Week 6 Fantasy Football Defensive Streaming, Presented By fuboTV: Flying With the Falcons
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Heading into Week 6, we have two defenses coming off a bye that are facing struggling teams, with another who appears set to square off with a backup quarterback.
If you're reading this column for the first time, we search the waiver wire every week to identify low-owned teams that have a great matchup for fantasy production. The focus will be on teams owned in about 50% or fewer of Yahoo fantasy leagues and our goal is to identify squads poised to finish as a top-12 scorer.
Now that we're five weeks through the season, we can look back and see how we've done thus far. If you've streamed our top option every week, you'd be averaging 8.8 points per game in standard scoring leagues, which would rank as the 10th-best scoring defense overall.
Here are three teams most likely sitting on your waiver wire that you can pick up and plug into your starting lineups for Week 6.
Atlanta Falcons
Yahoo Ownership: 22%
numberFire Projected Rank: 5th
Coming off their bye, the Atlanta Falcons host a struggling Miami Dolphins team. After they failed to show up in London two weeks ago, losing to the New Orleans Saints 20-0, the Dolphins returned home last Sunday and barely outlasted a Matt Cassel-led Titans team, 16-10.
Against the Titans, Jay Cutler passed for just 92 yards and 1 score while also throwing 1 interception. His performance was so uninspiring that the Miami fans started a "We Want (Matt) Moore" chant despite the fact that the Dolphins were winning at that point. After a promising start against the Chargers in Week 2, Cutler has been dreadful over the past three games despite plus matchups against the Jets, Saints, and Titans. Over that span, he's thrown an interception in every game, has been sacked a total of eight times, and he's thrown just two touchdowns while averaging a measly 158 passing yards per game.
On the other side, Atlanta's defense isn't great -- they rank 18th per numberFire metrics -- but they are tied for 12th in sacks even though they've only played four games. Meanwhile the defense should be helped by the offense as Matt Ryan and company have only been held under 20 points once and they have an implied total of 29.00 in this matchup, the highest projected team total on the week. The Dolphins enter this game as an 11-point underdogs.
Expected to face negative game script, Cutler is a good quarterback to target for streaming defenses.
Washington Redskins
Yahoo Ownership: 7%
numberFire Projected Rank: 3rd
Like the Falcons, the Washington Redskins are coming off their bye and now face an opponent who has been struggling in the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers have lost their last four games by three points or less, but the Redskins are currently tabbed at 9.5-point favorites, which is tied for the third-largest spread on the slate.
This Redskins defense may be flying under the radar as they rank as the third-best unit through five weeks, according to numberFire metrics. Washington has been able to pressure the quarterback, owning the seventh-best sack rate in the league. They've also ranked as a top-10 defense in two of their four games played, forcing multiple turnovers in three of four.
On the other side, the 49ers offense ranks as the second worst in the league. Brian Hoyer has been sacked multiple times in every game, with the Niners offensive line surrendering the ninth-most sacks (15) and ninth-most quarterback hits (32). Hoyer has also turned the ball over at least once in four of five games.
If the Falcons aren't available in your league, the Redskins are another strong option.
Green Bay Packers
Yahoo Ownership: 39%
numberFire Projected Rank: 19th
After our top two options for this week, there isn't a clear-cut option to round out this group, but the Green Bay Packers are worth a look. The Packers defense doesn't stand out in any one category, but they've finished as a top-10 option three times so far this year and have forced multiple turnovers twice.
Following their thrilling Week 5 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers go on the road to face the Minnesota Vikings. At the moment, it's unclear who will be the Vikings quarterback in Week 6 -- Sam Bradford was replaced by Case Keenum just before halftime on Monday Night Football after it appeared that he aggravated his lingering knee issue.
Whether it's Keenum or Bradford at quarterback Sunday, they may be under pressure often as the Vikings offensive line has allowed the 11th-most quarterback hits (31), despite only allowing nine sacks.
