Best Fantasy Football Defense Streaming Options for Week 17: Dolphins, Colts, Raiders, Chargers

We have made it. It’s Week 17, the fantasy football championship. It has never been more important to optimize every single position in your lineup, and that includes defense. With that in mind, this article will, for one final time, go over the top defense streaming options for Week 17. However, let's first take a look back at last week’s results:

My streaming picks for Week 16 were excellent, probably my best of the year ... with one glaring exception. The Packers, Bengals, and Falcons were literally the three highest-scoring defenses of the week, putting up 15, 17, and a week-winning 27 from Atlanta, thanks to not one but two pick-sixes. Unfortunately, my final pick put up a week-losing -1.0 points, as the Cardinals gave up 36 to Bryce Young 2.0 in an overtime loss that officially eliminated them from the playoffs. Hopefully you played one of the three awesome picks and not the terrible one, and hopefully this week we can finish strong with another week of hits. Here we go!

Sync your league with the Fantasy Assistant to get rankings, waiver help, trade suggestions, optimal lineups, and more. Not sure Who You Should Start? We can help. Utilize our fantasy football trade analyzer for trades.

Week 17 Fantasy Football Defense Streaming Options

Miami Dolphins Defense (46.6% Rostered) @ Cleveland Browns

Dorian Thompson-Robinson came into Week 16 with the worst stats of any quarterback in the league by a large margin. He wasn’t quite that bad on Sunday, but it still wasn’t pretty. He averaged 4.6 yards per attempt (the worst of any QB), posted a 4.4% turnover-worthy-play rate (an impressive feat on a 5.2-yard ADOT), and took five sacks. As long as he is Cleveland's starter, any defense playing them is not just a must-start but in the conversation for the top play of the week. 

The Dolphins’ defense is fairly mediocre, but that is more than good enough to put up a good outing against a DTR-led offense. After all, the Bengals’ terrible defense came through for 17 points last week. The only potential flaw with this play is that Thompson-Robinson is reportedly dealing with a calf injury … but Jameis Winston isn’t exactly a bad quarterback to face either.

Indianapolis Colts Defense (37.4% Rostered) @ New York Giants

Once again, we are going straight back to the well by targeting a team that we successfully took advantage of last week. The Falcons’ defense just exploded for 27 on the Giants, and the Colts’ defense is not as terrible as they might seem. They rank well below average in both points and yards per game allowed, but they are actually the ninth-best defense in terms of EPA per play allowed. The main reason the Colts’ defense looks bad at first glance is that their offense is one of the fastest in the league, so they face more plays than most teams (only the Panthers face more). But extra plays against this Giants offense is probably a good thing for fantasy scoring.

For the year, the Giants rank 30th in EPA per play and dead last in both points and yards per game. We don’t know who will be their starter between Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito, and Tim Boyle, but it really doeesn’t matter. Lock leads qualified QBs with a 6.2% turnover-worthy-play rate, Boyle isn’t far behind at 4.9%, and DeVito has an absurd 12% sack rate. Regardless of who they are facing, the Colts are in a great position to help you take home a fantasy football championship this week.

Las Vegas Raiders Defense (7.7% Rostered) @ New Orleans Saints

If you watched last night’s performance by the Saints, I probably don’t have to sell you on this pick. If you didn’t, here’s a quick summary: New Orleans was the first team all season to get shut out, finishing with less than 200 total yards. Spencer Rattler took three sacks, threw an interception, and lost a fumble. Despite being in garbage time by essentially the second quarter, they gained fewer than 30 yards on seven of their nine drives. Without Derek Carr keeping things afloat, the Saints suddenly have arguably the worst offense in the league.

Of course, the Raiders’ defense isn’t very good, especially without Maxx Crosby. However, there are a few promising metrics we can cherry-pick: They give up the 12th-fewest yards per game and rank 16th in EPA per play allowed. That’s more than enough for me to trust them against this Saints offense without Carr. 

If Carr plays, the Raiders can still be considered, but they do get a large downgrade. For all the negative press he gets, Carr has been absolutely elite at avoiding sacks this season, and he’s not very turnover-prone either. He is reportedly pushing to play, but I would still bet against it at this point. With that in mind, now is the time to snag the Raiders, although it might be worth having a backup just in case. 

Los Angeles Chargers Defense (40.6% Rostered) @ New England Patriots

After a red-hot start to the season, the Chargers’ defense has been trending dramatically in the wrong direction in recent weeks. However, this is a week where they should bounce back. Drake Maye has done some good things since taking over, but the Patriots are still one of the worst offensive teams in the league. For the year, they rank third-worst in points per game and fourth-worst in yards per game. 

Importantly for our purposes, the Patriots’ big weakness is in pass-blocking, where they have easily the worst unit in the league. They have given up a pressure rate 11.4% above expected for the season, double the mark of even the worth-worst team (the Texans). Maye’s 8.4% sack rate is the ninth-highest among qualified QBs, and he has taken nearly three sacks per game as the team’s starter. 

Maye also ranks eighth in fumbles per game, while Rhamondre Stevenson leads non-quarterbacks with seven on the season. Winning this game will essentially guarantee a playoff berth for the Chargers, and I expect them to put forth a solid fantasy performance along the way. 

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