Welcome to Week 9! As we approach the halfway point of the season, it’s worth noting that the NFL trade deadline is approaching and serves as a reminder for you to check your league’s settings to find out when your trade deadline is listed. Last week saw a rebound towards the mean in the world of streaming defenses, but not all was well as the Bengals (4) were tested to the limits by the well-known offensive juggernaut from Tennessee, barely scraping together a few fantasy points on the day. Fortunately, we were bailed out by the Commanders (13) and Jaguars (20) absolutely balling out on defense, with the two combining for over 30 fantasy points.
There appears to be a trend that is quickly becoming noteworthy, and I am not talking about the Cardinals renaming the stadium in Dallas to State Farm East. We had yet another streak of missed kicks this week, with 10 games having at least one kick go awry, with 16 kicks missed for the weekend. A lot of these kicks are coming from 40+ yards out, which gives the opposing offense a decent starting position on every miss, thus making it that much harder for the defense to hold points off the board. Something to keep an eye on as we arrive at Week 9 and, fortunately, there are some decent options for us to consider this week as we browse the waiver wire looking for defenses rostered around 50 percent of leagues or fewer.
Please note that there’s a decent chance that better teams above this 50 percent threshold are available in your league, but we can’t assume they’re available to everyone. We have to draw the proverbial line somewhere, so stay active and monitor the league home page; someone might drop a desirable defense after waivers clear.
Chicago Bears
Opponent: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
ESPN Rostered: 29%
Yahoo Rostered: 29%
Last week, the Seahawks bolstered their offensive line with a trade to the benefit of the season debut for Zach Charbonnet. However, that party had a damper put on it quickly by the Bears’ defense, who also recently bolstered their defensive line by trading for human wrecking ball Jeffery Simmons, who made his impact felt immediately. Simmons debuted in that game, leading the team in total tackles and recording one sack, two tackles for a loss, and even registering a batted-down pass. They’ve held their last four opponents to under 100 yards total rushing and have only allowed a single running back, Bijan Robinson (61), to go for more than 35 yards on the ground. Chicago now looks to host a Tampa Bay offense that has been on a roll of late as the Buccaneers are undefeated when Baker Mayfield does not complete a single pass. They will, however, have their hands full bottling up the tandem of Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell, who have been the driving force behind the Buccaneers’ win streak. Simmons and company have shown they are up to the task and will look to push Mayfield into third-and-long situations where the Bears are tied for the fifth most sacks in the league. Fun fact: managers who started Michael Penix Jr. (-1 fantasy points) would have been better off starting Mayfield (1 fantasy point) and his zero completions… or just leaving the position empty. Oof.
New Orleans Saints
Opponent: vs. Cleveland Browns
ESPN Rostered: 2%
Yahoo Rostered: 5%
The Saints are coming off their bye week and hosting the mistake-prone Browns, who have been generous to opposing defenses in fantasy this season. Your current sack leader by a country mile (in this instance, one country mile = 10 sacks) is Deshaun Watson with 33 sacks taken on the season. New Orleans is averaging 7.5 fantasy points in their last three games, with ten sacks and six turnovers generated over that stretch. They now have an extra week to prepare for Cleveland, who is coming in as the third-best offense to stream a defense against this season with double-digit fantasy points in three of their past four games. The Browns have turned the ball over four times and surrendered a blistering 23 sacks over that span. The Saints have a top-ten blitz rate in the league; meanwhile, the Browns have a bottom-ten offense in average yards per game.
Detroit Lions
Opponent: @ Miami Dolphins
ESPN Rostered: 29%
Yahoo Rostered: 29%
The Lions have actually held a decent floor in fantasy this season when not playing premium-tier offenses like Buffalo and (double-checks notes) Carolina. If you take out those two games, Detroit’s defense is averaging seven fantasy points per game. Skewing favorable statistics aside, the point is that Miami is not a top-tier offense. In fact, they have the second-worst scoring offense in the NFL and have only cracked 20 points twice this season. They have also given up at least eight fantasy points to opposing defenses in all but one of their games this season (Week 7, Jets). Detroit has held their last three opponents to 21, 17, and 15 points scored, respectively, while piling up nine sacks and coming up with an interception in each of those three games. Detroit boasts the third-highest sacks in the league, while Malik Willis is the fourth most sacked quarterback in the league. However, no matter how much game prep you put into a matchup, sometimes greatness will still find a way. Fortunately for the Lions, the Dolphins do not currently have a Justin Jefferson.
After the Cut
New York Giants (E:3% Y!:3%) – The Giants come off their bye week and look to beat up their division rival Philadelphia, who might be looking to take walk-on applications on offense at this point.
Houston Texans (E:63% Y!:66%) – This defense was dropped in about 30% of leagues because of their bye last week and now play the Chargers, who are approaching historic levels of bad.
Kansas City Chiefs (E:53% Y!:44%) – A “get-right” game this week hosting the Jets, who have thrown an interception for three games in a row now.
Dallas Cowboys (E:16% Y!:17%) – The second-worst defense in fantasy plays the second-worst offense in fantasy. If Jonathan Taylor gets traded this week…
If you see something I don’t, leave a comment here, find me on QBList Discord, or hit me up with feedback on Reddit!
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) / Photography by Terence Lewis/ Icon Sportswire