It’s Thanksgiving week, and that means a few things for fantasy football. First, there are no byes this week, a brief respite before the last 6 teams go on bye next week. It also means, depending on your league settings, there are just 2 or 3 weeks of the fantasy regular season left before it’s playoff time. Without byes taking up your bench spots, this is the time to plan ahead for the playoffs and, if needed, bye week fillers for next week. To that end, stick around after my Week 13 ranks to get my recommendations for defenses to stash.

Streaming Defenses: Waiver Wire & Start/Sit Advice (Week 13)

It’s funny how the streaming landscape ebbs and flows. Last week felt pretty good for streaming despite six teams being on bye. Now we have all 32 teams playing, but it feels like a weaker streaming week due to some good recent performances from teams we previously thought were good matchups. Rostership numbers are from Yahoo. You can find me on Bluesky.

Week 13 Matchups

1. KC vs LV: Raiders QB Gardner Minshew suffered a season-ending broken collarbone against the Broncos last week. This will create another opportunity for Aidan O’Connell when he’s healthy, but O’Connell is still recovering from a thumb injury he suffered in Week 7. So for at least one week, Desmond Ridder will steer the ship for the Raiders. Ridder was a third-round pick out of Cincinnati for the Falcons in 2022, and ended up starting for most of 2023. Ridder was not good in Atlanta, recording a 1:1 TD:INT ratio. He took sacks at a high if inconsistent rate, taking 3+ in 7/12 starts. The Raiders are a good DST matchup with any of their quarterbacks, so it’s an easy decision to start Kansas City, one of the better defenses in the league.
2. DAL vs NYG: Tommy DeVito performed about as expected for the Giants following the release of Daniel Jones, which is to say he led the team to just 7 points and took 4 sacks, but avoided turning the ball over. DeVito will start again this week on Thanksgiving, so Drew Lock will have to wait for a chance that I still think is coming this season. The Cowboys’ Defense isn’t amazing, but they’re plenty good enough to take advantage of a matchup like this, at home coming off an upset win over the Commanders.
3. WAS vs TEN: Last week Will Levis had his best game of the season in terms of offensive output, putting up 32 points to take down the Texans. But he did it while taking an incredible 8 sacks, and throwing his signature horrible pick-six to make Houston the #3 fantasy defense for the week, despite all the points allowed. Big sack numbers and at least one turnover is my default expectation for the Titans, and this week is no different.
4. DEN vs CLE: Jameis Winston was the hero of last week’s snow game against the Steelers. In that weather he threw a season-low 27 pass attempts and avoided taking multiple sacks, but he did still turn the ball over twice. Winston is a pretty good quarterback overall but his recklessness carries a lot of turnover potential, and I expect a great defense like Denver to be able to take advantage.
5. DET vs CHI: Rookie phenom Caleb Williams snapped a streak of bad performances since the Bears’ Week 7 bye, putting up 27 points against the Vikings and extending his streak of zero-turnover games to five. Williams still took his traditional 3 sacks, a mark he has only failed to reach twice this season. The Lions are the clear best team in football and should dominate this matchup.
6. HOU @ JAC: Trevor Lawrence is questionable for this week, having not played since Week 9 due to an injured AC joint. Lawrence has been middling in all three dimensions this season – points, turnovers and sacks. That makes him a fairly comfortable target for a defense like Houston, who are 2nd in the league in sacks following an 8-sack performance against the Titans. In the two games Lawrence missed, the Jags were downright terrible, failing to reach double-digit points in either game with Mac Jones starting. If Lawrence ends up missing this game, the Texans would go from good to great and be a top-3 defense for the week.
7. IND @ NE: Drake Maye and the Patriots turned in another rough one against a middling Dolphins defense, scoring just 15 points where 8 of them were the result of a fumble six. Maye now has a streak of four consecutive games with at least one interception, and has multiple turnovers in three of those games. The Colts have a good matchup this week, and could be worth a hold afterward to get to more good matchups in Weeks 16 and 17 for the fantasy playoffs.
8. MIN vs ARI: Kyler Murray and the Cardinals have, at times, looked awesome this year. They’ve also looked totally helpless against teams that can stop the run, which happened last week. The team combined for just 49 rush yards against the Seahawks, who are middle-of-the-road in terms of rush yards allowed this season. As a result, Murray attempted a season-high 37 pass attempts, and had an interception, 5 sacks and no touchdowns to show for it. This was only the fourth time Murray has taken more than one sack in a game this season. Now they have to face the Vikings, who happen to be the #1 run defense in the league. I think a similar outcome is likely this week.
9. NYJ vs SEA: Geno Smith and the Seahawks secured a low-scoring win against the Cardinals last week with just 16 points. Smith recorded 5 sacks, his third straight game with 4 or more. He has now reached the 3 sack mark in 7/11 games this season.
10. TB @ CAR: I’m a bit surprised to see the Buccaneers rostered in only 9% of Yahoo leagues. They did not disappoint in an obvious great matchup against the Giants last week, and have a good schedule going forward. But a schedule that includes two games against the Panthers looks a lot less good following Bryce Young‘s performance last week. The Panthers became next in a long line of teams to lose to the Chiefs by just one possession, putting up 27 points. Young continued his pattern of keeping the sacks low – he hasn’t taken more than two sacks in a game since Week 1. He also now has back-to-back games without a turnover, though he still has more turnovers than touchdowns on the season. I would not blame you if you want to fade the Buccaneers this week, but for me, Young has not yet shown enough consistency in scoring and avoiding turnovers to totally write off the Panthers as a good matchup.

Rest of Season

With 6 more byes looming next week and the fantasy playoff right around the corner, this is a good time to plan ahead and stash defenses. To that end I put together a google sheet with matchup ratings for each team, and a schedule grid to help you plan your strategy for the rest of the season. Based on that analysis, here are some teams that I think could be worth a hold after this week with more than one promising matchup in weeks 14-17 I’ve bolded the weeks I expect these defenses to be usable.

• The Jacksonville Jaguars are worth a bench stash this week to get to the Titans in Week 14 and then the Raiders and Titans again in Week 16 and 17.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ good schedule has been called into question with a strong showing by the Panthers last week. How they do against the Panthers this week will set the tone for the rest of the season. They have the Raiders in Week 14 and the Cowboys and Panthers in Week 16 and 17.
• The Indianapolis Colts are worth holding through their bye after this week’s Patriots matchup, as they get the Titans and Giants in Week 16 and 17.
• The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t a great defense, but they have three upside matchups in Weeks 14-16 against the Cowboys, Titans and Browns.
• The Atlanta Falcons have two great matchups in Weeks 15 and 16 against the Raiders and Giants.
• The New Orleans Saints have a couple good matchups remaining on the schedule, the Giants in Week 14 and the Raiders in Week 17.
• The Los Angeles Chargers have a touch schedule after this week, but could come in clutch for the fantasy finals against the Patriots in Week 17.