Top Fantasy Football Streaming Defenses for Week 16 Fantasy Championship

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 16.

3. Arizona Cardinals (vs SF)

After a shaky start to the year, the Arizona Cardinals defense has scored at least 8 fantasy points in three of its last four games. They've racked up 31 QB hits, 18 sacks, 2 interceptions and 4 fumble recoveries in that stretch. Now they get a San Francisco 49ers team that is already struggling with Nick Mullens (6 TDs, 6 interceptions and 8 sacks over his last four games). To make things even better, however, Mullens is nursing an elbow injury, meaning he may be playing hurt, or it may be third-stringer C.J. Beathard getting the start instead.

2. Los Angeles Chargers (vs DEN)

Drew Lock doesn't look like the long-term answer for the Denver Broncos' QB woes. Despite having recently shredded the weak Carolina Panthers secondary for 4 touchdowns in Week 14, he's at 13 interceptions with just 14 passing touchdowns on the year while getting sacked on 4.1% of his dropbacks (1.4 times per game). The Los Angeles Chargers defense has scored 9 fantasy points three times in its last five games, and they're averaging 1.6 takeaways and 1.6 sacks per game during that stretch.

1. Houston Texans (vs CIN)

Despite what they just did to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 15, the Cincinnati Bengals are heavy 8-point road underdogs against the Houston Texans in Week 16. Ryan Finley took over the reins at QB, and despite the win it's hard to get excited about a guy with a career 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on 58-of-119 (48.7%) passing. The Houston Texans defense has not played well in 2020, but an interception-prone passer playing behind an offensive line that has conceded the NFL's fourth-highest sack rate (8.4%) can make any defense a viable fantasy option.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. 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 his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.