The Defensive Line – Week 10 D/ST Streaming

Four teams that you should consider streaming as your fantasy football defense in Week 10.

Michael James
Streaming Defenses A Year Ago

Welcome to week 10.  Last week got you through a week that had six teams on bye and we faired pretty well.  Let’s see the result for the Chiefs, Vikings, Bengals, and Dolphins in week 9:  In leagues that count yards against, all four recommendations answered the call.  The one team that came up short in leagues without that setting was the Chiefs who only got four points in those types of leagues.  This week we greet the owners of the Jets, Ravens, and Patriots who are looking to fill the gap left by the bye as well as anyone else looking for a change.  Let’s get started.  As always, we’re looking for teams rostered around 50% or lower rostered.

Please note that there is a good chance better teams are out there in your league than these four, but we cannot assume they’re out there for every league. Stay active and monitor the league home page, there is also a chance someone will drop a defense after the waivers clear for this week as well.

 

New York Giants

Opponent: vs Houston Texans

ESPN % Rostered: 6%

Yahoo % Rostered: 11%

 

The New York Giants are the blitziest team in the NFL with a league-high 39.1% blitz rate and the second-most blitzes on the season.  Take that at home against David Mills, who has been sacked 3 times in each of the last two games.  He has also thrown 4 interceptions in the last three games on top of that.  The Giants are coming in off the bye with 4 turnovers and 5 sacks in their last three games.  The Giants have held three of their last four quarterbacks faced under 225 yards passing, with the lone exception being against the Jaguars.  The Giants are allowing the sixth-fewest yards after the catch, and it remains to be seen who the Texans will or won’t be putting out there at wide receiver.  The Giants have been hit or miss against the running game, holding star running backs under 65 yards, but on the other hand, allowing Kenyon Drake to go off for almost 120 yards.  The Texans have allowed 8-9 points to opposing defenses in fantasy over their last three games.

 

 

Tennessee Titans

Opponent: vs Denver Broncos

ESPN % Rostered: 16%

Yahoo % Rostered: 24%

 

Bet you didn’t see that Sunday night performance coming, did you?  Okay, maybe it was just me that didn’t.  Either way, the bend but don’t break performance by this Titans defense really showed the difference in league settings getting you great fantasy points in leagues that don’t count yards against, but punishing you in leagues that did after Patrick Mahomes‘ blistering total combined yards going over 500 himself.  Tennessee should have it easier this week at home against Russell Wilson and their 14 points per game average over their last four played.  Judging by this week’s injury report, it looks like the bye week wasn’t enough for the Broncos’ offensive line injuries which will lead to more pressure on Wilson.  The Titans bring the seventh most pressures this season against the quarterback to pair with their dominant top-five rushing defense.  This Titans defense brings 5 turnovers and 10 sacks in their last three games played against a Denver team that is averaging 3 sacks on the year and has turned the ball over in each of their last three games.

 

 

Denver Broncos

Opponent: vs Tennessee Titans

ESPN % Rostered: 35%

Yahoo % Rostered: 46%

 

And now to the other side of the ball!  Ryan Tannehill has only two games on the year where he threw over 200 yards, and Malik Willis only had 80 yards passing on 5 completions last week.  This is a Titans offense that has given up 8 sacks in their last three games since the bye.  The Broncos have the number one pass defense starring Pat Surtain on the outside who is playing out of his mind so far this year averaging 4 yards per attempt when throwing at him this season.  The Broncos as a unit are the league’s best in yards per play allowed and net yards per pass attempt.  Denver has the third most blitzes with the fourth-highest blitz rate which brings them to 7th overall with a 25% quarterback pressure rate.  Denver has had multiple sacks in every one of their games on the season.

 

 

Atlanta Falcons

Opponent: @ Carolina Panthers

ESPN % Rostered: 12%

Yahoo % Rostered: 7%

 

Here’s some chaos for you.  Thursday night football tends to favor lower scoring this season and with an 80% chance of rain for this matchup, this one should be fun.  The last time these teams faced each other two weeks ago, Atlanta came away with 8 fantasy points in leagues that didn’t track yards allowed.  This time they have Cordarrelle Patterson back to help chew up the clock.  They will go up against PJ Walker again, fresh off getting pulled from the game last week after 3 completions for 9 yards and 2 interceptions in the half.  The last time these two division rivals played the Falcons came out of that game with a sack, an interception, and a touchdown for their stat line.  If the weather pattern holds, this could be a fun one to target in deeper leagues if you need a defense.

 

 

As a bonus, two underperforming defenses with fantastic matchups include the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders.  Underperforming is used loosely for the Cardinals as they actually have scored a lot of points, but that is mostly on the back of 4 defensive touchdowns in their last four games.

 

These teams did not meet the consideration threshold for the main highlight section, but you should check to see if they’re available in your league:

San Francisco 49ers – ESPN: 79% Y!: 81%
Kansas City Chiefs – ESPN: 43% Y!: 75%
Miami Dolphins – ESPN: 71% Y!: 64%

 

Hit me up with some feedback @MikeoftheFF on Twitter

 

 

Photos by Zach Bolinger & Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire | Design by Michael Packard (@designsbypack on Twitter @ IG)

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