Streaming Defenses: Picking a Week 5 Team Defense

Note: There's a minor change this week -- I'm now including defenses that are under 50% owned on one site but not the other. With bye weeks kicking in and team defensive strength becoming more clear, it's increasingly difficult to find decent options that are <50% owned on both ESPN and Yahoo.

TOP STREAMING OPTIONS

Los Angeles Rams (vs. Buffalo Bills)
77% Yahoo ownership - 31% ESPN ownership

I'm not sure I understand the massive gap in ownership between sites, but regardless, the Rams are widely available on ESPN, despite being one of the top options for this week. I have them ranked at No. 3, trailing only Minnesota and Denver for a week in which Seattle is on bye. The Rams, as you probably know, have an excellent front seven that made life quite difficult for Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Carson Palmer, respectively, the past three weeks. While the team's secondary isn't nearly as fearsome, the Bills don't have enough receiving talent to make Los Angeles pay for the relative weakness. Drawing a favorable matchup at home, the Rams D/ST should probably be universally owned by the end of the week.

Pittsburgh Steelers (vs. New York Jets)
57% Yahoo ownership - 26% ESPN ownership

Outside of a Week 3 dud against Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh defense has quietly been excellent this season, more than doing its part to help Ben Roethlisberger and the much more highly-regarded offense. The Steelers nearly held the Chiefs to a shutout Sunday, only allowing a pair of garbage-time touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and still finishing with four sacks and two takeaways. Meanwhile, the Jets offense followed an eight-turnover Week 3 disaster with another ugly performance, this time surrendering three turnovers and four sacks in a home game against Seattle. This game has serious blowout potential, which is arguably the case every time Pittsburgh plays at home.

Philadelphia Eagles (at Detroit Lions)
53% Yahoo ownership - 42% ESPN ownership

I was pretty shocked to see the Eagles D/ST qualify for this column, but I guess it makes sense coming out of a bye week, as people increasingly understand the benefit of streaming defenses. While I prefer the Rams and Steelers at home for this week alone, the Eagles could actually be worth holding on to for an extended period, making them arguably the most appealing option on this list. Granted, this is an article about streaming defenses, and Philadelphia does draw some tricky matchups after Week 5. The Eagles have allowed just 27 points in three games, notching 10 sacks and four takeaways.

Baltimore Ravens (vs. Washington Redskins)
29% Yahoo ownership - 46% ESPN ownership

The Baltimore defense failed to impress in its first real test of the season, coming away with just one takeaway and zero sacks in Sunday's 28-27 loss to the Raiders. However, the Ravens did limit Oakland to 261 total yards and 3-of-12 on third-down conversions, oddly managing to lose a game while posting an even turnover differential and out-gaining the opponent by 151 yards. The Baltimore defense is probably only a mediocre or slightly above-average unit, but it will again have the benefit of homefield advantage, this time against a pass-heavy Washington offense. The Ravens D/ST is admittedly more of a boom-or-bust option than a sure thing.

Buffalo Bills (at Los Angeles Rams)
45% Yahoo ownership - 37% ESPN ownership

The Buffalo defense has been much better than I expected, overcoming a slow start to put up shockingly excellent performances against the Cardinals and Patriots, albeit with the former looking lost and the latter starting a third-string rookie at quarterback. Still, a four-pick performance and a shutdown can't be scoffed out, and the Bills now get to face a Case Keenum-led offense that looked hopeless the first two weeks of the season, before improving to mediocre the past two weeks. Here's to betting that the Rams aren't actually a decent offensive team, as they've still shown little ability to run Todd Gurley over opponents.

Here are my rankings for this week and the remainder of the season: