Best Fantasy Football D/ST Streaming Options for Week 13: Cowboys, Colts, Commanders, Giants

Welcome back to FantasySP’s weekly breakdown of fantasy football defensive streaming options! As always, let’s start by looking back at last week’s results. In Week 12, those results were solid, although certainly not great. The Commanders (four points) and Browns (five points) both failed to crack the top 12 scorers at the position. Thankfully, the Buccaneers (11 points) and the Dolphins (13 points) both finished in the top eight in a week with plenty of big DST scores.  

This week, we suddenly find ourselves with tons of options, as the extra Thanksgiving slate of games means we don’t have a single team on bye. As always, the key isn’t that this means we have more talented defenses in action — the key is that we have more terrible offenses to target. Let’s break down the top streaming DST options to consider for Week 13.

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Week 13 Fantasy Football Defense Streaming Options

Dallas Cowboys (24.7% Rostered) vs. New York Giants

Honestly, there’s really only one stat you need to know about this play: Tommy DeVito took a sack on 11.4% of his dropbacks on Sunday, which would rank third-highest in the league for the season … and that dramatically lowered his career sack rate. I always stress the importance of sacks as the most predictable source of defensive fantasy scoring, and DeVito is a sack-taking savant. He actually posted a non-terrible 20% pressure-to-sack rate in his 2024 debut on Sunday, but his massive 24% pressure rate over expected meant he still finished with four sacks on the day.

Although he managed not to turn the ball over on Sunday, the Giants’ offense under DeVito was utterly ineffective. His -0.116 EPA per play ranks ninth-worst out of 45 QBs who have been under center for as many plays as he has. The Giants finished with just seven points, and those only came in what was essentially already garbage time as they were trailing by 30 points in the fourth quarter. 

The Cowboys’ defense this year is a far cry from what it has been in recent seasons, but they should still be able to take advantage of this dream matchup at home on Thanksgiving. They rank fifth in the league in pressure rate, which doesn’t bode well for DeVito behind a banged-up Giants O-line. The added bonus of the non-negligible chance that KaVontae Turpin will break another return TD doesn’t hurt either.

Indianapolis Colts (8.1% Rostered) @ New England Patriots

Here’s the thing: Drake Maye has looked great since taking over as the Patriots’ starter. He’s elevated their offense and shown flashes that make him look like a future franchise quarterback. At the same time, he also ranks 11th-highest in the league in sack rate and third-highest in turnover-worthy-play rate. It may not be his fault (the Patriots’ O-line and scheme are doing him no favors), but he has undeniably been a positive matchup for opposing fantasy defenses.

This week, the beneficiaries of that matchup will be the Colts’ defense. Indianapolis has allowed the fifth-most yards per game in the league, but that is a harsh reflection of their overall defensive ability. They rank better at 10th-worst in yards per play and even better at 13th-best (slightly above average) in EPA per play. The main reason they have given up so many yards is that they are tied for the most plays faced per game, thanks to their high-tempo offense. While this does mean more opportunities to allow offense, it also means more opportunities to rack up sacks and turnovers. Even if they give up some points and yards along the way, I like the Colts’ chances to finish with a solid outing in Week 13.

Washington Commanders (48.8% Rostered) vs. Tennessee Titans

When it comes to allowing opposing defenses to score fantasy points, nobody beats Will Levis. His 14.7% sack rate is easily the highest in the league, and his 3.7% turnover-worthy-play rate isn’t much better. The only high-volume quarterbacks with lower EPA per play numbers so far this season are Deshaun Watson, Cooper Rush, Jacoby Brissett, and Bryce Young. To be fair to Levis, he has played better of late, but that doesn’t mean the mistakes are gone — he pulled off an upset win of the Texans on Sunday but still racked up an incredible eight sacks along the way.

The Commanders did let us down in Week 12 against Cooper Rush, but I don’t blame them too much. Of the 34 points they allowed, 14 came off kick returns (one botched onside kick and one bonkers play by the aforementioned Turpin), and a further seven came after a fumble by their offense in their own territory. 

To be clear, Washington’s defense is not good. They rank just about average in points per game and yards per game allowed, but they are the eighth-softest unit in the league in terms of EPA per play given up. But Levis is simply a must-target quarterback when streaming defenses. In games where he plays the majority of snaps, defenses against the Titans have averaged 14.6 standard fantasy points per game — get the Commanders in your lineup.

New York Giants (19.3% Rostered) @ Dallas Cowboys

I know I mentioned the Cowboys' defense already, but we can play both sides of this Thanksgiving matchup, which projects to be flat-out ugly, with a miserable total of just 37.5 points. The Cowboys do account for 20.5 of those projected points, but that’s not exactly a threatening number. As mentioned earlier, Rush has been the second-worst quarterback in the league this season on an EPA-per-play basis, beating out only Deshaun Watson. He is also tied for the sixth-highest turnover-worthy-play rate among qualified QBs, thanks mostly to racking up six fumbles in just over three games worth of snaps. 

The one area where Rush isn’t particularly appealing as a target is in sacks, as his 4.5% sack rate is actually one of the best among quarterbacks. However, the Giants may be able to change that, as their defense boasts the highest sack rate in the league at 10.6%. Other than that, New York’s defense isn’t particularly impressive, ranging between average and below-average in most key stats. But I still like their chances to get the job done against Rush and Co. on Thanksgiving afternoon. 

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.