Thread by @ScottBarrettDFB

Last year I wrote a weekly column on streaming defenses.

No one read it. No one cared.

I get it.

But it’s still a position that accrues fantasy points for your team, and as such, it’s relevant. It’s a potential small edge to be maximized, and maximize we must. Because that’s all we have.

And streaming is glaringly the optimal approach.

Why stream, rather than draft a top DEF?

- It’s a low-impact, low-value, low-positional scarcity position
- The cost to acquire isn’t high, but also not free

But mostly:

- DEF scoring is very unpredictable on a season-long level, and extremely predictable week-to-week

Last year's top-24 DEFs by ADP vs. FPTS/G

Result: Not Good

Each week I picked four defenses to stream in rank order by preference. The only rule was they had to be ~50% owned or less heading into that week.

Let's see how I did:

(These articles are all up on PFF, for you to check and make sure I'm not lying)

((There were 3-4 instances early on of me getting cute or lazy and picking a DEF >55% owned. Didn't make a huge difference, but sorry about that.))

Anyway, cleaning that up for you, here's the results:

Essentially, my No. 1 Streaming DEF of the week averaged 10.6 fantasy points per game, or what would have ranked third-best at the position

My No. 2 DEF, 10.3
My No. 3, 8.3
My No 4. 9.5

You'll notice my results were a little worse in the second half of our sample, but that's to be expected with our opponents picking up and holding the best most-proven defenses...

But that also works to our advantage as well.

For instance, I recommended playing SF in Week 3 before their bye. Then in Week 5 (25% owned) calling them an every-week starter. And then doubling down in Weeks 6 (39%) and 7 (65%).

You could have streamed alongside me every week, or you could have just never dropped San Francisco

Either way you would have ended up with the No. 3 scoring fantasy defense, and the latter approach would have saved you FAAB money and time/effort

Anyway, was just curious about my results, decided to check them and tweet them out

Only novel takeaway for me was the lack of real difference between my No. 1 and No. 4 preferences

Implication being: maybe it's not worth over-spending in FAAB for your fav streaming DEF

The End

I wrote a big article on this each of the last two offseasons. Will do so again, laying out what I look for when streaming. And maybe I'll do another in-season column. We'll see.

Oh snap!

Also, it’s INCREDIBLY valuable in DFS

Good luck taking down a large field GPP without the highest-scoring defense on the week. Luckily, it's not as difficult as you might think