Fantasy football rankings 2015: Defense/special teams, Week 11

Defense and special teams in fantasy football can be the most troublesome when teams take a week off. Even the most reliable defenses can tempt fantasy owners when it comes to making room on their roster during a bye. Fortunately, after Week 11, fantasy owners will no longer have to deal with annoying bye weeks. Not only are we almost free of bye weeks, but the final group of teams taking a week off aren't must-own defenses for most leagues. The Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and the New Orleans Saints are defenses that won't causes a lot of stress for fantasy owners needing to move on (especially the Saints).

Our top defenses this week are mostly made up of the usual top performers. Each of them have manageable opponents. The Arizona Cardinals might be the exception here. They'll be facing the Cincinnati Bengals, who are well within the top-ten offenses in terms of limiting fantasy points to opposing defenses. However, after Monday's abysmal 10-6 loss to the Houston Texans, there is plenty of opportunity for the Cardinals to limit them on the scoreboard.

There are a lot of quarterbacks stepping into starting roles this week, and it makes for some murky matchups for better or worse. The Atlanta Falcons are intriguing against the Indianapolis Colts, but quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has avoided turnovers in his limited starts this season. The Chicago Bears are another defense facing a backup quarterback. They've been solid over the last two weeks, and it's tempting to throw them at Brock Osweiler, but it may too much risk against a relatively unknown talent with a very talented supporting cast. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been a fringe top-10 D/ST over the past four weeks. They'll likely be facing Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez on Sunday. Sanchez threw 11 interceptions over his nine weeks as a starter in 2014, and the Eagles are average in points allowed to fantasy defenses. Lastly, the Baltimore Ravens have a date with St. Louis Rams quarterback Case Keenum. Keenum was named the starter over Nick Foles. Keenum will likely play it safe as much as he can, but he'll likely see a few turnovers during his first start of the season. If anything Baltimore's floor doesn't sound too terrible for fantasy owners looking to stream them.

(DK: Daniel Kelley; DC: Dan Ciarrocchi; AM: Andrew Miller; JD: John Daigle; SK: Scott Kaliska. Cleveland, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and the New York Giants are on bye.)

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