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 increase as more quarterbacks 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.
Week 6 Results
Tampa Bay (at Pittsburgh) - 2 sacks
The Buccaneers faced Mitchell Trubisky for part of this game, and he beat them
A Look Ahead: @CAR BAL LAR - We’ll still stick with the Bucs against P.J. Walker
New England (at Cleveland) - 4 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, 2 INT
The Patriots made Jacoby Brissett look as bad as any defense has this year. Their now-efficient offense creating play-from-ahead game scripts only helps.
A Look Ahead: CHI @NYJ IND - The Patriots vs. Justin Fields is the best D/ST play of the week
LA Chargers (vs Denver) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery
The Chargers defense wasn’t dominant, but you don’t need to be dominant to keep the Broncos in check
A Look Ahead: SEA BYE @ATL - The Seahawks gave up a special teams score and five sacks to Arizona, but the Chargers still are not a preferred option this week
Chicago (vs Washington) - 3 sacks
This game could have gone differently if the Bears were able to convert at the goal line, but as it stood, Washington was the better D/ST on the road
A Look Ahead: @NE @DAL MIA - Moving right along…
Minnesota (at Miami) - 6 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT
The Vikings had a huge D/ST day and picked off their old quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (in relief) twice.
A Look Ahead: BYE ARI @WAS - We may come back to Minnesota later but they aren’t worth carrying through the bye.
Carolina (at LA Rams) - 1 sack, 1 INT, 1 DEF TD
Thank you, Donte Jackson, for the pick-six
A Look Ahead: TB @ATL @CIN - We got lucky this time but won’t try the Panthers again for a while.
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
Arizona (at Seattle) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 ST TD
A Chris Banjo recovery of a blocked punt in the end zone made the Cardinals D/ST day
NY Jets (at Green Bay) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 ST TD
The Jets also recovered a blocked punt and returned it for a score. The Packers special teams strikes again!
Atlanta (vs San Francisco) - 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
The Falcons returned a Jeff Wilson fumble for a score to key their upset win.
Seattle (vs Arizona) - 6 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT
This was supposed to be a shootout, but instead, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals offense shot themselves in the foot