​3 Fantasy Football Defensive Streamer Options for Week 10

By this point in the year, you should have a pretty reasonable idea of what your team needs and where you are in your fantasy league’s pecking order. If you’ve got six or more wins, you’re probably looking to just maintain your way into the playoffs. Any fewer and maybe you need to consider taking some big swings in order to skate in under the wire.

This self-scouting should affect your streaming strategy, too. If you find yourself in the position of being a big favorite every week, there’s no need to grab the boom-or-bust defensive options; you can just roll out a dependable one and watch the points flow in. If you’re down badly nine weeks into the season, though, those high-floor units aren’t going to get you into the postseason.

In this column each week, I try to highlight which defensive streamer options make the most sense in which context, and going forward through the end of the season I’ll specifically call those qualities out too. Sacks often provided a more stable baseline than the flukier turnover rates, but if you’re ever in doubt, you should swing for the fences due to the somewhat unpredictable nature of this position in fantasy football.

Which defenses under 40% rostership should you look to stream in Week 10?

Last Week

Minnesota D/ST vs. WAS: 8 points, t-7th
Kansas City D/ST vs. TEN: 6 points, t-13th
Miami D/ST at CHI: 8 points, t-7th

All in all, this was an incredibly solid week for streaming defenses. None of our D/ST options rose to the heights of a Week 9 star, but every single one was startable and each came away with really good showings.

Minnesota held Washington to 17 points in spite of their own lackluster secondary. They had constant pressure on the quarterback, which resulted in three sacks and forced Washington into a bad play that led to an interception. Had the Vikings' offense been able to put anything together themselves, there might have been even more desperation points available.

Kansas City won a surprisingly close contest that ended up going to overtime, which could really have ruined their defense’s fantasy day. Still, they grabbed three sacks and held Tennessee to just 17 points: good enough.

Nothing went the way we expected for Miami, so it’s hard to say this was a process win. Still, it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good -- and people streaming the Miami D/ST got very lucky. Two sacks works for our purposes, but giving up 32 points and 368 yards was rough. Due to that, their saving grace was the blocked punt and return for a touchdown that swung Miami’s fantasy score by eight points.

New York Giants

vs. Houston Texans
Spread: NYG -6.5
Total: 39.5
Roster Percentage: 9%

The New York Giants are the closest thing we have this week to a perfect defensive streamer. Of our three recommendations, the G-Men of Gotham are the closest to league-average in quality -- they have a top-10 pressure rate but convert pressure to sacks at the seventh-lowest rate in the league. In addition, their secondary allows a top-10 rate of adjusted net yards per pass attempt (ANY/A), which isn’t a pleasant situation to imagine for your fantasy defense.

Despite this, the Giants have forced 1.25 turnovers and 2.0 sacks per game, proving that the peripherals aren’t always total killers for fantasy success. Now they are coming off of their bye and should be well-rested and prepared for this game.

The Houston Texans, their opponents, are yet another weak spot on the New York schedule that can be exploited. Houston quarterback Davis Mills allows the eighth-highest pressure rate among the 42 quarterbacks to drop back at least 50 times this season, which dovetails nicely with the Giants’ strength. That said, he also plays extremely conservatively, with the third-lowest turnover-worthy play rate (per PFF) among the same.

Our model projects the New York Giants D/ST for 8.3 fantasy points, the fourth-most among defenses in Week 10. Mills and company won’t provide a massive windfall to their opposition, but teams facing Houston have scored the 10th-most fantasy points this season. That’s good enough to make the stable Giants a solid streaming target.

Tennessee Titans

vs. Denver Broncos
Spread: TEN -3
Total: 39.5
Roster Percentage: 22%

Despite a slight turnaround to their season in Week 8 in London, the Denver Broncos are still an offense without an identity and without aim.

Quarterback Russell Wilson remains a middling defensive streamer target among qualifying passers (26th out of 42), but this matchup is still the eighth-best for fantasy defenses going into Week 10. Why? They aren’t going to hurt you with yardage or points. Wilson might not make a ton of mistakes, but his 22nd-ranked big-time throw rate (per PFF) means he’s not throwing well downfield or in valuable circumstances.

Due to this middling-not-bad matchup and their own about-average quality, the Tennessee Titans are a high-floor, low-ceiling option.

Unlike New York, which has one elite peripheral and the rest poor, every number on Tennessee is right around the middle of the pack: 17th in pressure rate, 18th in sack conversion rate, and 18th in ANY/A to boot. To their credit, since their Week 6 bye, the Titans have allowed an average 13.3 points to offenses, forced 1.7 turnovers per game, and racked up 3.3 sacks per game; that boils down to just under 11 fantasy points per contest.

It’s worth noting that this D/ST scored only one fantasy point against Kansas City this past week, so more functional offenses can be effective against them. Still, there’s always the chance Denver implodes again, and this is as good a defense as any widely available option to trust to facilitate that implosion.

Our model projects the Tennessee D/ST for 8.3 fantasy points, the third-highest fantasy projection of the week. Their status as home favorites as well as the basement-floor over/under in this game (39.5) suggests it should be a pretty stable environment to give the Titans a whirl.

Las Vegas Raiders

vs. Indianapolis Colts
Spread: LV -6.5
Total: 42.5
Roster Percentage: 15%

If you need a swing for the fences in Week 10, you can’t find a better D/ST to go for broke with than the Las Vegas Raiders.

By all the peripherals, they are bottom-five in the NFL. They are allowing 7.7 ANY/A, which ranks dead last among secondaries, and they are second from the bottom in sack conversion rate. Over the last two weeks, they have allowed a combined 51 points while forcing just one turnover and generating no sacks; all of this comes out to two back-to-back outings with -1 fantasy point.

Have I sold you yet on starting the Raiders?

What if I told you they draw a home tilt against the offense allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to D/STs this season? What if I told you that, since quarterback Sam Ehlinger took over under center two weeks ago, this Indianapolis Colts offense has given up an average of 16.5 fantasy points to opposing defenses, including a 7.0-point game to the below-average Washington Commanders?

Ehlinger has been a disaster so far, and he is allowing the third-highest pressure rate among qualified passers. He is second-highest in this metric among Week 10 starting quarterbacks and also comes in ninth in turnover-worthy play rate. Sure, there is some potential downside if star running back Jonathan Taylor is healthy enough to play, but a few picks and sacks could be enough to make Vegas worth a starting dart throw regardless this week.

Our model projects the Las Vegas D/ST for 8.6 fantasy points, which is the second-most. They have an incredibly low floor based both on their own quality and the potential for Taylor’s return, but they also have the most upside among streamer options in Week 10.