Best fantasy football D/ST waiver wire pickups for Week 6

Welcome to the Week 6 waiver wire watch!

The month of October is underway and another weekend of NFL action is in the books. We’ve seen some strong defense/special teams performances in football over the past few weeks, especially with the number of blocked kicks happening around the league. As always, D/ST is the biggest streamer position in fantasy as the individual matchup plays a huge factor.

We’ll go over some Week 5 units that you should consider scooping off the waiver wire ahead of Week 6 and as always, we’ll classify a waiver add as someone who is rostered in 50% of leagues at the max.

Week 6 byes: Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings

Los Angeles didn’t have the best performance this past week, giving up 26 points in its overtime loss to San Francisco on Thursday. The Rams were not able to take advantage of the 49ers being decimated by injuries as one sack is all they were able to muster up in the loss. To San Fran’s credit, it has at least proven its resiliency and ability to find ways to win even with so many of its star players out and the team in inexplicably sitting atop the NFC West standings.

That stands in stark contrast to L.A’s Week 6 opponents in Baltimore, who appears to be dead in the water. The Lamar Jackson-less Ravens got boatraced by the Texans in a 44-10 beatdown on Sunday, a game where Houston’s defense picked off backup QB Cooper Rush three times and put him on the ground once. Sunday’s matchup could be a get-right game for the Rams’ D and I think that they can shake off last Thursday’s letdown and have a strong performance.

Tennessee finally got its first win of the season in a a chaotic 22-21 comeback victory over Arizona and did it on the back of its defense. The unit was credited with three sacks and three fumble recoveries for the day and that oddly included Tyler Lockett’s jumping on a fumble for a touchdown following a Cam Ward touchdown. Strange stuff.

There’s an opportunity for the Titans to establish some momentum this Sunday as they’re facing an abysmal Raiders squad that is averaging two turnovers a game, the second-worst mark in the league behind the Bengals. Geno Smith has been a disaster with nine interceptions already and the Tennessee secondary has to be excited at the chance to face him this week.

Green Bay is fresh off a bye week and will look to hit the ground running against the aforementioned Bengals who have imploded since Joe Burrow’s injury. The last time we saw the Packers in action, they were giving up 40 points to the Cowboys in a wild overtime shootout that ended in a tie. It was a far cry from how they looked during the first few weeks of the season, but they’ll have the advantage of having two weeks to scheme, rest, and prep for Cincinnati.

Similar to the aforementioned Smith, opposing defenses have picked off Bengals QB Jake Browning left and right since he began filling in for Burrow and the Pack are definitely capable of putting together a strong performance with a few turnovers of their own.