Best Fantasy Football D/ST Streaming Options for Week 14: Saints, Titans, Buccaneers, Jaguars

This is it. In the vast majority of fantasy football leagues, Week 14 is the final week of the regular season. That means Week 14’s streaming defense options will make or break entire fantasy seasons. Especially with six teams on bye, more managers than usual will be looking to the waiver wire for the top streaming options.

However, before we get into this week’s picks, let’s take a look back at our results from Week 13. Even without getting to face Tommy DeVito, the Cowboys were the smash pick of the week, dropping 18 points on Drew Lock and Co. The Commanders also came through with a solid eight-point outing. Unfortunately, my other two picks weren’t as successful, as the Colts (three points) and Giants (zero points) failed to take advantage of theoretically favorable matchups. Hopefully, we can bounce back this week with everything on the line. Let’s get started!

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Week 14 Fantasy Football Defense Streaming Options

New Orleans Saints (25.9% Rostered) @ New York Giants 

It worked perfectly last week, so let’s go right back to the well with targeting the Giants’ offense. As of right now, it’s unclear who the Giants will have under center, Tommy DeVito or Drew Lock. What is clear is that it really doesn’t matter.

With six sacks in his first start of the season on Thanksgiving, Lock now has an absurd 14.6% sack rate for the season. But DeVito isn’t far behind with a still-truly-terrible 11.4% sack rate. This isn’t entirely on either of these QBs, as the Giants’ O-line leads the league with a massive 38% pressure rate allowed. But we don’t care whose fault it is, and nothing leads to fantasy points like sacks. Meanwhile, Lock and DeVito also rank 47th and 40th in EPA per play out of 49 QBs with at least 40 plays recorded this season. The Giants’ offense overall scores the fewest points per game of any team in the league.

The Saints’ defense isn’t great. In fact, they’re solidly below average. They look okay in measures of scoring, landing 16th-best in EPA per play allowed and 19th-best in points per game. But they give up yardage by the bunches, with the third-most yards per game and second-most yards per play of any team in the league. But that simply doesn’t matter in a matchup this good. Even if they give up 400 yards along the way, the Saints’ defense should rack up enough sacks (and potentially a turnover or two) to have a solid outing.

Tennessee Titans (9.8% Rostered) vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

Trevor Lawrence is almost certainly going to miss this week in the concussion protocol, so we are back to the Mac Jones show for the Jaguars. Among QBs with at least 100 plays this season, Jones ranks third-worst in EPA per play and second-worst in success rate. Along with general incompetence, he also comes through in the areas that generate defensive fantasy scoring: His sack rate is close to average, but his turnover-worthy-play rate is the third-worst among qualified QBs.

For their part, the Titans are genuinely a solid defense. They rank 14th-best in EPA per play allowed and eighth-best in success rate. Despite being paired with a well below-average offensive unit, they are second in the league with just 291 yards allowed per game. At home against Mac Jones, they are well situated to provide the kind of performance that could secure you a spot in the fantasy football playoffs. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (43.6% Rostered) vs. Las Vegas Raiders

This is risky, as the Buccaneers’ defense is truly terrible. In Week 13, they gave up 23 points and only managed two fantasy points against the woeful Panthers (to be fair, Bryce Young has looked much better of late). But we simply can’t ignore their matchup with the Raiders in this battle of two vaguely-pirate-themed teams.

For the season, the Raiders’ offense ranks dead last in EPA per play. They rank sixth-worst in points per game and eighth-worst in yards per game. It is true that Aidan O’Connell, who will be starting this week, has been marginally better than Gardner Minshew. He also doesn’t have the worst numbers in terms of sack rate (where he actually outperforms the league average) and turnover-worthy-play rate (he is still 12th-worst of 42 qualified QBs). But, even while mostly avoiding negative plays, he is one of just 14 QBs to average negative EPA per play across over 100 plays in 2024. 

If you can get one of the two teams listed above (or have access to a more widely rostered team in a good matchup like the Eagles or Steelers), I would recommend playing them over Tampa Bay. But in a week with limited options, the Buccaneers should be able to come through. 

Jacksonville Jaguars (6.0% Rostered) @ Tennessee Titans 

We’re not done with the bad defenses from Florida-based teams, as I am also going to take the other side of what should be an ugly AFC South matchup. As with the Buccaneers, let’s start with the bad. The Jaguars lead the league by a wide margin in EPA per play allowed, as well as ranking first in yards per game and second in points per game. They are probably the worst defense in the league in a year that has featured some truly atrocious defensive play.

However, the Jaguars this week get the dream matchup for fantasy defenses: Will Levis. The second-year QB is an absolute defensive fantasy points machine. He leads qualified QBs with a 13.4% sack rate and also boasts a very bad 3.7% turnover-worthy-play rate. If we look at EPA per play, he ranks sixth-worst among 100-play QBs, fourth-worst among 200-play QBs, and dead last among 28 300-play QBs. 

Last week, I pointed out that defenses against the Titans with Levis under center had averaged a whopping 14.6 fantasy points per game. The Commanders pulled that average down slightly with just eight points, but that’s still a more than respectable outing. That’s what we are hoping for this week from the Jaguars. 

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