3 Fantasy Football Defensive Streaming Options for Week 6
I'm one of the 10 or so weirdos on the planet who has a passion for D/STs. In truth, it's a difficult passion to explain to people. Fantasy football is already a niche within a niche, and defensive streaming adds a couple of layers of obscure on top of that. Indeed, even a certain chunk of the fantasy football community is vehemently opposed to defensive streaming.
Whether you share my passion for the D/ST position, or you're gritting your teeth and bearing with your league's decision to keep the spot in spite of your repeated requests to the contrary, I'm here to help.
A few housekeeping matters: lines are courtesy of NFL odds, and roster percentages and scores are according to Yahoo's fantasy platform. Assume that the listed order is the preferred order. I'll try for defenses on 40% or fewer of Yahoo rosters.
Kansas City Chiefs
At Washington Football Team
Spread: Chiefs -6.5
Roster Percentage: 42%
The Kansas City Chiefs don't so much fit the conventions of a D/ST streamer as they do a team that should generally always expect to be winning (last week notwithstanding). To be clear, Kansas City doesn't have some amazing defense. More simply, Patrick Mahomes is likely to force Taylor Heinicke into a situation where Heinicke has to play with his hair on fire.
Heinicke has performed admirably, but anyone who remembers the Kyle Allen saga knows that NFL success can be fleeting for journeymen quarterbacks. There exists a high chance that Heinicke will be forced into some mistakes this week in a game where he should have to throw plenty.
Our projections rank KC seventh this week.
Green Bay Packers
At Chicago Bears
Spread: Packers -4.5
Roster Percentage: 25%
Justin Fields seems to have improved coming off his nine-sacks-taken performance against the Cleveland Browns, but he still holds a 16.3% sack rate on the season.
He'll also likely have to air it out more than usual as 4.5-point home underdogs against the Green Bay Packers this week. With Fields yet to show much as a passer, he could be in a lot of trouble on Sunday.
We rank Green Bay as the fourth-best D/ST for Week 6.
Miami Dolphins
At Jacksonville Jaguars
Spread: Dolphins -3.5
Roster Percentage: 15%
In a likely first, I'm not recommending any home teams as this matchup will take place in London. Take that as a sign of the lack of exciting options, but also take that as a faint sign of enthusiasm in Trevor Lawrence's 4.6% interception rate. Interception rate, especially with this small of a sample, isn't typically the best stat to bank on, but in a lean week, it will need to do.
If nothing else, the Miami Dolphins are favored by a little more than a field goal, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have an implied point total of just 21.00. We slot Miami 10th among this week's defenses.
