Let’s Stream Defenses: Week 17 (2025 Fantasy Football)

This is it – the fantasy football finals. If you’re reading this, congratulations on making it! Hopefully you’ve been stashing or starting a defense with good matchup this week, but if not there should be some reasonable options on the waiver wire, with a season-low number of teams competing to claim them.

Before we get to Week 17 rankings, as I’ve been doing for the last several weeks, I’ll go over defenses that I expect to be good plays in Week 18. If you’re in a league that plays in Week 18, I feel your pain – my home league has the stupid 2-week playoff matches. This is all subject to change of course, because some teams will choose to sit their stars in Week 18 based on this week’s result. But here are the teams that currently look like they’ll be good plays, in no particular order:

• CLE @ CIN: Both of these teams are out of playoff contention. Considering the state of the franchize and the injuries he’s been dealing with. I would be shocked if Joe Burrow doesn’t sit in Week 18. That would be good for the Browns anyway, and especially so if Myles Garrett fails to record the full sack he needs to break the single-season record against the Steelers this week.
• ATL vs NO: Both teams in this game are out of the playoffs. The Falcons are a middling defense overall, but their strength is their pass rush, which also happens to be Tyler Shough‘s weakness. Given that he’s a rookie and showing progress as he gains experience, I expect Shough to play in Week 18.
• GB @ MIN: The Packers have a pretty good defense and are likely to still be playing for a playoff spot, or better seeding in Week 18. They are currently in line to be the 7-seed in the NFC, but not locked for the playoffs. We don’t know if J.J. McCarthy or Max Brosmer will start in Week 18, but the Vikings are a great matchup either way.
• LAR vs ARI: A great, possibly Super Bowl-bound defense, against a below average offense – pretty straightforward. The Rams are in position to be the 6 seed and third in their division despite having 11 wins, so there’s a high likelihood they’ll be playing for a better seed or even the division title in Week 18, if the Seahawks (@CAR) and 49ers (vs CHI) both lose this week, which is certainly possible.
• KC @ LAR: The Raiders are a truly great matchup, so much so that I would still feel comfortable starting the Chiefs even if they rest their stars, which seems likely.
• NE vs MIA: The Patriots are locked for the playoffs and have a chance to be the 1 seed if they win more games than the Broncos over the next 2 weeks. Both teams are expected to win this week. It kind of depends on how the games get scheduled, but it seems likely that the Patriots will be playing to win in Week 18, hoping the Chargers can take down the Broncos at the same time. Week 18 games aren’t scheduled yet, but the NFL likes to schedule games simultaneously in situations like this.
• DEN vs LAC: The Broncos are currently the 1-seed in the AFC, with the Patriots matching their 12 wins and the Jags, Chargers and Bills all sitting at 11. They will almost certainly have to play Week 18 to defend their position as the AFC west winner and 1-seed.
• BUF vs NYJ: The Bills are in the playoffs at 11-4 but trail the Patriots by a game for the division title. They split their two head-to-head matchups, and the Bills currently lead the Patriots in conference record (the second tiebreaker), meaning they could win the division if the Patriots drop a game. So they’re likely to play their starters in what should be an easy matchup against the Jets in week 18.

Streaming Defenses: Fantasy Football Waiver Wire & Start/Sit Advice (Week 17)

Recent weeks have felt tough for streaming, with the best defenses facing tough matchups and the worst offences facing below-average defenses. The schedule always balances out, and this week is making up for it. We have several great defenses in good-to-great matchups, including the Patriots somehow only rostered in 50% of leagues, and a couple decent-defense-great-matchup plays that are available in most leagues. Rostership numbers are from Yahoo. You can find me on Bluesky.

Matchups

1. DEN @ KC: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Following Patrick Mahomes II‘s ACL tear two weeks ago, backup Gardner Minshew II suffered a knee injury of his own last week. Fortunately his ACL is intact, but the injury is still enough to land him on IR for the remainder of the season. The Chiefs will have to turn to two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Oladokun (the first). Oladokun was drafted by the 7th round and then released by the Steelers, and has been bouncing between the Chiefs’ active roster and practice squad as their QB3 ever since. He saw his first NFL snaps against the Broncos in 2024, and will make his first start against them on Christmas. Expectations for the Chiefs are at rock-bottom against one of the league’s best defenses, with a Vegas-implied points allowed projection of 11.5. If you find yourself in the fantasy finals with the Broncos in your D/ST slot, congratulations!
2. NE @ NYJ: Like the Chiefs, the Jets are down to their QB3 and facing a top-flight defense. Brady Cook took over against the Dolphins in Week 13 after Tyrod Taylor went down with an injury, and has made two more starts since then. Taylor is available as the backup, but isn’t starting due to some combination of lingering injuries, the Jets’ desire to see what they have with Cook, and possibly to improve the Jets’ draft pick. In 3 games of work, Cook recorded a sky-high 17 sacks, 7 turnovers (6 interceptions, 1 fumble) to just one passing touchdown. The team scored a total of 36 points against middling defenses in that time.
3. PIT @ CLE: Shedeur Sanders has exceeded expectations since taking over the Browns’ QB job in Week 11, but the last couple games have been rough. The Browns got clobbered by the Bears in week 15, in which Sanders threw 3 interceptions and the team managed just a field goal for scoring. Last week was better – a surprisingly close game against the Bills – but ultimately a loss in which Sanders threw another 2 interceptions. Now he has to face a Steelers team that’s 6th in turnover differential.
4. DET @ MIN: Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy sustained a hand injury in the final minutes of the first half last week, and will sit out this week for the same reason. Max Brosmer, who will start this week, didn’t have to do much to secure a low-scoring win over the Giants. He completed 7/9 passing attempts for 78 yards and led the team to just a Field goal in the second half. That was a big improvement over his only start this season, in Week 13 when he threw 4 interceptions and took 4 sacks in a shutout loss to the Seahawks. The Lions aren’t quite Seahawks-level on defense, but they aren’t bad either – certainly strong enough to take advantage of this matchup.
5. NO @ TEN: The Saints were the DST1 last week, recording 8 sacks and 2 turnovers against Brady Cook and the Jets. Cam Ward and the Titans are a much better offense than the Jets, but they’re still a positive matchup for defenses. Ward represented an defense matchup for most of the season, but has cleaned things up over the last three weeks, in which he threw just one interception and took just 3 sacks. The Saints’ defense has been pretty good in the second half of the season, and I expect them to fare better against the Titans than the injury-depleted 49ers and spiraling Chiefs did over the last two weeks.
6. SEA @ CAR: The Seahawks have been dominant in good matchups this season. Bryce Young and the Panthers are a stronger offense than the Cardinals, Vikings and Falcons – all of whom gave the Seahawks a DST1 finish – but not by so much to be out of range for one of the league’s best defenses. Young has not taken more than 2 sacks in a game since the Falcons got to him 5 times in Week 11, including a genuinely impressive performance against the Rams in Week 13. Still, it’s not unreasonable to expect that the Seahawks will fare better.
7. TEN vs NO: Saints rookie QB Tyler Shough has showed a lot of promise lately, and has avoided committing any turnovers in his last two games. And yet, he’s doing the rookie thing where he continues to take lots of sacks even as his play improves elsewhere. In the 5 weeks since the Saints’ bye, Shough has taken at least 3 sacks in every game for a total of 20. The Titans aren’t a team that comes to mind when you think of dominant pass rushing teams, but they are above average in that area. They rank 11th in the league with 38 sacks, and have shown an ability to consistently record 3+ in good matchups, and the Saints certainly qualify. The Titans this week are a high floor pick – a high likelihood of sacks, but limited upside from turnovers. It’s a wild week that this is my highest-ranked home team.
8. NYG vs @ LV: The Giants were dominant in a great matchup against the Vikings last week, and finished as the DST2 thanks to a fumble-six. As good matchups go the Raiders and Geno Smith don’t quite reach the highs of J.J. McCarthy, but they’re still very good. With Cam Ward playing a bit better lately, Geno Smith has taken the lead as the most-sacked quarterback in the league with 52. He has a 7-game streak of 3+ sacks going, including massive days against strong pass rushing teams – 6 from Denver and 10 from Cleveland. The Giants aren’t on that level but they do record 3-4 sacks on a regular basis, and should be able to keep that going this week.
9. CLE vs PIT: Myles Garrett is close enough to smell the single-season sacks record. He’s sitting at 22.0, needing just one full sack to break the record of 22.5. I expect to see him take down Aaron Rodgers for the record. Rodgers is not particularly sack-prone, but he takes 2 or 3 on a regular basis. He doesn’t really have the speed to run away from players like Garrett – it’s his get-rid-of-the-ball-ability that keeps him upright. Good downfield coverage forcing the QB to hold the ball longer is an important contributing factor for sacks, and the Browns happen to have the #1 passing defense in the league by yards allowed.
10. HOU @ LAC: Justin Herbert tries his best, but with all the Chargers’ best offensive linemen sidelined with injuries, he’s been one of the more sack-prone QBs in the league. Herbert played his best game of the season last week, in which he took zero sacks from the Cowboys, but that’s an anomaly. I fully expect the Texans to get that back on track. By my estimation, the Texans are the actual best defense in the league. They lead in both points and yards allowed, and are tied for 6th with 41 sacks. If you have the Texans it’s work checking the waiver wire for some of the defenses with truly great matchups, but otherwise this is a totally viable spot to dance with who brung ya.