3 FanDuel Defenses to Target in Week 6
Selecting a defense is never the most glamorous part of fantasy football. It often goes overlooked for the more fun positions that people want to watch and root for during the game. The good news is that if our opponents aren’t putting too much thought into their defense, we can gain an advantage with some research. So let’s dig in and try to identify some defenses that could be in a good position to score fantasy points this week.
This week’s Sunday Million on FanDuel includes a cash bonus for rostering a defense that scores a touchdown. So the position holds a bit more importance in that tournament. Let’s see which defenses can help us get that bonus.
Los Angeles Rams
FanDuel Salary: $5,000
If you want to roster a defense that has a lot of star power, look no further than the Los Angeles Rams D/ST. The likes of Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald are the types of players who can make plays. They’ll certainly be looking to do that in Week 6 against a team that could be overmatched.
The Rams’ defense hasn’t been great for fantasy so far this season, but there have been some encouraging signs. They have three sacks in all but one of their games until last week when they only got two. They’ve also faced a tough recent schedule of quarterbacks, going up against Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray and Tom Brady in the past three games. They won't have the same problem this week.
The Los Angeles Rams take on the New York Giants, who are significantly banged up. They lost Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley and Kenny Golladay in Week 5. Offensive linemen Andrew Thomas and Matt Skura also missed Wednesday’s practice. All of these injuries could leave the Giants potentially very short-handed.
It does look like Jones will play, but that isn't much of a concern for the Rams' defense. We target Jones with defenses because of his history of turning the ball over. He’s up to 41 career turnovers in 32 games played. The Giants’ current implied team total is at just 19.50, which should make the Rams' defense a strong play regardless of who is on the field for New York.
With LA being favored by 10.0 points, it should force the Giants into more drop backs than they would like, which would lead to potential sacks and turnovers.
Dallas Cowboys
FanDuel Salary: $4,100
No one was too optimistic about the Dallas D/ST coming into the season. It was considered a weakness on the team, which would cause the offense to have to throw a ton of passes to make up for it. Well, things have not played out that way, and it's hurt the Dallas Cowboys' passing offense for fantasy, but it's certainly has helped the team do well overall.
The headline grabber for the Cowboys has been Trevon Diggs. The young cornerback has recorded at least one interception in every game and has one touchdown. The team overall has two interceptions in every game, including two that were taken back for touchdowns. They are a little lacking in the sack department outside of Week 4, but that could change this week.
The Cowboys face the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Patriots' offensive line is dealing with injuries that saw them without four of five regular starters last week. It remains to be seen who will be active this week, but they will definitely be without tackle Trent Brown, who is possibly their best lineman. Rookie quarterback Mac Jones has thrown five interceptions across the last three games, so the ball-hawking Dallas defensive backs could feast on him, especially if he is under more pressure than normal.
There are some metrics that suggest that Dallas' defense is not that great and is living on turnovers. For fantasy, however, turnovers are exactly what we want. The Cowboys are a great midrange option in a game where the Pats could have to air it out more than they'd probably like to.
Minnesota Vikings
FanDuel Salary: $3,700
We don't have any comfortable plays at the bottom of the defense salaries. If you are trying to find value, the Minnesota D/ST looks like the best option. In fact, they are the top point-per-dollar pick in numberFire's projections.
The Minnesota Vikings face the Carolina Panthers, who are coming off their worst game of the season. Sam Darnold looked more like the player we knew from the New York Jets than the solid quarterback we've seen this season, throwing three interceptions. He now has five picks over his last two games. The offensive line is starting to show cracks as well, allowing an above-average adjusted sack rate, including eight in the last two games.
Minnesota's pass rush has been the strength of the defense so far. Their adjusted sack rate is 9.4%, the third-best mark in the league. With that kind of pressure on quarterbacks, they should be due for more turnovers, as they have only four takeaways in their five games.
The Vikings are slight road favorites in this game, and the battle of the trenches could be a reason why. It seems very iffy that Christian McCaffrey will return this week, as he missed practice on Thursday. That gives the Panthers one fewer weapon, and it might not be a coincidence that Darnold's two worst games have come without McCaffrey on the field.
The Vikings are a great play for just $3,700 when you consider the Detroit D/ST is also $3,700. Minny makes for the best salary-saver at a position where we normally like to save salary.
Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
