Fantasy Football Sleepers: Five Team Defenses to Target in 2023

It’s that time of year again; another run at weekly D/ST streams for your fantasy football teams! I am pumped for this season! So let’s start off with how things looked last year:

• Cleveland Browns: 31 pts – HIT
• Seattle Seahawks: 8 pts – HIT
• Pittsburgh Steelers: 4 pts  – Bust
• Week 13: 2 Hits –  1 Bust
• Carolina Panthers: 9 pts – HIT
• Kansas City Chiefs: 14 pts – HIT
• Las Vegas Raiders: 9 pts – HIT
• Week 14: 3 Hits – 0 Busts
• Season: 23 Hits – 11 Busts

We finished on a good streak, going 5-1 in the last two weeks. Overall, we finished with an accuracy score of 67.6% last season. Not great, but above two-thirds. Like I’ve said before, in a game that is all about being better than a coin flip, I’m happy in the 60% range.

That being said, let’s take a look at what other sites think of D/STs.

The Other Guys

I do not mean to be calling anyone out for bad ranks and I do not want to offend anyone from these sites. I simply wanted to compile their rankings to find an expert consensus ranking for D/STs.

Using the rankings from ESPN, FantasyPros, Yahoo!, and Sleeper, I found the average rankings (shown on the right) to see who’s the top targets.

Primarily, ESPN ranks both the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens well below the ECR. To contrast that, Sleeper has the Seahawks D/ST nine spots ahead of their ECR. It’s something interesting to keep in mind depending on what fantasy site you go to rankings for.

Who Should You Draft?

If everyone in your league waits until the final round to draft a D/ST and you have the highest pick in that round, take the San Francisco 49ers. The team has a history of having an elite defense for fantasy football. However, none of my leagues have ever gone that way. That’s why I want to lay out who you should target based off of their rankings and their early season matchups.

To start, any of the top five in the ECR are great options to set and forget in your lineup. If you don’t feel like reaching for one of them that early, then here are my five favorite D/STs to target outside the top 8.

New Orleans Saints – ECR 9

The Saints are who I’m looking to target the most outside of the top 5. They will face these Quarterbacks in order: Ryan Tannehill (likely with an injured or out Treylon Burks) is first on the docket. Then it’s Bryce Young, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Mac Jones, CJ Stroud. In Week 7 is when the Saints face some real competition, against Trevor Lawrence, and then Anthony Richardson.

Overall, in their first eight weeks, they will play three rookies, a fresh starter in Love, Baker on a new team with a poor offensive line, and the most established QBs of Tannehill and Lawrence. I’m not scared of most of these matchups yet.

Denver Broncos – ECR 12

The Broncos are a pick just for their first two weeks against the Raiders and Commanders. These two teams are each starting a new QB. For a D/ST that was the best part of their team last year, this should be a couple good weeks for them.

Washington Commanders – ECR 16

Similar to the Broncos, the Commanders get an easy Week 1 matchup with the Cardinals, who still haven’t announced their starting quarterback. This should be a nice start to rookie first round pick Emmanuel Forbes.

Baltimore Ravens – ECR 10

We’re at the point where I am just looking at the first week and then moving on. The Ravens start off with the Houston Texans and rookie CJ Stroud in his first NFL regular season game. They should be a solid choice in the last round of your fantasy drafts.

Carolina Panthers – ECR 18

The Carolina Panthers are my deep shot. They get the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans, and Seattle to start the season. Now I’m not calling for Geno Smith to bust, but if he turns into a pumpkin, this could be a good start for the Panthers and their 5.5 fantasy points per game average last season. Add on an offense run by a rookie QB and running back Miles Sanders and you get a storm that will either be great or lackluster. They should only be targeted if all nine other options are gone.

Conclusion

As we turn the pages over into a new season, don’t forget your D/STs! While most fantasy football league are going away from both kickers and D/STs, I still play in a handful of yearly leagues that have them. I will be back for another year of D/ST Streamers who are rostered under 65% on ESPN. As always, may the streams flow your way!