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.
**Buffalo and San Francisco have great matchups but are assumed to be rostered**
Week 6 Results
Kansas City (vs Denver) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 8 pts allowed
The Broncos offense on the road did not disappoint as a D/ST opponent.
A Look Ahead: LAC @DEN MIA - We’ll stick with the Chiefs, knowing that the Broncos are up again next week.
Cincinnati (vs Seattle) - 4 sacks, 2 INT
A very good result against an uneven Geno Smith.
A Look Ahead: BYE @SF BUF - We’ll come back to the Bengals later this season.
Detroit (at Tampa Bay) - 1 sack, 1 INT, 6 pts allowed
A dominant defensive performance, but it wasn’t reflected in the fantasy numbers.
A Look Ahead: @BAL LV BYE - Keep the Lions D/ST on waiver wire speed dial for Week 9.
Jacksonville (vs Indianapolis) - 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 3 INT
We’ll be targeting Gardner Minshew with our rent-a-defense going forward.
A Look Ahead: @NO @PIT BYE - The Thursday road matchup vs Derek Carr isn’t prohibitive, but probably not a preferred option.
New Orleans (at Houston) - 2 sacks, 1 INT
Not a complete dud, but on a day when defenses shined across the league, it was a disappointment even though they forced C.J. Stroud’s first NFL interception (and promptly fumbled it away on the return).
A Look Ahead: JAX @IND CHI - Keep the Saints D/ST on waiver-wire speed dial for Weeks 9-10.
Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda
Minnesota (at Chicago) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
Your biggest D/ST hit of the week. Justin Fields left with a thumb injury, and the Vikings got to face UDFA rookie Tyson Bagent.
Washington (at Atlanta) - 3 sacks, 3 INT
We might want to consider using the D/ST facing Desmond Ridder.