Can you believe it’s Week 11 already? In a typical league there are just four or five more weeks of the fantasy regular season left. At this point some teams are already eliminated, some teams are coasting, and many are jockeying for playoff spots. With four or more teams on bye in three of those four weeks, roster management will be key to making the playoffs. This week and next it will be very hard to justify spending a bench spot on a defense, unless you have particularly deep benches or happen to dodge the byes. Week 13, the eye of the storm of byes, will be the time to lock in your defense strategy for the playoffs. Without further ado, let’s get to defenses worth streaming in Week 11!

Streaming Defenses: Waiver Wire & Start/Sit Advice (Week 11)

The bye-pocalypse continues with four more teams sitting out this week: ARI, CAR, NYG and TB. That’s two good defense matchups off the table, but this still seems like a decent week for streaming with several teams under 50% rostership ranked as starters. Rostership numbers are from Yahoo. You can find me on Bluesky and Threads.

Matchups

1. MIN @ TEN: Last week we saw the return of Will Levis for the Titans after missing three weeks with a shoulder injury. He had what might have been his best game of the season with two touchdown passes and, for the first time this season, no turnovers. But the opposing Chargers still finished as a top-12 fantasy defense because of an incredible 7 sacks, the second-highest total of the week. Now Levis has to face a Vikings defense that is well-equipped to take advantage of his interception tendencies.
2. GB @ CHI: The collapse of Caleb Williams and the Bears is something to behold. Going into their Week 7 bye, the Bears had a 3-game winning streak and Williams was making a case for rookie of the year. Since then Williams has failed to throw a touchdown and the Bears are 0-3. Last week was a complete meltdown where the Bears scored just 3 points, and the Patriots – one of the worst teams in the league – achieved the highest sack total of the season so far with 9. The Bears promptly fired their offensive coordinator and head coach Matt Eberflus will continue to be in the hot seat. The Bears are back on the menu as a premium defense target, and face good defenses from here on out, starting with the Packers.
3. DET vs JAC: Trevor Lawrence missed last week’s game after being questionable all week with a shoulder injury, giving way to backup Mac Jones. I don’t have any insight into Lawrence’s injury, but the 2-8 Jags face the Lions this week and then have a bye next week, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he sat until after the bye. Jones was a disaster last week in Germany, turning the ball over 3 times and taking 3 sacks, with a rushing touchdown that represented the team’s only points. This is a great matchup for a Super Bowl-bound Lions defense, and would still be a very good one if Lawrence ends up playing.
4. MIA vs LV: Last week the Dolphins’ defense was able to mostly shut down a Rams offense that was expected to pop off with both of their star receivers playing (and not getting ejected) for only the third time this season. Gardner Minshew and the Raiders are coming off their bye, which was preceded by a couple decent offensive showings in losing efforts against better teams. This is a rebuilding year for a Raiders team that offers bottom-5 scoring potential with Gardner Minshew II at QB, who has a medium-high propensity to turn the ball over and take sacks.
5. LAR @ NE: Patriots QB Drake Maye continues to elevate a pretty bad offensive team, but he can only do so much. In four games where Maye has played the whole game, two of them resulted in 4 sacks and 3 turnovers. In the two games with fewer mistakes the Patriots still failed to reach 20 points. This matchup for the Rams offers pretty good sack-turnover upside and not a lot of scoring downside.
6. NYJ vs IND: The Colts’ decision to bench Anthony Richardson for Joe Flacco continues to yield disappointing results. Last week Flacco offered up four turnovers including a pick-six, which made the Bills the #2 fantasy defense for the week. Flacco has been named the starter again for Week 11. This Colts team is a good matchup with either quarterback, and the Jets are certainly in the category of defenses that can take advantage.
7. HOU @ DAL: With Dak Prescott sidelined for the season, Cooper Rush is the guy in Dallas and it’s not going well. Last week he led the team to just 6 points and fumbled twice, turning in a negative fantasy point total for himself on offense. Trey Lance also saw the field after the game was out of hand, and managed two sacks and an interception in just 8 dropbacks. The Cowboys are a team in crisis and worth targeting with most defenses. The only real headwind for the Texans is the fact that Rush has been able to avoid taking very many sacks in his career. The Cowboys have the additional disadvantage of playing at home, where they are 0-4 this season.
8. NO vs CLE: Before the Browns’ Week 10 bye, we saw vintage Jameis Winston against the Chargers, which is to say he threw three interceptions. He continues his habit of blindly chucking the ball downfield, which sometimes results in picks like we saw against the Chargers, and sometimes results in touchdowns like we saw when the Browns upset the Ravens. As a defense the Saints aren’t on the level of the Chargers, but they are 4th in the league with 12 interceptions on the season, and perfectly capable of punishing bad throws.
9. LAC vs CIN: If you’ve been rolling with the Chargers in recent weeks, you’ve been living good with some pretty favorable matchups. I expect that to cool off significantly starting this week, as they face some much better offenses over the next five weeks. In general I would advise moving on from the Chargers now, but if you can’t find a better option or bring yourself to drop them, another week or two isn’t the worst decision. Burrow is a great quarterback and this is a good offense, but he does take sacks at a decent rate. It’s reasonable to bet that the excellent Charger’s defense will be able to hold up while their run-first offense continues to dominate time of possession against a horrible Bengals defense.
10. DEN vs ATL: The Falcons offense under Kirk Cousins has been up and down this season, with last week being a down game where they failed to reach 20 points against the Saints. The Broncos defense has been excellent this year, and are coming home from a game where they came as close as anyone (if not for a blocked field goal) to taking down Patrick Mahomes II and the Chiefs, holding them to just 16 points.