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.
**Baltimore and Chicago have great matchups in Week 2 but are assumed to be rostered**
Week 1 Results
Philadelphia (vs Washington) - 1 sack
The Eagles whole team hit the snooze button and the defense never woke up. It remains to be seen if this will be a pass defense to target when setting lineups, but it sure has the look of one through one week, just ask Case Keenum.
A Look Ahead: @ATL DET @GB - The Falcons pass offense and offensive line should get better at home this week.
Dallas (vs New York Giants) - 2 fumble recoveries, 1 sack
Not a colossal stat line, but considering the defensive let downs around the league, we’ll take it. This offense is souped up and should create favorable game scripts for a defense that is becoming one of the league’s best.
A Look Ahead: @WAS MIA @NO - We’ll stick with Dallas this week just to get the chance to play them against Miami next week.
Seattle (vs Cincinnati) - 5 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries
The addition of Jadeveon Clowney went as planned for the Seattle pass rush, although the pass defense allowed a career high yardage total to Andy Dalton.
A Look Ahead: @PIT NO @ARI - Generally playing a D/ST at Pittsburgh is a bad idea.
Detroit (at Arizona) - 5 sacks, 1 INT
The Lions made Kyler Murray look like an overwhelmed rookie for a while, but Murray and the Air Raid wore them out and salvaged a tie that should have been a Cardinals win.
A Look Ahead: LAC @PHI KC - The Lions D/ST will be on the wire for a while
Kansas City (at Jacksonville) - 1 sack, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT
Knocking out the starting quarterback doesn’t get a D/ST any points, but facing the backup usually does. Gardner Minshew wasn’t having any of that, so the Chiefs D/ST was a miss, but at least not a complete whiff.
A Look Ahead: @OAK BAL @DET - Derek Carr handled the Denver defense, so perhaps he’s not one to target this week
Cleveland (vs Tennessee) - 4 sacks
The Browns got off to a rousing start, but didn’t force any big mistakes for Marcus Mariota and then the game got away from them in the second half.
A Look Ahead: @NYJ LAR @BAL - A Monday night road game, even against Adam Gase, isn’t very attractive
Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda
San Francisco (at Tampa Bay) - 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 2 DEF TD
We’ll always have Jameis Winston. Well at this rate, maybe we will have Ryan Griffin or Blaine Gabbert
Tennessee (vs Cleveland) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 3 INT, 1 safety
Baker Mayfield started flailing once the Titans got ahead and the Browns offensive line did him no favors
New York Jets (vs Buffalo) - 1 sack, 2 INT, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 DEF TD, 1 safety
Josh Allen and Cole Beasley had enough mistakes to make a big afternoon for the Jets D/ST before CJ Mosley went out of the game in time for the Bills to win
Tampa Bay (vs San Francisco) - 1 sack, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 1 DEF TD
The defenses accounted for as many touchdowns as the offenses in the game with the highest over/under of the week
Minnesota (vs Atlanta) - 4 sacks, 2 INT, 1 fumble recovery
The Vikings defense appears to be back in form, while the Falcons offensive line is still a weakness
Week 2 Candidates
**Baltimore and Chicago have great matchups in Week 2 but are assumed to be rostered**
New England (at Miami)
The Patriots defense might be elite, and the Dolphins offense might be the worst we’ve seen since the last team Josh Rosen played for
A Look Ahead: NYJ @BUF @WAS - Here’s your D/ST through at least Week 5 and maybe longer
Carolina (vs Tampa Bay) **Thursday**
Will this be the first game that we see Bruce Arians give Jameis Winston the hook? A short week of rest and hostile road crowd could push him over the edge.
A Look Ahead: @ARI, @HOU, JAX - We’ll stick with the Panthers if they come through this week
Dallas (at Washington)
The Cowboys should be more ready to answer the bell than the Eagles were last week, and Case Keenum will probably look more like, well, Case Keenum
A Look Ahead: MIA @NO GB - You’re playing the Cowboys this week to have them for next week
New York Jets (vs Cleveland)
It sounds like CJ Mosley will play on Monday night, so we have an intersection of one of the biggest Week 1 D/ST hits and one of the most generous Week 1 offenses. The Monday night lights can’t hurt.
A Look Ahead: @NE BYE @PHI - Moving right along
Houston (vs Jacksonville)
JJ Watt was stonewalled by fellow Badger Ryan Ramcyzk and the Texans defense couldn’t make anything good happen outside of Whitney Mercilus taking advantage of a Drew Brees miscue and later sacking him. Gardner Minshew is coming and he won’t have the Chiefs defense nursing a huge lead to pick on in this one.
A Look Ahead: @LAC CAR ATL - That’s all for now for the Texans
Tennessee (vs Indianapolis)
Jacoby Brissett is likely to be very conserative and the Titans aren’t exactly a high-flying offense, but Cameron Wake hulked the Browns and the Titans will be playing in front of an amped home crowd
A Look Ahead: @JAX @ATL BUF - Let’s not Minshew words, the Titans have a good matchup next week too
Week 3 Preemptive Pickups
**Chicago, Minnesota, and New England have good matchups in Week 3 but are assumed to be owned**
Dallas (vs Miami)
Green Bay (vs Denver)
Tennessee (at Jacksonville)
Carolina (at Arizona)