by Ray Kuhn

Avoid negative points. While you are obviously looking to maximize your points from each roster spot, there are some that will generally get overlooked, and defense is one of those positions. With that being said, at the very least you don’t want to lose points from the spot. The beauty of streaming a defense means that there is often at least one or two match-ups to exploit. Let’s take a look at how your options rank for this week:

1. Arizona Cardinals – vs. New York Jets
2. Buffalo Bills – vs. San Francisco
3. New England Patriots – vs. Cincinnati
4. Tennessee Titans – vs. Cleveland
5. Denver Broncos – at San Diego
6. Seattle Seahawks – vs. Atlanta
7. Pittsburgh Steelers – at Miami
8. Philadelphia Eagles – at Washington
9. Baltimore Ravens – at New York Giants
10. Los Angeles Rams – at Detroit
11. Houston Texans – vs. Indianapolis
12. Detroit Lions – vs. Los Angeles Rams
13. Green Bay Packers – vs. Dallas
14. New York Giants – vs. Baltimore
15. Indianapolis Colts – at Houston

Notes:

• While the Titans as a whole aren’t the most exciting of teams, they do have some things to offer fantasy owners, and their Defense is one of them. As far as fantasy production, Tennessee is in the middle of the pack but they also have spent the majority of the season on the waiver wire. As of Wednesday night they are owned in just 24.6% of leagues with a recent ownership spike of 22.1%. The Titans’ value will never be higher than it is this week as they face off against the Browns and their revolving door at quarterback. That’s a pretty good match-up for a team coming off a Week 5 performance that saw them register six sacks in Miami.
• On paper, the Giants offensive firepower should be imposing, but that hasn’t been the case yet this season. New York has yet to generate much of a running game, and a good portion of that blame falls on the offensive line. That makes Baltimore, who is a Top-10 defense so far this season but is owned in just 46.9% of ESPN leagues, one of the top options. As Manning tries to force the issue, there is no reason why the Ravens won’t continue with forcing multiple turnovers as they have in three of the last four weeks.
• The 49ers have multiple factors working against them this week. They are traveling from the pacific time zone and have the early game on Sunday against a Buffalo team that has been playing relatively well as of late. We do have an added wrinkle to the equation now that Colin Kaepernick will be starting at quarterback, but San Francisco has struggled to get much going on offense this season (other than garbage time and the first week of the season). Buffalo has a fumble recovery in each game this season, and has at least three sacks in each of their last three games. Things are shaping up nicely.