Rent-a-Defense: Week 9

Photo: Mark Konezny, USA Today Sports

Unless most of the teams in your league carry a backup defense, more than half of the league should be available to you every week. Perhaps instead of playing one above-average defense every week, regardless of matchup, we should instead target the widely available waiver wire defenses with the best matchups in any particular week? You can always make exceptions if your rent-a-defense gets hot - heck, you might find a team worth starting all year by accident. Even if you don't, good matchups will continue to get greater in number as more QBs get injured or yanked as the season goes on. You can steal some points from bad weather come December. Each week I'll list the startable fantasy defenses on most waiver wires and rank them.

Assumed to be rostered: Buffalo, Philadelphia, New England

Week 8 Results

Philadelphia (vs Pittsburgh) - 6 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT

The Eagles D/ST performed as expected. You can leave them in your lineup for the rest of the season if someone was foolish enough to drop them.

A Look Ahead: @HOU WAS @IND - Watch the Philadelphia/Houston baseball game Thursday instead

Buffalo (vs Green Bay) - 2 sacks, 1 INT

Josh Allen made more mistakes than Aaron Rodgers, but the Bills still comfortably won this game. You can leave Buffalo in your lineup the rest of the season if someone was foolish enough to drop them.

A Look Ahead: @NYJ MIN CLE - Oh no Zach Wilson

Dallas (vs Chicago) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 DEF TD

Thanks, Justin Fields for jumping over Micah Parsons instead of touching him down.

A Look Ahead: BYE @GB @MIN - The Cowboys D/ST has been good enough to justify holding them through the bye.

New England (at New York Jets) - 2 sacks, 3 INT
New York Jets (vs New England) - 6 sacks, 1 INT

As expected, this game devolved into a rock fight that highlighted defense over quarterback play. Wilson’s interceptions were largely unforced errors and Mac Jones wasn’t able to finish drives or take advantage of great field position.

NE A Look Ahead: IND BYE NYJ - Sam Ehlinger didn’t look bad, but we know the history of Belichick vs. young QBs
NYJ A Look Ahead: BUF BYE @NE - We could come back to the Jets after their bye

Tennessee (at Houston) - 3 sacks, 1 INT

With Malik Willis at quarterback, the Titans weren’t able to force the Texans into a frantic come-from-behind game script, but the result was still acceptable.

A Look Ahead: @KC DEN @GB - So long for now Titans D/ST

Seattle (vs New York Giants) - 5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries

Two Richie James punt miscues made the Seahawks D/ST day.

A Look Ahead: @ARI @TB BYE - The Seahawks D/ST was a huge success vs Arizona the first time around, but DeAndre Hopkins wasn’t active…

Los Angeles Rams (vs San Francisco) - 3 sacks

The Rams defense was on their heels all day as the 49ers embraced Christian McCaffrey’s multifaceted talents. The 49ers defense wasn’t any better for fantasy, so this ended up being a game to avoid.

A Look Ahead: @TB ARI @NO - The Rams are a bottom tier D/ST

Arizona (at Minnesota) - 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery

No D/ST touchdowns, but still an acceptable result.

A Look Ahead: SEA @LAR SF - You could do worse than playing the Arizona D/ST this week.

Miami (at Detroit) - 1 sack

As I advised last week, if Amon-Ra St. Brown and D’Andre Swift returned, the Lions offensive prowess would too, and they did, and it did. The Dolphins D/ST was the worst play of the week.

A Look Ahead: @CHI CLE BYE - Justin Fields isn’t a tomato can anymore. Pass.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

New Orleans (vs Las Vegas) - 4 sacks, 1 INT, 0 pts allowed

Remember the west coast teams playing early games narrative? It can still work.

Cleveland (vs Cincinnati) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT

Turns out Ja’Marr Chase was the key to the Bengals offense

Minnesota (vs Arizona) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT

Kyler Murray’s wide-open style of play will help everyone’s fantasy production, including D/STs.

Week 9 Candidates

Kansas City (vs Tennessee)

Ryan Tannehill won’t be able to keep up with Patrick Mahomes II. Expect the Titans offense to look like a turtle on its back this week.

A Look Ahead: JAX @LAC LAR - The Chiefs could be an every-week start from here on out