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.
**Philadelphia, Baltimore, New England, Dallas, San Francisco, and Buffalo are assumed to be rostered**
Week 14 Results
Kansas City (at Denver) - 6 sacks, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
Willie Gay Jr had one of the more athletic pick sixes you’ll see, and the Chiefs pass rush was relentless even though this game was a lot closer than expected
A Look Ahead: @HOU SEA DEN - Chiefs D/ST or bust
San Francisco (vs Tampa Bay) - 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT
Well, at least Tom Brady wasn’t sacked
A Look Ahead: @SEA WAS @LV - 49ers are on the list of D/STs we’ll ride into the sunset.
Pittsburgh (vs Baltimore) - 2 sacks
We had the wrong side of this one as Mitchell Trubisky came in and threw three picks
A Look Ahead: @CAR LV @BAL - The Steelers D/ST is out of our circle of trust, even against Sam Darnold
Seattle (vs Carolina) - 2 sacks
The Panthers ended up being the better side of this one. Jaycee Horn looked like a shutdown corner in the making and Carolina established the run.
A Look Ahead: @SF KC NYJ - So long, Seahawks.
Cincinnati (vs Cleveland) - 2 sacks, 1 INT
The Bengals controlled this game throughout but didn’t goad Deshaun Watson into too many big mistakes
A Look Ahead: @TB @NE BUF - The Bengals defense is playing well, but just not in ways that show up on the fantasy stat sheet. We’ll leave them on the waiver wire
Arizona (vs New England) - 1 sack, 1 INT
Kyler Murray left with a torn ACL on the game’s first drive, and the Patriots were able to play it conservatively and let their defense do the rest.
A Look Ahead: @DEN TB @ATL - Without Kyler Murray, the Cardinals D/ST fantasy appeal shrivels up
Tennessee (vs Jacksonville) - Nada. Zilch. Bupkis.
This is your division-leading team?
A Look Ahead: @LAC HOU DAL - We’ll come back for the matchup against Houston in Week 16, but reluctantly.
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
Jacksonville (at Tennessee) - 4 sacks, 1 INT, 3 fumble recoveries
The Jaguars defense was up to the task, getting takeaways to turn this game around after it looked like Derrick Henry and the Titans would romp early.
Week 15 Candidates
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