It wasn’t a homerun type of opening week for the series but it also wasn’t a total failure. Our top option walked away as the DST9 on the week and our middle and under 10-percent owned options came in at tied for DST13. Starting in the top ten after Week 1 is a win in my books. Now let’s get into Week 2!
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.
The Titans’ defense played tough in a loss to the New York Giants. They allowed 21 points but did manage five sacks and two takeaways. Not shabby at all. The Browns used four sacks and an interception to tally six fantasy points as the Jaguars took the ball away three times from Carson Wentz and the Washington Commanders but recorded just one sack and allowed 28 points.
Week 1 Results
Tennessee Titans vs. New York Giants - 9 points
Cleveland Browns at Carolina Panthers - 6 points
Jacksonville Jaguars at Washington Commanders - 6 points
Overall Results
Top Suggestion - DST9
Middle Suggestion - DST13
Under 10-Percent Owned - DST3
Week 2 Suggestions
Cincinnati Bengals at Dallas Cowboys (Owned in 44% of Yahoo and 39.5% of ESPN Leagues)
You know what the best part of making your own series is? You get to break your own rules. With that being said, I’m going to break my 40-percent owned guideline and roll with the Bengals here as they’re under in ESPN leagues and slightly over in Yahoo leagues. Anyhow, this is self explanatory. Dak Prescott is receiving surgery to repair an injured thumb and Cooper Rush is set to be the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys didn’t even record a single touchdown a week ago with Dak leaving early, the only team in Week 1 to not score one.
Carolina Panthers at New York Giants (Owned in 4% of Yahoo and 4.4% of ESPN Leagues)
Suggestions this week for the Streamable Defenses of the Week series are limited. Like very limited. But that’s part of streaming defenses. You’re going to have some weeks like this. Anyhow, this Giants’ offensive line did not look too good in Week 1 allowing Daniel Jones to get sacked five times. The Giants also turned the ball over twice. Now the Panthers recorded just one sack last week against the Browns, but the Browns have one of the better lines in the league. Jones is going to get hit and he’s going to make mistakes. The Giants will continually be a team we monitor for this series as we’ll pick against them when we get the chance.
Detroit Lions vs. Washington Commanders (Owned in 1% of Yahoo and 0.7% of ESPN Leagues)
I’m going with the high upside of the Lions’ defense here against this Washington team that gave the ball away three times to the Jaguars in Week 1. Carson Wentz is going to move the ball against the Lions and the Commanders could score their fair share of points along the way, but there are going to be mistakes and there are going to be turnovers. A couple of turnovers go a long way in streaming defenses. Say this Lions’ team can get a turnover against Wentz and not allow the Commanders to drop 30-plus on them like the Eagles did, this could be a good play this week.