Welcome to Week 17 and welcome to Fantasy Football Championship Week! Congratulations on being among your league’s cream of the crop this season. Now, it’s time to buckle down and finish the job! One way to give yourself the best chance at taking home some championship hardware is to play the best matchups with fantasy football Week 17 streamers. While the streaming strategy may not apply to some positions this late in the year, it certainly does when it comes to team defenses.
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Fantasy Football Week 17 Defense Streamers
Miami Dolphins (45.7%)
By and large, it has been a lost season for the Miami Dolphins. The defense has regressed a bit, but has battled some injuries and also underwent a coordinator change coming into the year. Despite all of this and the obvious issues the team has had offensively, Miami is still clinging to the faintest of postseason hopes. We feel confident in saying that the Dolphins have a much better chance of helping you win a fantasy football championship than they do in making the playoffs themselves. But hey, maybe that only gives them extra motivation to perform in their Week 17 matchup against the Cleveland Browns.
Things went about as badly as expected, if not worse, for the Browns’ offense this past week with the switch to Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback. DTR is expected to once again be under center for the Browns in Week 17 provided that he can work through a calf injury. So long as anyone not named Jameis Winston is playing QB for Cleveland, opposing defenses are viable fantasy football Week 17 streamers candidates. Heck, even if it is Winston, his propensity for throwing interceptions keeps the Dolphins in the streamers conversation. The Browns are tied for the most INTs thrown and have also given up a league-high 63 sacks on the season.
Los Angeles Chargers (49.8%)
After a slew of tough matchups, the Los Angeles Chargers once again carry appeal as a fantasy football Week 17 streamers option. For the most part, going up against more sound offensive competition did L.A.’s defense in. It was a bit concerning to watch Denver have success last Thursday, but it’s worth pointing out that it was a short week. The Chargers also did a nice job clamping down in the second half of that game. Jim Harbaugh’s group will enjoy going up against another rookie QB and a much less potent offense this Sunday when they face the New England Patriots.
For all that Drake Maye has done well since taking over as the Patriots’ starting quarterback, he is still prone to mistakes. So prone, in fact, that he has thrown at least one interception in every game dating back to Week 9. That alone boosts the fantasy floor for the Chargers defense in this matchup. As for the other vital stats concerning fantasy defenses, New England ranks 30th in the NFL in scoring at 17.3 points per game. They have also given up 47 sacks, tied for the seventh-most in the league. Opposing defenses are averaging nearly nine fantasy points per game against the Pats. Look for the Bolts to be the latest beneficiary on Sunday.
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Fantasy Football Rankings Week 16
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Indianapolis Colts (27.5%)
Although they scored a half-dozen fantasy points, the Indianapolis Colts were by far the most disappointing of our streamers recommendations last week. Readers of that Week 16 column might recall that we threw in the bonus of likely being able to utilize Indy again as a fantasy football Week 17 streamers option. Sure enough, they have found their way back into this week’s edition. Despite allowing 21+ points in eight consecutive games, the Colts have managed to avoid scoring negative fantasy points over the entirety of that stretch. Being tied for sixth in the NFL with 24 total takeaways on the year is a big reason for this.
The Colts might very well add multiple takeaways to that total on Sunday. Indianapolis will be matched up against the trainwreck that is the New York Giants. Whether it’s Drew Lock or Tommy DeVito who gets the nod at quarterback, the Colts will still be able to feast on an awful Giants offensive line that has given up 48 sacks on the year. New York has committed 22 turnovers and also ranks dead-last in the NFL in scoring at 14.3 points per game. Oppposing defenses have averaged nearly that many fantasy points against the G-Men this season (10.87 per game, to be exact). With Indy also clinging to slim playoff hopes, this matchup is too good for the defense to not take advantage of.
