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.
**Chicago and the Los Angeles Rams have good matchups in Week 6 and should be played over rent-a-defenses but are assumed to be rostered**
Week 5 Results
Tennessee (at Buffalo) - 1 sack, 1 INT
An early Titans turnover and strong play from the Bills defense kept this on a run-heavy conservative game script and the Titans couldn’t generate pressure. Maybe they were tired after an epic overtime win over Philadelphia. We’ll keep targeting the Bills unless the team is competitive for two or three straight games.
A Look Ahead: BAL @LAC BYE - The Titans are going home and the Ravens offense has had rough outings on the road at times this year. You could do worse.
Houston (vs Dallas) - 2 sacks, 2 INT
JJ Watt and Jadeveon Clowney wreaked their share of havoc, but the game was a back and forth affair and they never really got a chance to get into killer instinct mode. The result was acceptable because playing them in Week 5 positioned you for Week 6.
A Look Ahead: BUF @JAX MIA - We’ll take our chances against Josh Allen any week.
Cincinnati (vs Miami) - 3 sacks, 2 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 2 DEF TD
The Bengals defense took this one over in the fourth quarter and propelled the Bengals and fantasy teams to victories.
A Look Ahead: PIT @KC TB - At home against the Steelers could be a good recipe
Carolina (vs NY Giants) - 1 sack, 2 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 1 ST TD
The Panthers recovered a punt for a score and Eli had a few Eli plays. Direct Hit.
A Look Ahead: @WAS @PHI BAL - Alex Smith was bad in New Orleans and makes for a tempting target, even on the road, but Week 6 is a very good rent-a-defense week, so they might be below the cut line.
Cleveland (vs Baltimore) - 2 sacks, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 9 pt allowed
The Browns defense played well in this game, but it didn’t show up in the big play stats. This was still an ok result, but not a hit.
A Look Ahead: LAC @TB @PIT - The Browns are yet to be a whiff in D/ST terms yet this year, but there might be better options on the waiver wire this week with Philip Rivers coming to town.
Kansas City (vs Jacksonville) - 5 sacks, 4 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 1 DEF TD
The Chiefs defense finally had their field day against a lesser quarterback trying to play catch up. We’ll consider them every time they are at home or facing a bottom half of the league passer.
A Look Ahead: @NE CIN DEN - They aren’t at home or facing a poor passer this week.
Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda
Arizona (at San Francisco) - 4 sacks, 2 INT, 3 fumble recoveries,1 DEF TD
The Cardinals were very aggressive and harassed CJ Beathard into sacks and turnovers all afternoon. The 49ers offensive line is in shambles and the Cardinals had a long score to open their offensive day to get a favorable game script for their defense.
Pittsburgh (vs Atlanta) - 6 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 DEF TD
Matt Ryan never got in a groove and Steelers got back to their pressure-generating ways after being more conservative against better pass offenses in Weeks 2-4.
Minnesota (at Philadelphia) - 3 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 DEF TD
Linval Joseph had one of the most memorable big man scores in a long time.
Miami (at Cincinnati) - 2 sacks, 1 INT, 1 1 ST TD
Jakeem Grant had a spectacular finish to a long punt return to make this one work.
Detroit (vs Green Bay) - 4 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries
The Lions defense was up in Aaron Rodgers grill all day and spotted the team enough of a lead to keep them from sweating too much when Rodgers tried play his miraculous comeback card
Week 6 Candidates
**Chicago and the Los Angeles Rams have good matchups in Week 6 and should be played over rent-a-defenses but are assumed to be rostered**
Minnesota (vs Arizona)
The Vikings defense had a big play to key their road win at Philadelphia and they aren’t missing Everson Griffen too much because of Stephen Weatherly. Josh Rosen looked like a rookie in Week 5 and the Vikings can take advantage of his aggressive approach in Week 6.
A Look Ahead: @NYJ NO DET - If the Vikings come through against one rookie quarterback, we’ll consider them against another in Week 7.
Houston (vs Buffalo)
Let’s keep pulling the Josh Allen slot machine arm when choosing streaming D/ST’s. The Texans have the talent up front to force him into a turnover fest on the road and the Texans won’t take this game lightly like the Vikings did in Week 3.
A Look Ahead: BUF @JAX MIA - This could be a very good run for the Texans D/ST if Blake Bortles doesn’t turn it around soon.
Green Bay (vs San Francisco)
CJ Beathard was under fire all day and his offensive line is banged up, so he wasn’t getting much help against Arizona. The Packers should continue that trend under the lights on Monday night.
A Look Ahead: BYE @LAR @NE - I hope the Packers defense is feeling good about itself because it is going to have a rough Week 8 and 9.
Seattle (vs Oakland - London)
The Seahawks defense has a good matchup this week against Derek Carr and a disintegrating Raiders offensive line in London. Their running game should set them up to control this one.
A Look Ahead: BYE @DET LAC - We won’t come back to Seattle for a while
Tennessee (vs Baltimore)
The Titans came up small in a great Week 5 matchup, but they are still an aggressive deep defense playing at home against a cold quarterback.
A Look Ahead: @LAC BYE @DAL - If the offense can get back on track, we could consider the Titans again this year, but not until at least Week 10.
Dallas (vs Jacksonville)
The Cowboys have been generating a lot of pressure and they face a quarterback who put together a blooper reel last week, allowing the opposing defense put up their highest sack total of the year and almost double (5-3) their takeaway total in Weeks 1-4 in Week 5.
A Look Ahead: @WAS BYE TEN - If Marcus Mariota is still out of synch and Taylor Lewan is still out, Week 9 is a possibility
Week 7 Preemptive Pickups
Indianapolis (vs Buffalo)
Kansas City (vs Cincinnati)
Minnesota (vs NY Jets)