3 FanDuel Defenses to Target in Week 9
Selecting a defense is never the most glamorous part of fantasy football. It often goes overlooked for the more fun positions that people want to watch and root for during the game. The good news is that if our opponents aren’t putting too much thought into their defense, we can gain an advantage with some research. So let’s dig in and try to identify some defenses that could be in a good position to score fantasy points this week.
Let's see which defenses look like the best plays in Week 9 across three different salary tiers.
Buffalo Bills
FanDuel Salary: $5,000
A defense with a $5,000 salary is sometimes hard to fit into lineups, but they're also usually in a great spot. That's definitely the case with the Buffalo D/ST this week.
The Bills' offense gets a lot of the credit, but the defense has been one of the best in the league. This unit ranks as the number-one overall defense by numberFire's schedule-adjusted metrics. It's translating to fantasy, too, as they are the second-best defense in fantasy points per game. The Bills are seventh in adjusted sack rate and first in interceptions (11). This week, there could be plenty of opportunities for both.
The Buffalo Bills are on the road against the New York Jets. The Jets had been playing to hide Zach Wilson from making mistakes, and it was working -- until they got behind last week. Wilson threw three interceptions in Week 8 as he was attempting to lead a comeback. In his career, he has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, and he has taken sacks at a 9.3% clip. If the Jets are trailing, he could be prone to more mistakes.
The Bills are 12.5-point favorites in this game, and it sets up perfectly for them to force Wilson into some head-scratching throws that might lead to a pick-six. Buffalo is projecting for the most points at defense this week and is a great tournament play on this slate.
Cincinnati Bengals
FanDuel Salary: $4,400
It was not a good showing for the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday. They got trounced by a division rival, and the defense did not look like it could make any stops in the second half. This game sets up better for them, and a bounceback can be expected.
The Cincinnati D/ST hasn't been the best fantasy defense this season. They have just one game with more than 10 FanDuel points. They do get pressure on the quarterback at a decent rate, though, and are third in quarterback knockdown percentage. In terms of defensive efficiency, they rank as the eighth-best D according to our numbers. They should be able to take advantage of poor quarterback play when they face it, and that's the hope for this week.
The Bengals are at home against the Carolina Panthers in Week 9. The Panthers have shown signs of life in the past few weeks, but P.J. Walker still threw a pick-six. He has a career 4.5% interception rate and a career 7.8% sack rate. Behind an offensive line that is suspect, Walker won't find it as easy as he did against the Atlanta Falcons, who are one of the worst teams by every pass-rush metric.
Cincy is a home favorite and has a great setup in this game to be a fine option to use on defense.
Miami Dolphins
FanDuel Salary: $3,600
The value defense of the week will be the Miami D/ST. They don't actually rank highly in many numbers, but their matchup and salary are good enough to put them firmly in play.
The hallmark of the Miami Dolphins under previous coach Brian Flores was an opportunistic defense. We haven't seen that as often this season, but they did have two games where that happened. Those outings came when they faced inexperienced quarterbacks who made mistakes. That is once again the case this week.
The Dolphins are on the road against the Chicago Bears. The Bears' offense has definitely had more juice in the past two games, but it still has a big problem protecting the quarterback. In that two-game run, Justin Fields took eight sacks on 52 drop backs, and the team had six fumbles. Their adjusted sack rate allowed is a whopping 15%, nearly 4 percentage points higher than any other team's.
Miami's defense just added Bradley Chubb to help improve their pass rush. He may not get a full allotment of snaps in his first game with the team, but if he can cause havoc on the plays that he is in for, that could make the difference for us in fantasy. At just $3,600, the Dolphins' D/ST is a quality low-salary play.
Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
