DL Streaming 101: Week 7
Professor IDP looks at the best DE and DT streaming options in your IDP fantasy football leagues for Week 7.
Welcome to the Week 7 edition of DL Streaming 101!
Another light bye week is ahead of us in Week 7, with only the Bills and Ravens off this week. The result is a fantastic batch of streamers this week, with four ideal tier plays (two of which are basically unrostered on MFL and Sleeper), 12 solid plays, and only four players in the solid (deeper) tier.
Below, I highlight six new names to the article this season, but first, let’s take a quick look back at how Week 6 and the first six weeks of the 2025 season.
Week 6 was a bit of a bounce back despite being a poor week for fantasy DL overall. Week 6 streamers posted an average of 8.2 Big 3 points, with seven players breaking the 10-point mark and only one zero-point performance (Sam Okuayinonu). These numbers are particularly encouraging given the preseason top 20 only averaged 9.6, six players over 10, and also posted one zero-point performance (Jalen Carter) in Week 6.
Overall, streaming has now had a 39.5% success rate (streamers scoring over 10 pts) with 11.4% boom games over 20 pts, and only 4.4% who would have left you with a 0 for the week. The overall average sits at 9.6, with ideal plays coming in at 14.2, solid at 9.1, and solid (deeper) at 8.6.
Week 7 features some familiar streaming options, some big names that have fallen below 50% rostership, and a few fresh faces!
Featured DL Streamers
K’Lavon Chaisson, DE, NE (🎓🎓🎓🎓)
After pulling his career out of “first round bust” territory last season in Las Vegas, K’Lavon Chaisson parlayed his six sack campaign into another one-year ‘prove it’ deal in New England, and so far, so good. IDP managers have been (rightfully) cautious in trusting Patriots front-four defenders, but it’s a new day in New England and Chaisson’s metrics point to him as an ideal streamer who is available in more than 95% of MFL IDP leagues and 99% of Sleeper leagues.
In 2024, Chaisson posted six sacks on 29 pressures while playing 508 snaps. This season, he has played less than half that number of snaps (212) but is already halfway to his previous sack total (3), and has put up 21 pressures. Chaisson has played 70% or more of the Patriots’ defensive snaps in every game he has been healthy for this season, eclipsing 80% twice (including last week).
Tennessee has allowed 25+ point performances to five edge defenders across six games and ranks as the second most fantasy-friendly matchup for DE in 2025.
Jihad Ward, DE, TEN (🎓🎓🎓)
Hopping to the other side of the highly anticipated Mike Vrabel revenge game, Jihad Ward of the Tennessee Titans has been a journeyman playing for seven teams across his 10-year career but warrants streaming consideration this week. Ward has one sack and eight tackles on the season, so he is very widely available, including my 16-team, 66-player roster league on MFL.
While Ward has several things going for him this week, including an 84% snap share in Week 6, PFF run defense and pass rush grades above 64, and a DT designation on MFL (despite only 18 of 186 snaps on the interior this season), he also has a few elements that give pause. First, the aforementioned 84% snap share was his highest in 2025 (by 31%), and teammate Arden Key is currently questionable for Week 7 with a quad issue. Second, the Patriots have stifled two of the last three edge rooms they have faced, allowing a combined 12.5 Big 3 fantasy points to the Panthers and Saints.
If Key returns, plug in Dre’Mont Jones instead of Ward as his snaps are more stable, but temper expectations on either.
Christian Barmore, DT, NE (🎓🎓🎓)
One last player to watch for those in the New England or Tennessee markets is interior defender Christian Barmore. After having his career seemingly derailed by blood clots, Barmore is fully back in 2025 and has shown flashes of his 2023 form, including a pass rush performance graded 90.9 by PFF in Week 4 and a seven-pressure performance in Week 5.
No defender in 2025 has more pressures (19) without a single sack than Barmore, who looks to change things against the Titans. While Barmore has a tough assignment in Peter Skoronski (PFF’s 9th highest graded pass blocker), struggling rookie Cam Ward has been the most pressured QB in the NFL (85) and ranks seventh in own pressures generated (12). Sack opportunity aside, Barmore also ranks second in tackles for Patriots defensive linemen at 13 combined, despite four missed tackles.
While a 30-point performance may be unlikely, Barmore has a nice mix of floor and upside this week to place him squarely in the DL streaming conversation.
Kobie Turner, DT, LAR (🎓🎓🎓)
Kobie Turner’s 2025 fantasy stock has seemingly plummeted after being one of the top-rated fantasy DTs before the start of the season. Like some other big names discussed in previous weeks, such as Chris Jones and Dexter Lawrence, I am absolutely buying the dip in rostership and happy to play Turner in Week 7.
The Rams phenom is DL104 on the season with only one game over 10 Big 3 fantasy points. Despite this lack of fantasy production, Turner’s usage (66-75% over the last four) and underlying metrics of 19 pressures and a 76.3 PFF pass-rush grade provide optimism that a big game is coming. The Jaguars have been a tough matchup for opposing DT this season, but have only faced one elite interior pass rusher (Chris Jones in Week 5) and finally showed cracks last week by allowing 25.1 points to Byron Murphy and 11 to Leonard Williams.
Turner is too good to keep out of the box score for too long, so if other managers are dropping him, I would gladly scoop him up and play him this week.
Gervon Dexter Sr., DT, CHI (🎓🎓)
One of my favorite players whose name I am constantly confusing (I’ve called him Dexter Gervon more than I would like to admit), Gervon Dexter has made his way back into the streaming conversation after being featured several times in 2023 and 2024. Dexter has an elite six-pressure game to his credit this season (Week 3 against Dallas) and just recorded his first multi-sack game of 2025 in the MNF nightcap against the Commanders.
The caution signs with Dexter are:
His tackle floor tends to be low (averaging less than two combined per game)
He has a tough team matchup this week against the Saints (allowing an average of 20.62 to opposing DT)
His two sacks last week came on just two pressures.
He is a good option in DT-required deeper leagues this week but my expectations for him are to help you stay in a tight matchup rather than be a potential game winner.
DeMarcus Lawrence, DE, SEA (🎓🎓)
A player who does have fantasy match-winning upside is the ageless DeMarcus Lawrence of the Seattle Seahawks. Tank turned back the clock in Week 6 with a 32.4 point performance driven by two sacks. These sacks were not flukey as Lawrence took up residence in the Jaguars’ backfield with seven QB pressures.
The Seahawks take on the Texans this week, who have stifled inferior edge groups such as Tampa Bay, Tennessee, and Baltimore while allowing Jacksonville to thrive. Quarterback CJ Stroud may be in for a long day as Seattle’s defensive line is arguably the best they have faced all season.
The factors that push Lawrence down to the solid (deeper) tier are twofold. First, the Seahawks deploy a three-man edge rotation of Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, and Boye Mafe (with Derick Hall also getting significant snaps when healthy). This rotation has seen Lawrence’s snap share capped at 66% in 2025. Second, before last week’s explosion, Tank ranked fourth among the group listed above in terms of pass rush grade, pressures, and sacks. This suggests it is unlikely that he will be taking on a significantly larger role, which increases his uncertainty.
Still, he has shown that he still has 30+ point games in his arsenal, and he is the highest graded run defender in the Seattle edge room, so you could likely do much worse at DL this week.
If you enjoy this series, please consider filling out the 2025 State of IDP survey here. This year’s survey is a new, shorter format that you only need to fill out once (goodbye, one survey per league!) and contains only five questions. It is the data we received from past surveys that has partially helped to shape this article from DT streaming to DL streaming (given how many leagues use DL vs separate DT and DE).
Good luck, and if you have any questions about deep DL plays, my office is always open on Twitter (@ProfessorIDP).
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