Last week was an unusually quiet one in terms of evolving QB situations, but that cannot last forever in the NFL. Who’s starting at QB has an outsized impact on which streaming defenses are viable, so let’s check in on the team that have news in that area:
- The Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts is the biggest news in football. There is a lot to be said about this and who should or should not lose their job, but the short version is this: Hurts took a cleat to the calf in Week 4, and it was discovered that this produced a blood clot after flying to London for Week 5, which he played. Later it was found that it had spread to his lungs. He’s out for the season, but expected to make a full recovery when he does return. As a result, Tanner McKee is the starter. The offense, and in particular the offensive line, was already struggling significantly, so the Eagles are a very good DST matchup going forward.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Baker Mayfield is slated to return to practice this week, and how that goes will determine whether or not he starts this week. My current guess is that we will see one more week of Jalon Daniels. The Bucs are a good matchup as long as Daniels is starting, even if he’s better than his draft pedigree would suggest. Once Baker is back, the Bucs are not a team worth targeting with most defenses.
- The New York Giants: The Giants benched Jameis Winston in the fourth quarter last week after a couple of interceptions. They brought in their recent trade acquisition, J.J. McCarthy. He also threw an interception, but then proceeded to play great and lead three consecutive scoring drives and almost complete the comeback against the Saints. There’s no news on who will start in Week 7, but I’m assuming they’ll go with the hot hand and play McCarthy. He is sometimes brilliant, but overall he still represents a very good matchup for defenses. The Giants are a good, if risky, matchup with either quarterback.
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Fantasy Football D/ST Streamers & Waiver Wire Targets (Week 7)
We have four teams on bye this week: the Bills, Jaguars, Chargers and Commanders. The pool of good-looking defense plays is shallow, but fortunately a couple of them are available in basically every league. Rostership numbers are from Yahoo. You can find me on Bluesky.
Week 7 D/ST Projections
| Rank | Team | Vs. | Vs. QB | PA | Sacks | Turnovers | FPTS | Rost% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Start Them With Confidence Tier | ||||||||
| 1 | HOU | NYG | J.J. McCarthy | 16.75 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 7.86 | 89% |
| 2 | MIN | IND | Daniel Jones | 17.5 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 7.35 | 85% |
| 3 | CLE | @TEN | Cam Ward | 18.5 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 6.81 | 21% |
| 4 | NYJ | MIA | Malik Willis | 17.5 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 6.85 | 1% |
| The Still a Fine Choice Tier | ||||||||
| 5 | TEN | CLE | Deshaun Watson | 20 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 6.81 | 2% |
| 6 | CAR | TB | Jalon Daniels | 20.5 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 6.78 | 28% |
| 7 | PIT | @NO | Tyler Shough | 20.5 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 6.29 | 76% |
| 8 | DEN | @ARI | Jacoby Brissett | 19.5 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 6.02 | 88% |
| 9 | DAL | @PHI | Tanner McKee | 20 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 5.84 | 15% |
| The Maybe You Can’t Find Something Better Tier | ||||||||
| 10 | MIA | @NYJ | Geno Smith | 22 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 5.82 | 1% |
| 11 | LAR | @LV | Kirk Cousins | 21.5 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 5.72 | 99% |
| The Surely You Can Find Something Better Tier | ||||||||
| 12 | SEA | KC | Patrick Mahomes II | 20 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 5.72 | 96% |
| 13 | CHI | NE | Drake Maye | 23.75 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 5.72 | 24% |
| 14 | BAL | CIN | Joe Burrow | 24.25 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 5.65 | 56% |
| 15 | KC | @SEA | Sam Darnold | 22.5 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 5.48 | 85% |
| 16 | TB | @CAR | Bryce Young | 24 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 5.30 | 7% |
| 17 | LV | LAR | Matthew Stafford | 26 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 5.18 | 7% |
| 18 | IND | @MIN | Kyler Murray | 24 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 5.07 | 2% |
| 19 | NO | PIT | Aaron Rodgers | 24 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 5.01 | 10% |
| 20 | NE | @CHI | Caleb Williams | 26.75 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 4.87 | 90% |
| 21 | PHI | DAL | Dak Prescott | 24.5 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 4.78 | 95% |
| 22 | NYG | @HOU | C.J. Stroud | 26.25 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 4.70 | 4% |
| 23 | CIN | @BAL | Lamar Jackson | 26.75 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 4.56 | 19% |
| 24 | DET | GB | Jordan Love | 25.25 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 4.53 | 14% |
| 25 | SF | @ATL | Michael Penix Jr. | 23.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 4.46 | 53% |
| 26 | ATL | SF | Brock Purdy | 27 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 4.46 | 3% |
| 27 | ARI | DEN | Bo Nix | 24 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 4.36 | 1% |
| 28 | GB | @DET | Jared Goff | 28.25 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 4.09 | 15% |
Matchups
- HOU vs NYG: Last week against the Saints, the Giants benched Jameis Winston after his second 4th quarter interception. J.J. McCarthy, who was recently traded from the Vikings, replaced him and immediately threw an interception of his own. But after that, McCarthy went on to lead three consecutive scoring drives, almost completing the comeback. In about 10 minutes of play, he threw for 243 passing yards, which is more than he ever achieved in a full game for the Vikings. It’s not known who will start for the Giants in Week 7, but I’m currently operating on the assumption that it will be McCarthy. The Texans should be a great start either way. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance from McCarthy before, but my expectation for him is still more turnovers than scoring until he proves otherwise. The Texans had a poor fantasy day in a high-scoring win over the Jags last week, but they’re still a good enough defense overall, with a strong enough pass rush, that I’m excited to start them in a matchup this good.
- MIN vs IND: Things are not going well for the Colts, who fell to 2-4 after handing the Titans their first win last week. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon fired their GM Chris Ballard, while retaining head coach Shane Steichen and his staff. Sometimes this kind of thing lights a fire under the team and they over-perform the next week, but that’s not going to happen against the Vikings. They are the best defense in the league and are fresh off their bye week. And this is a great matchup – Daniel Jones took 6 sacks from a middling Titans defense. This is your reward for dedicating a bench spot to the Vikings through their bye. If you’re in the 15% of leagues where they’re available, go get them, and reserve a bench spot for when they play the Lions and Bills – in the Week 16-17 playoffs they get the Commanders and Jets.
- CLE @ TEN: The Titans picked up their first win over a spiraling Colts team last week, but that doesn’t mean their offense was amazing. They scored four field goals and one touchdown on offense, and were aided by a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, to take the lead in the 4th quarter. Cam Ward avoided taking any sacks, but he did throw an interception to go with his one touchdown, making it a 4-game interception streak. I don’t expect another zero-sack game this week against the Browns, who are second in the league with 19 sacks. I would be shocked if this wasn’t Cleveland’s 4th consecutive top-10 fantasy DST result.
- NYJ vs MIA: Ahead of last week’s bye, Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley re-affirmed Malik Willis‘s status as their starter, and that he’s not considering benching him. That needed saying because Willis and the Dolphins have been bad. Willis has thrown just 2 touchdowns to 4 interceptions en route to an 0-5 record for the team. On defense, the Jets have been pretty good. They are part of a 4-way tie for 5th-most sacks in the league with 17, and are second only to the Raiders with 9 forced fumbles. The Jets are a great streaming option this week – they’re rostered in only 1% of Yahoo leagues.
- TEN vs CLE: Deshaun Watson has outperformed expectations this year, but that doesn’t mean he’s been good in a general sense, as expectations were very low. The Browns’ defense deserves a lot of credit for their 4-2 record. Last week, Watson took 5 sacks en route to a 13-10 win over the Ravens. The Titans were the DST1 last week thanks to 6 sacks and a blocked punt touchdown against the Colts. They aren’t as good as that result suggests, but they are good enough that I do expect them to pick up some sacks against Deshaun Watson. Combine that with what projects to be another low-scoring slog, and you’ve got a good streaming defense that’s available in almost every league.
- CAR vs TB: Baker Mayfield is set to return to practice this week, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be ready to start against Carolina. Rookie Jalon Daniels has exceeded some very low expectations in relief, but he still delivered excellent fantasy days for the opposing defense in 2 of his 3 starts. Last week he threw a pair of interceptions and took 5 sacks against the Steelers. The Panthers are the kind of middling defense that I would feel comfortable starting against Daniels. But if Baker is able to return, I’m not interested.
- PIT @ NO: The Steelers have been a top-5 fantasy defense so far with 8.0 fantasy points per game, and are near the top of the table for both sacks and turnovers. Tyler Shough and the Saints are kind of a boom-bust matchup. Shough has had three games with 3-4 passing touchdowns, and three games with 1 or 0. They got totally wrecked by the Vikings in Week 5, when Shough threw 2 interceptions on the way to just 13 points. The Steelers aren’t on the Vikings’ level, but they are far enough above average to be usable in this matchup.
- DEN @ ARI: The Cardinals achieved a pretty shocking upset against the Rams, but that was a low-scoring game where they poetically scored all of their points via 6 field goals against a team with no kicker. QB Jacoby Brissett was not impressive – he avoided taking any sacks and threw one interception. The Broncos game could be similarly low scoring, but I think it’s unlikely he gets away with no sacks again.
- DAL @ PHI: Tanner McKee will make his first start of the season with Jalen Hurts out for the season due to blood clots in his lungs. The Eagles’ offense, and in particular their offensive line, have already been struggling significantly. The Cowboys also suck, so this should be a pleasing rivalry match for two fanbases that care more about the other team losing than their own team winning. The Cowboys have not impressed as a fantasy defense, but this is such a good matchup that they look like a reasonable low-end streamer.
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