It’s never too early to start streaming. Last year in this series I attempted to show why streaming defenses in fantasy football is the superior strategy. First, it requires almost no draft capital to take a D/ST outside the top 12 by ADP with a good Week 1 matchup. Second, it’s the highest-scoring method. As I pointed out last year, starting the Cowboys (D/ST1 overall…...

It’s been a long road, but if you’re still reading this series then you’re among the happy few of us competing for a fantasy championship this week. Whether you’re looking for a starting D/ST for multiple FFPC Main Events, some high-stakes teams, or a single home league with friends and family, victory will taste just as sweet. If you haven’t planned ahead for your Week…...

Week 16, the fantasy semi-finals for a lucky few of us, is hardly the time to start planning your starting roster. If you’ve read this series at all, hopefully you’re locked and loaded with D/STs for the next two weeks, but maybe you’re in a shallow league and couldn’t spare the roster space. Maybe you have a battered dynasty roster and refuse to drop Justyn…...

If you’re streaming defenses in Week 15, in most formats that means you’ve made it to your fantasy playoffs. Congratulations! Unfortunately that also probably means you’ve failed to secure a bye. I’m sorry. Regardless, we’re well into must-win territory in Week 15. Hopefully you’ve followed previous installments of this series and rostered at least one good D/ST option for the fantasy playoffs. Before we jump in to the best…...

As the Cleveland Browns D/ST (then 32nd-ranked) demonstrated in Week 13 with their three-touchdown outing, finding the right matchups for the final weeks of the fantasy season is more important than ever. As fantasy squads lock in their rosters for the playoffs, the teams who are last to the table streaming D/ST options will be at a significant disadvantage versus the teams who grabbed the…...

The quarterback landscape is pure chaos in Week 13. With Week 12 signal-caller turnover for the Jets, Bears, Panthers, Rams, and Texans (and question marks for several others), 10 NFL teams are now starting quarterbacks different than the ones they started in Week 1. Some of these situations are very exploitable, but with this much uncertainty there is always risk. With the fantasy playoffs just…...

If you took my advice last week and rostered the Ravens D/ST, you may not have to spend another dime of free agent money on the defensive side of the ball this year. They held the Panthers to just three points and don’t have a bad fantasy matchup on the books. For most of us though, streaming defenses will continue all the way through the final…...

The fantasy playoffs are approaching fast, and trade deadlines even faster. This is the time of year for tough decisions when we have to decide how aggressive to be in shoring up our rosters’ weak spots through trades and the waiver wire. Part of planning for the playoff push is being the first to roster the D/STs you want to start in weeks 15-17 (or…...

The Patriots have become the fantasy D/ST1 the same way Ernest Hemingway told reporters he went broke: gradually, then suddenly. They find themselves on a bye this week along with the D/ST4 New York Jets which will make for some nice waiver opportunities in Week 11. We’re entering the final third of the fantasy regular season, and for 5-4 teams on their leagues’ playoff bubble,…...

Although the sample sizes are still too tiny to be statistically significant, by the midway point of the season we’re able to cobble together enough data to make some useful predictions about the rest of the year. In that spirit, let’s take a look at a couple of charts that will help explain why streaming defenses is an optimal strategy in fantasy football. The first…...

Things don’t translate perfectly from the game of real NFL football to our beloved spin-off, fantasy football. Andy Dalton rewarded fantasy owners far more than New Orleans fans last weekend by finishing fourth at the position despite throwing two pick-sixes in less than a minute of gameplay and burying the Saints’ hopes for victory. Joe Mixon continues to be a fantasy RB1 despite the fifth-worst…...

At this point in the NFL season we’ve had a good look at how teams want to play football, and those sample sizes get bigger every time they take the field. We’re not the only ones who have more data to go on though. Mid-season is when reactive coaching starts to make a huge difference, and no one is safe from being game-planned out of…...

The quarterback carousel is in full swing. Someone named Skylar Thompson is leading one of the most exciting offenses in football, and Zach Wilson is Peyton Manning. Just another day in the game of fantasy football where everything goes exactly like we expected. One place we take take solace this week should be the D/ST position where some of the very best starting options of the…...

Quarterback turnover continues at a brisk rate, offensive line depth is tested around the league, and the Philadelphia Eagles maintain their fantasy dominance. Just as we’re figuring out what to do with certain players, we’ve got whole new groups wearing the same uniforms shoved into action. What lessons can we take from Week 4 to help us find the winners this week at D/ST? Let’s…...

NFL teams are starting to discover their identities. Analytic data is beginning to come into focus. Player injuries are piling up. It’s Week 4 of football season, and some teams, both real and fantasy, are already planning for next year. For the rest of us, the grind to stay in the win column starts as soon as the previous week’s games end. If you’re only…...