Fantasy Football Week 1 DST Streamers

You’ve done all your research, you made your picks, and you’re ready for the 2025 fantasy football season to start. Did you overlook a position? It may not be flashy, but your DST slot matters! Start the season with a win by streaming the best defenses in Week 1.

This series will focus on DSTs that are available in most leagues and a few teams to stash for future matchups.

Week 1 DST Streamers

Arizona Cardinals (at New Orleans Saints)

Fantrax Rostership: 49% (Other Platforms: 33% – 49%)

This is as obvious as it gets. The New Orleans Saints have one of the worst offenses in the league. The Saints will be rolling out Spencer Rattler at QB to start the year, and things could get ugly quickly.

Rattler was 0-6 as a starter in 2024, and only scored 4 TDs to 5 interceptions while getting sacked 22 times. 2nd round rookie Tyler Shough will be waiting in the wings, but even he is not guaranteed to succeed.

New Orleans’ offense does have weapons in Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Rashid Shaheed, but the putrid QB situation will drag them down until they prove us otherwise. Players like Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz highlight a solid offensive line, but avoiding sacks is an art, and some signal callers just don’t know how to handle pressure.

The Arizona defense was good for fantasy last season, registering 41 sacks and generating 17 turnovers. The Cardinals never had a negative game in standard Fantrax leagues and scored double-digit points 7 times. Finishing as the 14th-ranked DST last year, they were relatively reliable and should be rostered more with a good schedule to start the 2025 season.

To top it all off, Arizona is favored by nearly a touchdown, and the 42.5 point total is one of the lowest in Week 1. Stream the Cardinals DST with confidence.

New England Patriots (vs Las Vegas Raiders)

Fantrax Rostership: 30% (Other Platforms: 16% – 76%)

The New England Patriots have the 2nd easiest strength of schedule this season, just behind the San Francisco 49ers. That won’t automatically translate into fantasy points for them, but they could be a sneaky start most weeks.

New England’s defense ranked 31st in fantasy points last year but could be ready for a bigger season in 2025. The Patriots hired former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel to lead the team, and the front office immediately worked on shoring up some glaring holes. The team brought in a handful of notable free agents like CB Carlton Davis III, LB Robert Spillane, and EDGE Harold Landry III.

This defense was begging for talent after failing to draft many real starters in the past few years. Standout CB Christian Gonzalez is an exception. The 1st round pick out of Oregon impressed in his sophomore season, earning a Second-Team All-Pro nod and allowing just a 71.7 passer rating when targeted.

Las Vegas’ offensive outlook will be better than last year, after bringing in veteran QB Geno Smith and drafting RB Ashton Jeanty. The Raiders also have TE Brock Bowers, who already looks like one of the best at the position entering his sophomore year. Geno will have a better offensive line to stand behind and shouldn’t take an insane amount of sacks (127 combined in his last 3 seasons in Seattle), so upside is a bit capped for the Patriots. The lack of a truly great Wide Receiver does hurt the Raiders, though. This is one matchup I think could underwhelm but still return solid results.

Not only are the New England Patriots a solid Week 1 defense to stream, but they offer a lot of future value with a cakewalk schedule. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more widely available DST stash with as many juicy matchups in 2025.

Chicago Bears (vs Minnesota Vikings)

Fantrax Rostership: 25% (Other Platforms: 5% – 11%)

The Chicago Bears always seem to generate buzz. New Head Coach Ben Johnson and the offense will be at the center of that excitement, but don’t forget about the defense. Former Saints HC Dennis Allen joined the team as their new Defensive Coordinator. While Allen never found success as a Head Coach, he was great in a coordinator role. Allen inherited arguably the worst defense in the league in 2015 and turned it into a perennial top-10 unit before being promoted in 2022. Expect a big boost for Chicago’s defense in 2025.

The Minnesota Vikings boast a great offensive mind in HC Kevin O’Connell. On paper, their weapons look great. However, Jordan Addison is suspended, and we have no idea how good JJ McCarthy will be. Under Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings have made career backups like Nick Mullens and Joshua Dobbs look great at times, but there is no guarantee that McCarthy will be able to do that. Sam Darnold flourished in the system last season, but he had a history of at least mild success. While McCarthy is not a rookie anymore, he has never played in a regular-season game, missing the entire 2024 season with a meniscus tear.

Chicago was good against the pass last year, ranking 13th in DVOA. The run defense was an issue, but that’s where Dennis Allen can work his magic. The Bears put in work on the defensive line, drafting DE Shemar Turner in the 2nd round of the 2025 NFL Draft, signing former Colts DE Dayo Odeyingbo, as well as Falcons DT Grady Jarrett. Allen will need to get a lot of out of his linebackers to create a truly special defense, though. Expect a slight improvement for now.

JJ McCarthy is both the question and the answer here. He may need a game or two to get his footing, and starting without his projected WR2 in Jordan Addison isn’t ideal. The team has the weapons and scheme to compensate, but the Bears are not a cakewalk. Dennis Allen will bring welcome changes to Chicago, and the pass defense should continue to excel. Available in about three-quarters of leagues, the Bears are a DST streamer worth checking out. They’re not in the elite tier of defenses, but they have some appeal even in tougher matchups.

Cincinnati Bengals (at Cleveland Browns)

Fantrax Rostership: 18% (Other Platforms: 3% – 18%)

This might be the only time I recommend the Bengals DST. Cincy let up the 8th most yards and the 7th most points in the league last year.

To their credit, the Bengals put up good performances against the worst offenses last year. In standard Fantrax leagues they scored:

• at Pittsburgh: 11 Fantasy Points
• vs Cleveland: 21 Points
• at Tennessee: 19 Points
• at Dallas: 12 Points
• vs Pittsburgh: 10 Points
• vs Las Vegas: 14 Points
• at Cleveland: 19 Points
• at New York (Giants): 14 Points

Past success doesn’t automatically mean they will succeed, but that is encouraging. We should also expect some positive regression for the team. The worst defenses rarely stay bad forever. Cincinnati picked defensive players with 3 of their 6 draft picks this year, including their 1st and 2nd rounders. They also signed LB Oren Burks from the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles. Burks took over for an injured Nakobe Dean late last season and forced 3 fumbles in 6 games, including 2 in the playoffs.

There is a long way to go for this defense. It is possible that the Bengals elite offense overwhelms bad teams and forces them to make bad plays to catch up, thus boosting Cincy’s fantasy performances. Whatever the case, they are not highly rostered and play a Cleveland Browns team starting 40-year old Joe Flacco. Without much in the way of offensive weapons for the Browns, expect a good performance out of the Bengals DST in Week 1.

Defense to Stash

Buffalo Bills

Fantrax Rostership: 95% (Other Platforms:59% – 77%)

The Bills host the Ravens in a playoff rematch. Whether or not Baltimore gets their revenge, their stellar offense will turn a lot of people off from starting the Bills DST this week. Buffalo is rostered in a lot of leagues for now, but their low projection means that they may even get dropped before Week 1. They have a juicy schedule that includes the Jets, Dolphins, Saints, Patriots, and Falcons in just the first 8 weeks. They finished in the top 10 last year in fantasy, and they should put together another great showing in the first half of 2025.

Keep an eye on them in your league, especially when doing your waivers after Week 1.