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Top Fantasy Football Streaming Defenses for Week 12

By Max Staley

The New York Giants are the top streaming fantasy defense in Week 12.
The New York Giants are the top streaming fantasy defense in Week 12. / G Fiume/Getty Images
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Few defenses are true every-week starting options in fantasy football. That's why "streaming" the position, picking defenses off the waiver wire as needed every week, can be such a useful strategy.

Here are our top three defenses, rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo! fantasy leagues, to target as streaming options in Week 12.

3. Seattle Seahawks (at PHI)

The Seattle Seahawks are not a defense you want to be starting unless you're facing extreme circumstances. But a matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles certainly qualifies as extreme. Carson Wentz has been hilariously careless with the football this year, leading the league in both interceptions (14) and fumbles (10). He's essentially been 2019 Jameis Winston without all the good things the former Buccaneer did last year. Plus, Seattle has been excellent against the run lately, giving up 62.3 rushing yards per game over its last four. Combine that with the fact that the Seahawks will likely be playing with a lead, and the Eagles should be forced to throw early and often. Pete Carroll's defense should have plenty of chances to generate takeaways against the most-turnover prone man in the sport.

2. Green Bay Packers (vs CHI)

The Green Bay Packers aren't the defense they were in 2019, but that shouldn't matter much in Week 12. The Chicago Bears have been a gold mine for opposing defenses in fantasy. Nick Foles has thrown at least 1 interception in seven of his eight appearances this season. His Bears are also the league's second-worst scoring offense and he's taken a whopping 14 sacks in his last four starts. That's going to be a problem against the likes of Za'Darius Smith, who sits tied for fifth in the NFL with 8.0 sacks on the season. Foles is not a lock to play in Week 12, but it's hard to imagine a potential switch to Mitchell Trubisky or Tyler Bray would hurt Green Bay all that much. If anything, it could end up being a huge plus for the Packers' D.

1. New York Giants (at CIN)

Believe it or not, the New York Giants are currently the 11th-best defense in fantasy. This unit is a lot better than it's being given credit for. And people may finally realize that in Week 12, when Joe Judge's Giants face the Ryan Finley-led Cincinnati Bengals. Finley was a disaster through three starts in 2019, averaging 158.0 passing yards per game with 2 TDs to 2 INTs while taking 11 sacks and recording 4 fumbles. We saw more of the same when he came in relief in Week 11, as Finley completed 3-of-10 passes for 30 yards and 1 INT while getting sacked 4 times. New York should have no trouble racking up fantasy points on Sunday, and this unit is only rostered in 12% of Yahoo! leagues right now.

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Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.