With NFL defenses being all over the map this year, unless you drafted an elite option in your fantasy football draft, you’re likely scratching your head entering Week 4. In that case, you may be looking to start streaming defenses and playing the matchups.
Let’s examine whether you should add the Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins, or Houston Texans as Week 4 streaming options.
Which DEF Should You Stream in Week 4?
Tennessee Titans (at MIA)
It doesn’t matter who is under center for the Dolphins out of Tim Boyle, Skylar Thompson, or Tyler Huntley; the Titans make for a great play as a fantasy defense in Week 3. Miami has looked woeful in the last two weeks and didn’t even look that great when Tua Tagovailoa was in the game.
The concern with the Titans is that their offense will continuously put their defense under pressure, and we’ve seen that through the first three weeks. Nevertheless, we’ve seen flashes of Tennessee’s defense playing well against the Chicago Bears and New York Jets.
Things got a little messy against the Green Bay Packers this week, but they should be able to bounce back against the Dolphins on Monday Night Football.
Miami Dolphins (vs. TEN)
As it turns out, the two most targetable offenses this week are both playing in the same game. The fact we are recommending both the Dolphins and Titans as defense streaming options doesn’t bode well for a high-octane exciting game from the first of the two Monday Night Football games this week.
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Tennessee is averaging just 16 points per game this season, thanks to eight turnovers. What is even more extraordinary is that the Titans have already given up three touchdowns to opposing defenses and special teams combined.
Once again, I fear that the Dolphins’ offensive struggles could put a lot of pressure on the defense to make stands and cause issues in terms of leaking points late in the game. Therefore, this might be a better play on ESPN, where points scored are generally not a factor when calculating defensive scoring.
Houston Texans (at JAX)
The options for streaming this week are reasonably limited, so on Yahoo and leagues where defense scoring is linked to points scored by opposing offenses, we need to look at games where scoring could be low.
That is the case for the Texans, who are facing a Jacksonville Jaguars team that enters Monday Night Football averaging just 15 points per game.
We’ve seen the Texans’ defense play reasonably well. Their Week 3 performance against the Minnesota Vikings is hard to judge because their offense put them in many tough spots. They may have given up four passing touchdowns to Sam Darnold, but they also held him to just 180 yards, and Minnesota only averaged 4.6 yards per play.
All data from TruMedia unless otherwise stated.
Kyle Soppe’s Defense Rankings for Week 4
The following rankings are from Kyle Soppe and, therefore, may not directly reflect the advice above.
1) San Francisco 49ers (vs. NE)
2) Cleveland Browns (at LV)
3) Dallas Cowboys (at NYG)
4) Pittsburgh Steelers (at IND)
5) New England Patriots (at SF)
6) New York Jets (vs. DEN)
7) Chicago Bears (vs. LAR)
8) Kansas City Chiefs (at LAC)
9) Baltimore Ravens (vs. BUF)
10) New Orleans Saints (at ATL)
11) Houston Texans (vs. JAX)
12) Seattle Seahawks (at DET)
13) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. PHI)
14) Buffalo Bills (at BAL)
15) Cincinnati Bengals (at CAR)
16) Las Vegas Raiders (vs. CLE)
17) Miami Dolphins (vs. TEN)
18) Indianapolis Colts (vs. PIT)
19) Arizona Cardinals (vs. WAS)
20) Philadelphia Eagles (at TB)
21) Los Angeles Chargers (vs. KC)
22) Tennessee Titans (at MIA)
23) Atlanta Falcons (vs. NO)
24) Green Bay Packers (vs. MIN)
25) Los Angeles Rams (at CHI)
26) Detroit Lions (vs. SEA)
27) Minnesota Vikings (at GB)
28) Jacksonville Jaguars (at HOU)
29) Denver Broncos (at NYJ)
30) Carolina Panthers (vs. CIN)
31) Washington Commanders (at ARI)
32) New York Giants (vs. DAL)