If you read my article on playing the waiver wire game, you know that it is an essential part of winning your fantasy football league. If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for? I just told you it’s an essential part of winning your fantasy football league! Why do you hate winning? One of the best ways to maximize your weekly scoring is to stream defenses. This strategy is simple: stop being concerned with finding good defenses, and find defenses that are playing against terrible offenses. Bad offenses are more likely to keep playing poorly because if they knew how to be good, they would already be good. Following this flawless logic, let’s find out who we should stream this week!
Tennessee Titans Defense (52% owned) @ Denver Broncos
Remember when the Broncos were going to finally solve all their quarterback problems and make a run for the division? Then after you got your hopes up, what ended up happening is they gave up the eighth-most sacks to opposing defenses, scored the third-fewest points per game, had the second-worst third down conversion rate, and the worst red zone conversion rate. It would be easy to panic when you realize the Broncos are playing a Tennessee Titans team that has the sixth-fewest drives ending in scores and the best third-down conversation rate in football. But Don’t Worry Denver. Everything will be fine. (I’m lying to make Denver feel better. Start the Titans wherever you can! The Broncos give up the eighth-most fantasy points to opposing defenses!)
Arizona Cardinals Defense (29% owned) @ Los Angeles Rams
It is very simple. The Arizona Cardinals aren’t particularly good. About the only thing they have going for them is that they are not the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams give up the most fantasy points to opposing defenses. You might be wondering how the defending Super Bowl champs could end up like this. It is pretty easy. When you have the sixth-most turnovers in football, give up the fifth-most sacks to opposing defenses, and score the fourth-fewest points per game, you are going to lose a lot of football games. It is so bad that Sean McVay is already talking about retiring! But if you start a defense in fantasy football that is playing the Rams, you are going to win a lot of fantasy football games. That means you start the Arizona Cardinals and hope the Rams keep Ramming it up.
New York Giants Defense (33% owned) @ Houston Texans
What happens when an unstoppable force meets the most moveable object in the history of objects? I’m talking about an object wearing roller skates on ice. Because the mobility of Daniel Jones paired with the unworldly ability of Saquon Barkley is matching up against the absolute worst run defense in football. In just about every conceivable metric, the Texans rank near the bottom of the league in run defense. Since coming off their bye, they have given up an average of 207 yards per game. More importantly, each defense that has played the Texans has finished exactly seventh amongst fantasy football defenses. So start the Giants. They will be the seventh-best fantasy defense of week ten. It’s science.
VERY IMPORTANT DEFENSIVE STREAMER NOTE FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON! IGNORE IT AT YOUR PERIL!
If you have the space on your roster, I want to point out that teams in your league could end up cutting the New England Patriots or New York Jets defenses to cover bye weeks. If they do and you have the space to hold an extra defense, grab them. They are both top-five defenses on the season and as much as I enjoy streaming defenses, I much prefer having great ones.
