The Jacksonville Jaguars have a solid defense and special teams when it pertains to a choice in a fantasy football league.
But the reality is that if you want to wait on the D/ST position in your draft, the Jags become a must-draft sleeper.
The reason is actually simple: Their schedule to open the season looks exactly like you’d want it to.
And with the season just around the corner, there’s no need to overthink this.
Why Jaguars D/ST Is Obvious Sleeper
If you aren’t going to take a defense and just keep them the whole fantasy football season, the D/ST planning becomes all about matchups.
And boy oh boy, do the Jaguars have a great matchup in Week 1 or what?
They welcome the Cleveland Browns to Jacksonville.
Yep, the Browns whose quarterback battle this offseason was a lose-lose proposition between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders.
The same Browns who replaced essentially their entire offensive line this season, and still no one is quite sure if it’s any good — all anyone knows for sure is that it doesn’t have a lot of continuity as a unit.
And yeah, the same Browns whose passing game will depend in large part on a pair of rookie WRs who should be good eventually but will be playing their first regular season NFL game on Sunday, Sept. 13.
Watson doesn’t have the arm talent, or the leg talent, that he used to. He’s a turnover waiting to happen. Even when he doesn’t give the ball to the other team, it seems unlikely he’ll be moving it very much himself.
There’s something comforting about playing a D/ST in fantasy football with a beautiful matchup like the Browns. So if you can get the Jags late in your fantasy draft, you’ve got to do it.
Jaguars’ Schedule After Week 1
If you take the Jags, you’ll probably be fully committed to the plan of streaming defenses based on matchup, but that’s fine. If you can get the team playing the Browns or the Jets most weeks, you’re probably doing just fine.
The Jaguars are conceivably playable in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos, who are a solid team but won’t necessarily light up the scoreboard.
It starts to get tricky in Weeks 3 and 4, though, when the Jags take on the Patriots and Bengals.
The Browns take on the Buccaneers in Week 2, for what it’s worth, and the Bucs D/ST isn’t frequently drafted near the top of the board. You might just be able to “Browns hop” your way at the D/ST spot in your fantasy football lineup. And then the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 would have a chance to be available against Cleveland, too, as long as you’re ahead of your leaguemates on this strategy, maybe by picking up the next D/ST on the Sunday beforehand so they don’t ever make it to the next week’s waiver claims.
Jaguars D/ST Is Must-Draft Fantasy Football Sleeper