Here we finally are ladies and gentlemen. After a long off-season, it’s finally time to break out the first edition of Nate’s Streamable Defenses of the Week! It’s simple. Each week I (Nate) will bring you three of my favorite streamable defenses of the week. Easy enough. If you still play in a league that rosters defenses, you know by now how important finding the right team to play week-in-and-week-out is. We’re entering Season 4 of the series. Nate’s proven time and time again that he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to striking gold on the waiver wire, especially when it comes to defenses. In future editions you can find last week’s results below and previous week’s results at the bottom of the article. Shall we get into things?
If you’re anything like me, you don’t draft a defense, or wait until your very last pick. I always find it more important to use earlier selections on position players as you can find great value on the waiver wire each week for defenses. I will also keep a running total of my top, second and below 10-percent results and provide a ranking of where my results rank according to other defenses throughout the season.
The premise of this article is to bring forth three streamable defenses that fantasy football players should look to use for that respective week. To qualify for this series, defenses must be owned in less than 40-percent of Yahoo and/or ESPN leagues. At least one of the suggested defenses will be owned in less than 10-percent of Yahoo and/or ESPN leagues to cater to every fantasy player. You can find last week’s results below and previous week’s results at the bottom of this article.
Week 1 Suggestions
Carolina Panthers vs. New York Jets - Owned in 33% of Yahoo and 17.8% of ESPN Leagues
I’m going to get off to a good start this week with a very juicy matchup. I have been wrong though in these “easy” picks, I hate to admit. But we do have a none experienced Jets’ roster that still ranks towards the bottom of the league. Zach Wilson, a rookie quarterback, will be leading the way with several other young offensive weapons. The Panthers’ defense isn’t anything to write home about, but they are hosting the Jets, which too gives them a boost. The Panthers’ weren’t as bad of a defense last season as people will lead you to believe and in the off-season they had a lot of under-the-radar free agency moves. On top of all of that, mainly filling a lot of glaring holes in their front even via free agency, they selected South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn in the top ten of the NFL draft to have a true lockdown man-on-man corner. I think the Panthers’ defense outplays their expectations and they get a nice start to the season with the Jets.
Minnesota Vikings at Cincinnati Bengals - Owned in 25% of Yahoo and 31% of ESPN leagues
Now, the Bengals are a much improved offense from a season ago as Joe Burrow is back from a torn ACL and they used a top five pick on JaMarr Chase. The problem is still their offensive line. The Bengals will host the Vikings in Week 1, but I think the Vikings’ defense will have a field day. Burrow has only played a handful of NFL games in his career as he suffered a torn ACL in Week 10 of the 2021 season. He’s going to be a bit timid and shaky out of the gate. On top of that, this is a Vikings defense that added Patrick Peterson and Xavier Woods to their secondary. What is the difference maker here to me though is the addition of Dalvin Tomlinson to pair with Michael Pierce in the middle of the defensive line. Against this poor Bengals’ line, the Vikings defense could have big numbers this week.
Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans - Owned in 5% of Yahoo and 1.5% of ESPN league
Amidst the Deshaun Watson accusations and the naming of Tyrod Taylor the team’s starter, the Texans are not in an ideal position. Watson has yet to receive a suspension from the NFL, but we can assume one is coming as the team named Taylor as their starter. Tyrod is an okay quarterback, but he’s no Watson, who despite having one of the worst teams in the league can still be a threat. The Jaguars used the first pick of the second round to select a cornerback in Tyson Campbell to go along with one of the league’s best single man coverage corners in C.J. Henderson. They also signed Shaquill Griffin this past off-season. This is a much improved secondary that can cause fits for Tyrod in Week 1.
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