Let’s Stream Defenses: Week 11 (2025 Fantasy Football)

We’ve made it through the worst of the bye weeks, but we’re not out of the woods yet. We have two teams out this week and four next week, followed by none in Week 13 and the final four in Week 14, the last or second-last week of the regular season in most fantasy leagues. Planning defenses ahead for the fantasy playoffs is a good idea, but right now is still a bit early between looming byes and the fact that a lot can change in 5 weeks. That Week 13 gap in the byes will be the time to start stashing playoff defenses. So for now, let’s get to planning how we can win Week 11.

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

We have a lull in the onslaught of bye weeks, with only the Colts and Saints out this week. Despite 30 teams playing, it’s still a somewhat shallow streaming week with fewer than 10 teams I feel great about. Fortunately there are some good options that are available in most leagues. Rostership numbers are from Yahoo. You can find me on Bluesky.

Matchups

1. HOU @ TEN: The Texans are the #1 defense in football from the perspective of yards and points allowed. Last week they snapped a 6-game streak of 2 or fewer sacks, getting to Trevor Lawrence 5 times, including a scoop-and-score. They have an even easier target this week in Tennessee with Cam Ward. Prior to last week’s bye, Ward’s 4-sack, no-turnovers performance against the Chargers was the only time all season the Titans have failed to put the opposing defense in the Top 8 for fantasy. The Texans are the level of defense you would start against much better offenses, so this is a no-brainer.
2. NE vs NYJ: The Jets had a wacky one last week, pulling off the upset win over the Browns with the help of back-to-back kick return touchdowns in the first quarter. Beyond that, the Jets’ actual offense managed just a pair of field goals and one TD on a long run from Breece Hall. They wisely threw very little, with Justin Fields completing 6 of just 11 pass attempts, during which he still found time to throw an interception and take 3 sacks. The Patriots have an excellent points defense but are middle-of-the-pack in the sacks department. They’ve been boom-bust, with three games of 4+ sacks, but recording 2 or fewer in every other game. The Justin Fields Jets are a great opportunity for another one of those boom games – he’s had five such performances, including taking 6 sacks from a Panthers team that’s bottom-5 on the season with only 16 total sacks.
3. BAL @ CLE: Browns rookie QB Dillon Gabriel had a pretty good game for his 5th career start, throwing 2 touchdowns with no turnovers against the Jets. He did, however, take 6 sacks from a Jets defense that was already had one of the least potent pass rushes in the league, and had just traded away their defensive stars DT Quinnen Williams and CB Sauce Gardner. The Ravens are also a team that doesn’t record a lot of sacks, but if it’s possible against the Jets it’s possible against a Ravens team that’s been playing well on defense and firing on all cylinders following the return of Lamar Jackson.
4. ATL vs CAR: Jonathan Taylor ran all over the Falcons defense last week, but they still found time to sack Daniel Jones and incredible 7 times. That followed a performance where they recorded 6 sacks against an otherwise excellent Patriots offense. The Panthers have potential to do something similar – Rico Dowdle is the other player with multiple 200-yard games, alongside Taylor, but that’s far form guaranteed. Last week the Panthers managed a mere 7 points against a middling Saints defense. I expect big sack numbers and probably not much scoring again this week.
5. GB @ NYG: Giants rookie sensation Jaxson Dart left last week’s game with a concussion. I always assume players in concussion protocol won’t play the next week. Dart is the first QB that comes to mind for guys who might come back from a concussion in one week, but I don’t expect that since the team fired coach Brian Daboll. The QB situation is a bit muddy here. Russell Wilson was the backup and finished out the game, but the fan base might revolt if he started this week. It’s been a bit of a puzzler that Jameis Winston, almost certainly the better player in 2025, wasn’t the backup. My expectation is that Winston will start, and Wilson will remain the backup. In his career Winston has been a gunslinger, sometimes putting up serious passing numbers, but frequently including multiple interceptions. On this roster against the Packers, I don’t think the risk of a big game is very high, but there’s still plenty of upside potential with turnovers.
6. CHI @ MIN: Vikings not-technically-a-rookie QB J.J. McCarthy has some stuff to work on. Last week the Vikings committed 8 offensive false start penalties, which is unheard of for a home team. He threw a pair of interceptions, bringing his season and career total to 6 in just 4 games. He did manage to limit the sacks to 1, but that’s not a huge surprise against the Ravens and his season average is still a very high 3.75 sacks per game. The Vegas-implied point projection of 25.75 is much more than you usually see this high in my ranks, but it’s also rare to see an interception projection this high. This week’s Bears have a lot of upside.
7. DAL @ LV: Geno Smith and the Raiders did almost nothing on offense in last week’s 10-7 Thursday night extravaganza in Denver. The 6 sacks Geno took were from the best pass-rushing team in the league, and the Cowboys certainly aren’t that. But they did just acquire Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline, and have shown an ability to put up sack numbers in good matchups despite trading Micah Parsons in the preseason. In the past 5 weeks, they have 4+ sack performances against the Jets, Commanders (with Marcus Mariota) and Cardinals (with Jacoby Brissett). This is an excellent opportunity for another one.
8. LAC @ JAC: In recent weeks, Trevor Lawrence has been extremely vulnerable to sacks against good defenses. In his last 4 games, he’s taken 7 from the Seahawks, 7 from the Rams and 5 from the Texans. Those are all top-5-ish defenses, but the Chargers aren’t that far behind. Los Angeles has 12 sacks over their last 3 games against similar-quality offenses, and I expect that trend to continue this week against a Jags team with a pretty injured wide receiver corps.
9. BUF vs TB: The Buccaneers have a rather depleted WR room: Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan are both on IR and Chris Godwin still hasn’t returned to practice, leaving rookie Emeka Egbuka and TE Cade Otton as kind of the whole show. Having nobody open is a good way to take sacks, and indeed in the two games since Evans’ injury, Baker Mayfield took 4 sacks from the Lions and 3 from the Saints. The Bills might not be amazing on Defense, but they are above average, and have a good chance of finding a favorable game script with Josh Allen on the other side. This could be a shootout, but I think it’s more likely that Tampa Bay struggles.
10. TEN vs HOU: Before their bye, the Titans were the #1 fantasy defense in Week 9 thanks to punt return TD, a pick-six and 6 sacks against the Chargers. Now they face a Texans team that trotted out Davis Mills at quarterback last week, while C.J. Stroud was out with a concussion. It’s not clear if Stroud will make it back this week, but this is a good-not-great matchup either way. With availability in basically every league, hoping for another big sack day from the Titans is a reasonable backup plan if better options are unavailable.