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, Buffalo, and Miami have great matchups but are assumed to be rostered**
Week 5 Results
Miami (vs NY Giants) - 7 sacks
The Dolphins predictably hit Daniel Jones a lot. They were not, however, able to force any takeaways even though they did knock Jones out of the game with a neck injury.
A Look Ahead: CAR @PHI NE - Stick with the fish
Houston (at Atlanta) - 2 fumble recoveries
Desmond Ridder punched his way out of a corner and led his team to a comeback victory.
A Look Ahead: NO BYE @CAR - There are probably better options out there than the Texans, but we’ll come back to them in Week 9.
Detroit (vs Carolina) - 1 sack, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INTs
The Lions dominated this game on both sides of the ball. This performance should not discourage us from using the Lions going forward.
A Look Ahead: @TB @BAL LV - Baker Mayfield isn’t playing like a punchline, but the Lions are still worth consideration this week.
Washington (vs Chicago) - 3 sacks
Justin Fields stayed hot and isn’t a quarterback we’re going to target until he stumbles again.
A Look Ahead: @ATL @NYG PHI - We may come back to the Commanders in Week 8.
New Orleans (at New England) - 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD, 0 pts allowed
The Saints were merciless in coming after a beleaguered Mac Jones. We’ll target the Patriots when they are facing a good defense. This was the biggest D/ST game of the week.
A Look Ahead: @HOU JAX @IND - The Texans haven’t been a good D/ST matchup despite starting a rookie at quarterback, but the Saints have been a top 10 D/ST worthy of sticking with through thick and thin.
Arizona (vs Cincinnati) - 3 sacks, 1 INT
Joe Burrow is back. We had the wrong side of this one.
A Look Ahead: @LAR @SEA BAL - After a big Week 1 vs. Washington, this D/ST has been unremarkable.
Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda
Cincinnati (at Arizona) - 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
Cam Taylor-Britt can play. He had a pick-six (Joshua Dobbs' first INT as a Cardinal) to highlight a big rebound week for the Bengals on both sides of the ball.
Pittsburgh (vs Baltimore) - 1 safety, 4 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 INT
This isn’t the first time the Steelers defense has played over their heads against Lamar Jackson.
NY Giants (at Miami) - 1 sack, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
Jason Pinnock’s 102-yard pick-six was the high point of the day for the Giants.