Sneaky fantasy football defenses you can stream in Week 7 to win your matchup

Did you keep the Vikings’ defense on your roster through their bye week? Good for you and your very healthy and (probably) first-place team. The rest of us are scrambling. Luckily, that’s right where some of us want to be, because we’re the Stream Team. We’re the losers that spend entirely too much time looking at fantasy stuff, and we’ll start a conversation with strangers about it, and you better believe that we know they don’t want to talk to us.

Every week, I open the notebook and let everyone in on the fantasy defenses I’m looking at starting. The general guideline is that they have to be rostered in fewer than 30% of leagues (per Yahoo! Sports). Bye weeks make it a little harder to follow that rule, but I do my best not to bend it too much. You get it.

Cleveland Browns

Vs. Tennessee Titans in Week 7
Titans TT O/U: 17.5 points (fourth lowest)
Rostered in 37% of leagues

We’re not getting scared by the Titans scoring 26 points against the Colts last week because 23 of those points came off of turnovers, short fields, and a blocked punt. That offense is still a broken mess, and the Colts are an operational wreck.

The Browns, on the other hand, are making it work. They’re not a good team, but they’re winning games and not making boneheaded mistakes … like turning the ball over, giving offenses short fields, and making bozo plays on special teams.

Also, Cleveland’s defense is humming right now; they’ve had at least three sacks in their last five games. That’s the good stuff.

Dallas Cowboys

Vs. Philadelphia Eagles in Week 7
Eagles TT O/U: 19.5 (fifth lowest)
Rostered in 17% of leagues

We’re fading the Eagles for the rest of the season. This week, that’s a hell of a gamble because the Cowboys defense is gut-wrenchingly awful, but the Eagles offense cannot do anything right … and now they are rolling with Tanner McKee. This isn’t just bad vs. bad; it’s pee vs. poo.

Now, you might be thinking: McKee’s getting a full week with the offense, and Nick Sirianni said there are going to be changes … Not changes with the play caller … but changes.

I’m here to tell you as a former member of the McKee Militia: He stinks now.
I’m here to tell you as a Birds fan: Sirianni saying he’s changing things means there will be no changes.

The only reason this could come back to bite us is if Saquon Barkley is healthy. The Eagles waived Jaydon Blue on Tuesday, which means the only running backs on the entire roster are Barkley, Dameon Pierce, and Elijah Mitchell. It really feels like this could be the week he comes back … That being said, it’s not like the running game was good with him during the first three weeks of the season.

Using the Cowboys defense is the most ‘hold your nose’ type of play you can make, but there’s a chance it works for you.

New York Jets

vs. Miami Dolphins in Week 7
Dolphins TT O/U: 16.5 points (second lowest)
Rostered in 36% of leagues

If the Dolphins are playing football, we’re rostering the defense that they’re playing against. It’s as simple as that.

I am tempering my expectations, though. The Jets’ sack numbers look good as a whole, but they’re really juiced up by the six sacks they got on Deshaun Watson in Week 5. On the flip side of that, Malik Willis has done pretty good with not taking a crazy amount of sacks.

Miami was on a bye last week, so the last time we saw them was in Week 5 against the Bengals. That below-average defense allowed 24 points (six were in garbage time), but ended the day as DST9 because they got a pair of interceptions.

The Jets are DST10 for the season, and they’ll probably finish this week right around there.

Jeffrey Simmons | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Tennessee Titans

vs. Cleveland Browns in Week 7
Browns TT O/U: 19.5 (fifth lowest)
Rostered in 19% of leagues

The Browns offense is bad at scoring points. That's pretty much the only analysis for this, and it really doesn’t need to be any more than that. In four of their six games, the DSTs that have played the Browns ranked in the top 10 for the week … and two of those were DST2 and DST3 in their respective weeks.

It’s totally fine to be impressed with how the Browns' actual football season has gone, but that offense is U.G.L.Y.

Looking ahead

The Bills, Jaguars, Chargers, and Commanders have their bye weeks this week. If, and only if, you can afford to have two defenses on your roster, the Jags and the Commanders might be worth rostering for Week 8.

The Bills see the Ravens, and the Chargers see the Rams. We don’t want to deal with either of those offenses. However, the Jaguars have an awesome defense, and they’re going to get a really rough-looking Colts. That’s juicy, and we like it.

The Commanders get the Eagles in Week 8. We just talked about how bad they’re looking, and if they lose to the Cowboys, they’re probably going to start trading away some useful offensive pieces … Hell, by that point they’ll probably also have another key player retire or something else terrible will happen. It’s been that type of season.

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