You’re not playing fantasy football right if you’re not streaming in any of your leagues. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, streaming is the act of rotating starters at a position and playing someone off the waiver wire based on a favorable matchup. There’s a good chance you should be streaming at least one of your positions each week unless you drafted the perfect team this summer — there’s a chance you did since you subscribed to this site!
I’m almost always streaming defenses in all my leagues during the season so I highly encourage you to check out Justin Varnes’ weekly streaming defenses piece. I’m also not afraid to stream at the typical one-starter skill positions like quarterback and tight end. Every week in this space, I’ll take a look at some lesser-owned players you might want to start based on a matchup, increased opportunities, and/or other factors that might boost their value in a given week. I’ll also highlight some typical weekly starters that you might want to shy away from because of a tougher matchup, an injury, and/or playing time issues.
Important note…
These are not strict Start/Sit recommendations. This article is meant to give you players who are widely available and are looking better than usual this week. Conversely, I’ll also give you players who are widely owned and are looking a little worse than usual this week. Also, ownership percentages are from Yahoo leagues.
Quarterback Streamers
Players to consider benching this week
On bye: None.
In danger of missing: Jimmy Garoppolo (at NYG), Drew Lock (vs. TB)
In tough matchups: Jared Goff (at Buf, 23rd in FPG), Deshaun Watson (vs. Pit, 17th in FPG)
Top options if they’re available…
Ryan Tannehill (@Min, 46%) — What more does Tannehill have to do to be rostered in the majority of leagues? The Vikings have a bad defense right now and Tannehill has two performances of 19+ FP to start the year.
Joe Burrow (@Phi, 71%) — Burrow showed a lot of fight in Week 2 with 316/3 passing against the Browns, and the Eagles just got torched for 267/3 passing against Jared Goff last week.
Daniel Jones (vs. SF, 55%) — The Giants could be forced to throw more going forward with Saquon Barkley out of the lineup, and this 49ers defense is attackable now with their pass rush and secondary injuries.
Players to consider streaming the next couple weeks
Gardner Minshew (vs Mia, @Cin, @Hou — 33%) — The Jaguars are way feistier than anyone anticipated this season, and Minshew is a major reason why. He’s thrown for three TDs in each game this year, which has helped him climb above 20+ FP in both games. He’ll go against a Dolphins defense on TNF that just allowed Josh Allen to set single-game career highs in passing yards (417), touchdown passes (four), and passer rating (147.0). The Dolphins will also be without top CB Byron Jones who is nursing a groin injury. He then has matchups against sub-par defenses in Cincinnati and Houston in Week 4-5 so Minshew is knocking on the door of being a weekly QB1 option.
Players to consider streaming this week
Ryan Fitzpatrick (@Jax, 4%) — Fitz could use a victory this week to keep the Dolphins from making the switch to Tua Tagovailoa with 10 days before Miami’s next game in Week 4 against Seattle. Fitz had the magic working late against the Bills last week, but he couldn’t quite pull off the upset as he finished with 328/2 passing and 24.3 FP. The Jaguars allowed four TD passes to Ryan Tannehill last week, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we see some back-and-forth action between these QBs/offenses on Thursday night.
Mitchell Trubisky (@Atl, 8%) — Mitch is the ultimate check-the-box-score fantasy quarterback because it’s not a whole lot of fun to watch him get to his 19.7 FPG average (QB14) each week. Trubisky isn’t in the same area code as Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott, but both of those QBs went for 30+ FP going against this young Falcons secondary. It hasn’t necessarily been pretty but Mitch does have five TDs so far, and he gets his third generous spot to come through again this week. Trubisky is a boom-or-bust option since they could yank him at any point for Nick Foles, but he’s going to have chances to put up production this week.
Philip Rivers (vs. NYJ, 26%) — Rivers is definitely the riskiest of these streaming options this week despite having one of the juiciest matchups against the Jets. New York has been a pass-funnel defense over the last season-plus, but they’re even starting to get gashed by long runs after the 49ers ripped off several big runs last week. The Colts threw it just 38% of the time in their dominant victory over the Vikings last week, which is a concern since the Colts enter this week as double-digit favorites this week. The Jets still gave up a 30+ FP to Josh Allen in Week 1, and the Colts could have murdered the Vikings if they didn’t settle for four field goals against the Vikings. Rivers has top-12 potential this week if he converts half those field goals into touchdowns this week.
Tight End Streamers
Players to consider benching this week
On bye: None
In danger of missing: George Kittle (at NYG)
In tough matchups: Evan Engram (vs. SF, 31st in FPG)
Top options if they’re available…
Mike Gesicki (@Jax, 68%) — The Jags just got torched for 4/84/2 receiving by Jonnu Smith, and Gesicki is coming off a TE3 performance in Week 2.
Jonnu Smith (@Min, 68%) — The aforementioned Smith is coming off a huge week and it looks like A.J. Brown (knee) is going to miss at least another week with his bone bruise.
A player to consider streaming the next couple weeks
Dalton Schultz (at Sea, vs. Cle, vs. NYG — 2%) — I poured one out for Blake Jarwin after watching Schultz go H.A.M. on the Falcons last week. He finished with a team-best 10 targets for 9/88/1 receiving to finish as the TE7 with 22.8 FPG. Schultz is a player who should be added this week since he has the potential to be a mid-tier TE2 going forward playing in one of the league’s best offenses. He doesn’t have an easy matchup going against the Seahawks and Jamal Adams this week, but at least Seattle and Dallas project to play in a shootout this week.
Logan Thomas (@Cle, vs. Bal — 32%) — Thomas saw another nine targets last week and he’s currently leading the Football Team with a 27% target share, but it didn’t mean much against the Cardinals in Week 2. He finished with a disappointing 4/26 receiving with Dwayne Haskins missing a couple throws to the former college quarterback. Now is not the time to run away from Thomas as he still sits third at the position with his 27% target share, behind only Darren Waller and Hunter Henry. If anything, Thomas is a better DFS this week since the public will be off of him after a down performance against the most generous defense for fantasy TEs last season. You should also look to scoop him up if he’s dropped this week since he has two prime matchups against the Browns (most FPG) and the Ravens (6th-most) the next two weeks.
Players to consider streaming this week
Mo Alie-Cox (vs. NYJ, 1%) — The adult film star, as Joe Dolan affectionately calls Mo Alie-Cox, saw more than five targets for the first time in his career and he turned those looks into 5/111 receiving against the Vikings. He also played on 66% of the snaps with two red-zone targets so Alie-Cox is on the radar if Jack Doyle (ankle) misses again. Doyle actually has just one career 100-yard game despite seeing 5+ targets in a game 30 different times. What I’m saying is that the Colts would be wise to keep using Alie-Cox going forward so maybe this streamer can turn into more of a long-term option. Alie-Cox hopes to keep his stat lines NSFW going against a Jets defense that just allowed two touchdowns to the corpse of Jordan Reed. Speaking of Reed…
Jordan Reed (@NYG, 7%)) — Reed is obviously an option only if George Kittle misses once again this week. The 49ers are going to be playing the team’s ball boys soon with all of the injuries they’ve suffered across the board, including at their skill positions. Reed saw a promising 46% snap share in a blowout victory, which was way better than anticipated, and he saw a team-high eight targets. Nick Mullens will likely be the starter this week with Jimmy Garoppolo nursing a high-ankle injury, and he leaned heavily on Kittle when he was the starter for eight games back in 2018. Kittle averaged 6.4/99.1/.4 receiving per game on 9.9 targets with Mullens so Reed could lead this passing attack again with all of their current injuries.
