Ah, how good it is to be back. After a very long off-season and a shortened content season last year due to an emergency surgery, it feels good to be back behind the reins. I’ve invested a lot of my time and effort into my golf series, Out of the Rough, and though that content will continue to come at you weekly, I will continue a few of my regular fantasy football series; such as this one.
I’m one to never invest a high draft stock into team defenses. I play the waiver wire every single week to find my D/ST for the upcoming week. Due to this, I find myself never drafting a defense and waiting for just before the start of Week 1 to grab my first defense of the season. This is where this series comes into play. Every week I will be suggesting my favorite three team defenses that are regularly available on waiver wires across most formats. I will also keep a running total of how my selections measure up across the season below.
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.
With it being Week 1, there are no results to go off of, so let’s jump into things!
Week 1 Suggestions
Tennessee Titans vs. New York Giants (Owned in 37% of Yahoo and 14.7% of ESPN Leagues)
The New York Giants did improve their offensive line by bringing in Evan Neal with the seventh overall pick to play opposite Andrew Thomas on the right side of the line. Despite this, the Giants still don’t have much going for them offensively. Saquon Barkley only averaged 3.7 yards-per-carry a year ago and big 2021 offseason signing Kenny Golladay caught just 37 balls. Kadarius Toney is in line to have a good sophomore year but there still is the fact that Daniel Jones is the quarterback. He was on pace to throw 11 interceptions a season ago. The Titans brought in Roger McCreary via the draft to help with the porous secondary as well. The Titans are opening up at home after a depressing exit from the playoffs a season ago, we can only hope this team shows up for its fans. This is also the coaching debut for new Giants’ Head Coach Brian Daboll.
Cleveland Browns at Carolina Panthers (Owned in 20% of Yahoo and 39.4% of ESPN Leagues)
With Baker Mayfield being the new quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, he has something to prove against the team that gave up on him for the likes of now suspended Deshaun Watson. This could go against Baker however as he’s proven in the past to try and do too much opposed to just enough. The Browns’ defense has plenty of firepower with the likes of Defensive Player of the Year hopeful Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney, Denzel Ward, Grant Delpit, Greedy Williams and the list goes on and on. The Panthers did invest in their offensive line early in the draft with drafting Ikem Ekwonu sixth overall. They’re still a bottom third offensive line unit in the league which will see the likes of Garrett and Clowney having a field day on their old teammate.
Jacksonville Jaguars at Washington Commanders (Owned in 1% of Yahoo and 0.5% of ESPN Leagues)
This Jaguars’ team is going to be much improved from a season ago. Not only did they use the first overall selection on pass rusher Travon Walker, they also used a second first round selection on Devin Lloyd on the inside. This Commanders’ team continues to be a mess. They’re moving onto Carson Wentz to be their quarterback who isn’t the answer. Their future starting running back in Brian Robinson was shot during an attempted robbery, their receiving corps is not near league standards. I think the Jaguars come out in week one with a statement win.