If you drafted the Vikings defense in fantasy football, you’re very smart. Good for you. You knew Brian Flores could take a ragtag group of guys and turn them into weekly juggernauts that’ll get you WR2 numbers every week. If you drafted pretty much any other defense, welcome to the Stream Team, where we live on waivers and hunt matchups.
In Week 3, we held our nose and took the Titans defense … They ended up being DST8. That’s what this lifestyle is all about. These are the four defenses that we’re gunning for in Week 4. We try to look specifically at teams that are rostered in fewer than 30% of leagues, but I’m going to include one that’s over that threshold by a little bit.
Buffalo Bills
- vs. New England Patriots
- Patriots TT O/U: 20.5 (9th lowest)
- Rostered in 32% of leagues
There was a wave growing on the horizon. The first time we saw it was in January, and it’s been getting closer and closer to the shore every single week. In Week 1, we saw what it was made of: Drake Maye being a really bad quarterback. In the two weeks since, the wave’s only gotten bigger because Maye’s only gotten worse.
Grab your boards and let’s get ready to hang ten because we’re riding that wave … Or whatever they say. I don’t know. I’m just a dumb, fat midwesterner. You understand the metaphor.
Maye’s been sacked three times and thrown at least one interception every game this season. On top of that, the offense as a whole has fumbled four times and lost two of them. It’s a really bad unit, and we’re going to fade them until they prove they’ve turned it around.
Buffalo definitely doesn’t have the best defense in the world, but it’s got a high floor and a high ceiling this week.
Arizona Cardinals
- vs. New York Giants
- Giants TT O/U: 22.5 (13th lowest)
- Rostered in 2% of leagues
There are games where it’s an “immovable object meets an unstoppable force,” and then there are games where it’s an “ incredibly movable object meets a very stoppable force.” This one is definitely the latter.
The Giants have scored 13 total points in their last two games (against the Rams and the Titans), and now they’re either giving Jameis Winston one last shot, or throwing J.J. McCarthy to the wolves in his first week with the team. Either way, it’s bad.
The Cardinals aren’t some juggernaut or anything like that, and they have let up more than 30 points in the last two games, but that was against the Seahawks and the 49ers. The Giants aren’t remotely close to either of those teams.
Cleveland Browns
- vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
- Steelers TT O/U: 19.5 (6th lowest)
- Rostered in 6% of leagues
The Steelers hit a switch last week and dropped an offensive nuke on the Bengals. You can look at that one of two ways: either Aaron Rodgers finally figured out how to beat modern medicine and de-aged himself and his game by five years, or the Bengals defense took a step back from where they were in Weeks 1 and 2.
I chose to believe that the Steelers aren’t suddenly some kind of super-explosive team, and I chose to believe that the Browns defense will be able to hold their own and make this a traditionally gross Thursday night game.
We’re probably not getting more than 10 points or anything like that, but 6 to 10 is definitely on the table; it’s enough to not be a liability.
They’re also playing the Jets in Week 5, so if you feel good about them this week, you’ll be set for next week too.
Las Vegas Raiders
- vs. Kansas City Chiefs
- Chiefs TT O/U: 26.5 (3rd highest)
- Rostered in 9% of leagues
The Raiders are the second-highest-scoring fantasy defense so far this season, and they’re only being rostered in a relative handful of leagues. Typically, that’d be surprising … but it does make sense that we, as a football community, are a little sheepish trusting the Raiders.
They’re making their hay with the turnovers. So far this season, they've gotten four interceptions through three games, but they’ve also forced 10 fumbles and recovered five of them. That’s nuts, because the next closest team is the Steelers, who have forced five fumbles and recovered two.
Sure, there’s a decent level of randomness when it comes to getting turnovers and forcing/recovering fumbles … But this is clearly a thing that the Raiders are prioritizing this year, and it’s been helping them out tremendously.
The risk that you're making here is that the Chiefs are a very clean team, and they haven’t put the ball on the ground once this season. I think the upside is worth that risk.
If you’ve got some hair on your peaches, this is the week to get in on them … especially because they play the Patriots in Week 5.
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