Breakdowns
9/28/21
4 min read
Fantasy Football: Streaming Defenses and Kickers – Week 4
Going into week 4, streaming defenses and kickers has been a valuable and effective strategy for me, and hopefully my advice up until now has helped you as well. Below I will break down the best options to stream for week 4 at both defense and kicker and the reasons why I feel they are great options. While they won’t necessarily all end up as Top-5 plays, given their availability, they are all great pickups this week.
Defense:
Cincinnati (vs. JAX)
Cincinnati’s defense has put up 19 points in the last 2 weeks against struggling offenses, but still two teams that made playoff appearances in 2020. Jacksonville has allowed defenses to average just below 11 points per week against them, so this should be a great opportunity for the Bengals to continue their defensive hot streak. With a matchup against Green Bay in week 5, this is just a one week stream, but it’s a good enough one week option to make it worthwhile.
Tennessee (@ NYJ)
Tennessee is a decently risky proposition for this week because of their defensive struggles, but their matchup against the Jets makes them a premium stream candidate. When you combine the Jets matchup with their game against Jacksonville in week 5, Tennessee stands out as an excellent stream candidate for the next 2 weeks. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of rookie QB's still struggling to find their footing behind questionable OL’s. The Titans should be able to rack up both sacks and takeaways in these two matchups, so get them while you can.
Indianapolis (@ MIA)
Indianapolis has been a slightly above-average defense thus far in the season, ranking 10th, and now they get a great matchup against Jacoby Brissett, who they should know quite well from his time in Indy. The Colts are owned in just under 45% of leagues, so they may be tough to add, but expect a good performance from them this week. If available in your league, they are a worthy add.
Kickers:
Nick Folk (vs. TB)
Nick Folk has been a consistently solid kicker so far this season, averaging just over 11 points per week in large part because of his 9 field goal attempts that have resulted from New England’s red zone woes. Tampa Bay has a pretty good red zone defense, so that should allow for Nick Folk to see multiple field goal attempts once again, which will help him make good on this choice as a stream option for week 4.
Chase McLaughlin (@ MIN)
Cleveland’s struggles converting their long drives into TD’s in week 3 allowed McLaughlin to be the number 1 kicker in week 3, and he should be able to follow that up with another great performance against a defense that has allowed multiple field goal attempts in every game. Assuming he is efficient with making his kicks, McLaughlin should easily see 7-10 points, with the potential for even more.
Evan McPherson (vs. JAX)
I promise McPherson isn’t going to be on this list every week, but as long as he keeps producing solidly, not gaining any momentum in his rostered percentage, and getting good matchups, he will remain. This is a good matchup, as week 3 was the first week that Jacksonville didn’t allow a kicker to score above 10. Cincinnati can expect to move the ball quite easily all game, as Jacksonville’s defense has struggled to stop that, so McPherson could easily see multiple field goal attempts.
Rodrigo Blankenship (@ MIA)
With 7 attempts in his last two games, Blankenship is the epitome of what I’m targeting at the position, opportunity over distance. Blankenship doesn’t have a huge leg but making three field goals is always going to get him a great score, and Miami has allowed 3 field goal attempts in two of their three games so far. Indianapolis’ struggles in the red zone have been almost laughable at times, especially against the Rams when they kept failing to convert from the 1-yard line, but those woes make Blankenship an extremely valuable kicker to add.
