Defense (DST) Streamers For Week 9 Fantasy Football: Add The KC Chiefs & More

The Jacksonville Jaguars led my streaming column last week, and they were a massive hit as the highest-scoring DST with only Monday Night Football still to go. Cincinnati delivered a usable score, and Washington is currently the 6th-highest-scoring DST of the week. Overall, a pretty great week for our streaming targets. If you did happen to pick up Jacksonville last week, they are a great option again in Week 9 against the Ravens, who won't have Lamar Jackson or Tyler Huntley available.

Week 9 is a lighter bye week with just the Steelers and Titans on bye, so the competition on the waiver wire should be a bit less competitive than it has been recently.

Defense (DST) Streaming Strategy For Fantasy Football Week 9

For this article, I will only consider DSTs that are rostered in fewer than 50% of leagues on Yahoo. When selecting a streaming defense, the upcoming week is by far the most important, but I will also point out when there are favorable upcoming schedules that will allow you to roster the same defense for a few weeks.

When figuring out which defense I want to start in any given week, I am primarily looking for DSTs with the ability to create sacks and turnovers rather than minimizing points allowed to the other team, although those two things are correlated. I think this is one of the bigger mistakes fantasy managers make when thinking about fantasy defenses. As you will see in this article, I am generally focused on three things: offensive line play, QB turnover rates, and game script.

I also like to highlight DSTs that don't qualify for this article but are worth checking for in your league. This week, that is the Houston DST, who are coming off their bye week and face the 0-7 Chargers in Week 9. Houston is rostered in 63% of Yahoo leagues, so they aren't widely available, but they were dropped in enough leagues to deserve a mention.

Week 9 Fantasy Football Defense (DST) Streaming Options

Kansas City Chiefs - 42% rostered

The Chiefs are coming off of a disappointing loss to Denver in Week 8 but get to return home to play the Jets at Arrowhead. That is a prime bounceback spot for Kansas City, and they are favored by 9.5 points in the early line. The Chiefs are among the better run defenses in the league, giving up the third-lowest rushing success rate so far this season.

The Jets offense is not a total dumpster fire, but they rely on their rushing attack to set up the play-action passing game. If Kansas City can limit the Jets' ground game, they should be able to tee off on Geno Smith, who is tied for the second most sacks taken this season. This game checks all the boxes I look for, and Kansas City should be motivated coming off their loss. The Chiefs offense also looks better with Rashee Rice back in the fold, which bodes well for the game script.

If you don't already have a solid starting option, the Chiefs are my favorite streaming option for Week 9.

Chicago Bears - 28% rostered

The Bears are the next team to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who just won a game without completing a pass. As crazy a feat as that was, it seems like a one-week anomaly and not something I think they can repeat. Baker Mayfield clearly is not healthy, so the Bucs are going to be a one-dimensional offense. That seems harder to sustain over multiple weeks, especially against an explosive Bears offense and improved defense that now features Jeffrey Simmons.

We haven't gotten to see Chicago yet at the time of writing because they play on Monday Night Football, but they have scored 6+ fantasy points in four of their last six games. To date, they have been a pretty average group, but they just added one of the best defensive linemen in the league, so I think projecting them as at least a slightly above-average group moving forward is fair.

The important caveat here is that I don't know how much the lack of passing game was due to Baker Mayfield's thumb vs. the weather. It was certainly a combination of the two, and Baker's low passing volume in Week 7 makes me think we are still a few weeks away from seeing him return to form. It's worth monitoring reports throughout the week, but if Mayfield continues to be severely limited, the Bears are a great streaming option.

Detroit Lions - 28% rostered

The Lions just got a big win against the Vikings in Week 8, and now they get to take on the 1-6 Dolphins. Detroit is favored by 7 points on the road and is coming off one of their better defensive performances of the season. Statistically, they are one of the worst pass defenses in the league, but luckily they get to face a Dolphins passing attack averaging fewer than 200 yards per game.

Malik Willis hasn't been particularly turnover-prone, but he also isn't creating many big plays in the passing game either. However, he is taking plenty of sacks (19 so far this year), which is very valuable for fantasy purposes. I expect Miami to be able to move the ball in this game, but Detroit will have opportunities to create sacks and turnovers, and I am willing to bet that they cash in on some of those. Detroit is a clear third among these streaming options, but I believe they have a high ceiling if the game script plays out as expected.