It’s finally here. The 2024 NFL season and therefore fantasy football season is upon us! Many of us have already drafted our fantasy teams as some will use the final few days before the Ravens and Chiefs kick off the season Thursday to select their teams. With all of that being said, it’s time we begin to roll out the fantasy football content for this season!
I’m one to never invest a high draft stock into team defenses. I play the waiver wire every single week to find my D/ST for the upcoming week. Due to this, I find myself never drafting a defense and waiting for just before the start of Week 1 to grab my first defense of the season. This is where this series comes into play. Every week I will be suggesting my favorite three team defenses that are regularly available on waiver wires across most formats. I will also keep a running total of how my selections measure up across the season below.
The premise of this article is to bring forth three streamable defenses that fantasy football players should look to use for that respective week. To qualify for this series, defenses must be owned in less than 40-percent of Yahoo and/or ESPN leagues. At least one of the suggested defenses will be owned in less than 10-percent of Yahoo and/or ESPN leagues to cater to as many fantasy players as possible. You can find last week’s results below and previous week’s results at the bottom of this article.
In future editions of this series, I will recap the week prior here and provide a running-total of how my ‘overall favorite,’ ‘middle suggestion’ and ‘under 10-percent owned’ suggestion in terms of fantasy points and D/ST overall rankings. Past week’s results will be located at the bottom of these articles in the future as well.
Week 1 Suggestions
Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos (Owned in 25% of Yahoo and 38,5% of ESPN Leagues)
The Broncos come into Seattle with rookie quarterback Bo Nix ready to lead their offense. Nix is making his debut in one of the most hostile environments in the NFL, which is a recipe for disaster. On top of that, the Broncos’ offensive simply is not good. They come in with a receiving corps of Courtland Sutton, Josh Reynolds and Marvin Mimis Jr. Not ideal. The Broncos were also 25th in the league in terms of offensive yards-per-game last season and let’s be honest, this offense did not get any better. It could be a rough outing for the rookie-led Broncos’ offense and that’s why the Seattle Seahawks are my top Streamable Defense of the week play.
Atlanta Falcons vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Owned in 9% of Yahoo and 15.1% of ESPN Leagues)
The Atlanta Falcons were a much better defense a year ago than what the stats suggested. They were still 18th in points allowed, 11th in yards-allowed-per-game and seventh in yards-per-play. It was the lack of takeaways (29th in the league) that resulted in a sub-par fantasy season in 2023. The personnel remains intact but the Falcons have brought in new head coach Raheem Morris and defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake. Morris is known for his defensive play calling, doing so for the Los Angeles Rams since 2021. I think the biggest difference here is a much improved offense with Kirk Cousins. This will take a lot of pressure off the defense this season. The Steelers are also rolling out Russell Wilson in Week 1. We’re unsure what we’re going to get out of this new look Steelers’ offense but I’m willing to bet against them.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Washington Commanders (Owned in 8% of Yahoo and 4% of ESPN Leagues)
Washington is another team heading into Week 1 led by a rookie in Jayden Daniels. Of the Day 1 (or potential Day 1) rookie starting quarterbacks, I trust Daniels the least. He’s going to eat up yards with his legs, but I think his throwing motion is going to lead to plenty of turnovers. Also a scrambling quarterback is a great chance for increased turnovers as well. The Buccaneers lost a few key pieces from a season ago but any Todd Bowles led defense is going to be respectable. They’ll Blitz early and often. Last year, the Buccaneers finished seventh in points-allowed and 12th in fantasy scoring.
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