branch leads both. The rest of the top 3 does not.
Brian Branch tops the points board and this one — 24 years old, the highest 2026 line at the position, and a real 2025 behind it. Kyle Hamilton is 2nd here and 6th on the points board. Antoine Winfield Jr. is 3rd here. Paulson Adebo was 2nd on the points board and lands 11th here after a 12-game 114.3-point 2025. The two models agree on Branch. They do not agree on who sits next to him.
A top-3 projected safety falls off the board completely
DeShon Elliott ranked 3rd on the season-projection board. He is 171st here, and it is not close. His 2025 total was 61.5 points in five games, and the live 2026 line is 112.1. DVS weighs that season as real information, not a fluke to project past. This is the sharpest split on the IDP boards this year: a player the points model still has near the top of the published list, and a player the trade-value model is not willing to bet on yet.
Julian Love is the same 2025 on a different résumé
Julian Love scored 61.3 points in seven games — nearly the same 2025 total as Elliott — and ranks 30th here, not inside this twenty. A longer track record keeps him closer than Elliott at 171st. The gap between 30th and 171st on almost the same prior-season total is a useful read on how much this model leans on more than one year.
The back half is close enough to reshuffle
From 11th to 20th the board covers about 450 value points. Rank 18 and rank 20 are 58 apart. Grant Delpit, Camryn Bynum, and Geno Stone sit close enough that a small model update could reorder several of them. Do not treat the last few spots as a locked order at this position.
Model any of these players against your own roster on the Dynasty Trade Calculator.
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FAQ
- How is Dynasty Value Score different from the DB season-projection rankings?
- Season projections rank who scores the most points in 2026. DVS ranks who's worth the most in a trade — it weighs age and actual 2025 production alongside next year's projection, so a strong outlook built on a thin prior season won't automatically rank near the top here.
- Why does a top-3 projected player sometimes miss the DVS Top 20 completely?
- If a player's actual 2025 production was low — often because of injury or a limited role — DVS treats that as real risk, even when the 2026 projection looks strong. The points board and the trade-value board are answering different questions.
- Why is this board so tightly bunched near the bottom?
- Safety and slot-corner production jumps around year to year, so a lot of defensive backs land in a similar range once you get past the top handful. Small model updates can reorder the back half of this list.