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, Baltimore, New England, Dallas, and Buffalo are assumed to be rostered**
Week 11 Results
New England (vs NY Jets) - 4 sacks, 1 ST TD, 3 points allowed
NY Jets (at New England) - 6 sacks
This was the defensive stalemate we expected, but there were no turnovers. Marcus Jones returned a punt for a score on the next to last play of the game to put the Patriots D/ST over the top.
New England A Look Ahead: @MIN BUF @ARI - The Vikings are licking their wounds; Belichick will want to sweep the leg.
NY Jets A Look Ahead: CHI @MIN @BUF - If Justin Fields is out, this will be a matchup to target.
Baltimore (vs Carolina) - 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 2 INT, 3 points allowed
The Ravens defense is reloaded and they are ready to carry the team, at least when they are facing Baker Mayfield. No matter who is starting at quarterback for the Panthers, we’ll want to target them going forward.
A Look Ahead: @JAX DEN @PIT - The Ravens defense deserves a chance to be our D/ST from here on out.
Kansas City (at LA Chargers) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT
The Chiefs defense made enough positive plays in a dogfight to give Patrick Mahomes II a chance to win and give fantasy teams a boost.
A Look Ahead: LAR @CIN @DEN - Yeah you’ll want to leave the Chiefs D/ST in against the Rams and who knows at quarterback.
New Orleans (vs LA Rams) - 4 sacks
The quarterback play for the Rams was actually very good behind a piecemeal offensive line on the road.
A Look Ahead: @SF @TB BYE - Happy trails Saints D/ST
San Francisco (vs Arizona - Mexico City) - 3 sacks, 2 INT
The 49ers won big, which was enough to make them a good play south of the border.
A Look Ahead: NO MIA TB - Andy Dalton is coming off of a great game, but the 49ers are coming on as a team, so they are a viable Week 12 play.
Washington (at Houston) - 5 sacks, 2 INT, 1 DEF TD
The Commanders started off with a Kendall Fuller pick six and it didn’t get much better for Davis Mills and company after that.
A Look Ahead: ATL @NYG BYE - The Commanders defensive line is peaking right now and they should get Chase Young back soon. We’ll consider them in Week 12.