Best Fantasy Football D/ST Streaming Options for Week 9: Titans, Patriots, Saints, Bengals

Not to toot my own horn, but my weekly streaming DST picks have been on absolute fire recently. That continued in Week 8, as all four picks finished as top-10 options on the week. The Lions were the second-highest scoring DST of the week, the Texans and Chiefs tied for fourth, and the Chargers weren’t bad either, with seven points for a ninth-place ranking. 

Hopefully, we can keep the hot streak going this week. Let’s get right into the best fantasy football defense streamers for Week 9. 

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Week 9 Fantasy Football Defense Streaming Options

Tennessee Titans (2.4% Rostered) vs. New England Patriots

The Patriots were off of our must-target list for a couple of weeks with Drake Maye under center, but the rookie is likely to miss Week 9’s contest in the concussion protocol (and, to be fair, wasn’t exactly a terrible matchup himself). That means we get Jacoby Brissett and his -0.18 EPA per play this week. 

Even if we include the weeks with Maye, the Patriots’ offense ranks fourth-worst in points per game, dead last in yards per game, and second-worst in yards per play. Their offensive line allows the second-highest pressure rate of any team, and Brissett has taken a sack on nearly a quarter of his pressured dropbacks. 

Meanwhile, the Titans’ defense has quietly been very solid, allowing the third-fewest yards per play of any team. At home against the terrible Patriots, I love their chances to have a solid outing. 

New England Patriots (4.0% Rostered) @ Tennessee Titans

Let’s flip this one straight around, as the Titans’ offense is arguably even worse than the Patriots’. Tennessee ranks in the bottom five in each of yards per game, points per game, and yards per play. Very importantly for fantasy scoring, they also lead the league with a staggering 18.8% of their offensive drives having ended in turnovers. Will Levis is an inexplicable turnover machine, and Mason Rudolph hasn’t been much better.

However, it does seem like Levis has a solid chance to return and start this game, so let’s take a quick closer look at his numbers. He leads all quarterbacks with an absurd 8% turnover-worthy throw rate AND ranks fifth with a 29% pressure-to-sack rate. He beats out only Bryce Young, Spencer Rattler, and Skylar Thompson in EPA per dropback. With Deshaun Watson done for the season, Levis is the ultimate must-target quarterback for streaming defenses.

With that in mind, it doesn’t matter too much that the Patriots’ defense hasn’t been great. They haven’t been truly terrible, ranking 10th in yards allowed and 12th in points allowed. That’s more than enough to have a good outing against the defensive fantasy points machine the Titans call an offense. 

New Orleans Saints (30.7% Rostered) @ Carolina Panthers

This is obviously a better pick if we get Bryce Young under center than Andy Dalton, but the Panthers’ offense has not been particularly threatening even with the Red Rifle of late. Especially with Diontae Johnson likely to be traded any day now, the Panthers are simply lacking offensive weapons.

For the season, Carolina ranks fourth-worst in yards per game and second-worst in points per game. Young and Dalton have both actually been okay at avoiding sacks, but the Panthers rank fifth in terms of the percentage of their offensive drives that end in turnovers, so there’s definitely a ceiling to this play.

For their part, the Saints’ defense has been … terrible. They rank worst in both yards per game and yards per game allowed. Thanks partially to an above-average turnover rate, they’re only ninth-worst in points allowed, but that’s still not great. However, this is when we turn to the lesser-known corollary of a popular saying: You may have heard that “great offense beats great defense,” but when it comes to fantasy DSTs, “bad defense beats bad offense.” In this case, the Saints allow just three more points per game than the average defense, while the Panthers score over seven points fewer than an average team each week. New Orleans should be able to take care of their division rivals, especially if we get another week of Young under center. 

Cincinnati Bengals (31.3% Rostered) vs. Los Angeles Raiders 

They’ve slid under the radar thanks to coming into the season with essentially zero expectations, but the Raiders have been one of the league’s worst offenses so far this season. They rank sixth-worst in yards per play, fifth-worst in total yards, and seventh-worst in yards per game. Gardner Minshew, their starter for the foreseeable future with Aidan O’Connell sidelined, is the eighth-worst QB by EPA per dropback (and the seven names below him are not pretty). 

Minshew also ranks worst among non-Malik-Willis quarterbacks with an absurd 31% pressure-to-sack rate. Sacks are the single most predictable source of defensive fantasy football points, so this is a massive vote in favor of the Bengals’ defense.  

Cincinnati’s defense has regressed massively so far this season, as Lou Anarumo’s previously elite unit has been solidly below average. However, they’re not truly terrible, ranking closer to average than league-worst in most metrics. That’s enough for me to trust them at home against a truly uninspiring Raiders offense. 

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