The fact that you think that Ninkovich is the Pats best player on defense shows the fallacy of your post. Ninkovich is behinds the following (in no particular order):
1) Devin McCourty
2) Jamie Collins
3) Jarod Mayo
4) Jabaal Sheard
5) Chandler Jones
The LEAGUE ranks defenses by how many YARDS they give up. Unless something has changed and they are giving teams points just for the number of YARDS a team ears during the game, then YARDS don't matter one damn bit. It's points allowed that matter.