Best fantasy football D/ST waiver wire pickups for Week 12

Hello and welcome to the Week 12 defensive/special teams wire watch!

Another weekend of NFL action has wrapped up and and don’t look now, but we’re rapidly approaching Thanksgiving and that means the fantasy playoffs are right around the corner. So you better start getting things in order for a postseason run.

We’ll go over some D/ST units performers that you should consider scooping off the waiver wire ahead of Week 12 and as always, we’ll classify a waiver add as someone who is rostered in 50% of leagues at the max.

Week 12 byes: Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins, Washington Commanders

The Browns are the Browns and they suffered their third straight defeat in a 23-16 loss to the Ravens on Sunday. But you can’t pin their failure on the defense, who terrorized Lamar Jackson all afternoon with five sacks and two interceptions, one of which got housed for a touchdown. Throw in a a fumble recovery and you get a performance that normally would result in an easy win if not for, you know, the Browns’ offense.

Cleveland’s D/ST unit is averaging 8.0 fantasy points per game and you can genuinely say that their dominance is being wasted given then fact that it ranks fourth in EPA per play, third in interception rate, and second in sack rate. They get the Raiders on the road this Sunday and given Geno Smith’s turnover problems, they could really eat in this one.

And on the other side of that game, the Raiders’ D/ST have to be licking their chops at the prospect of facing Shedeur Sanders in his very first NFL start. Sanders replaced a concussed Dillon Gabriel in Sunday’s loss to the Ravens and had a terrible time in his pro debut, going 4-16 for 47 yards with an interception and two sacks that combined for 27 yards of lost yardage.

Vegas’ D itself has struggled at the various points throughout the season, but this is the definition of a get-right game. Sanders should be more prepared with a full week of practice with the starters, but after what we saw on Sunday, I would sprint to pick up the Raiders off the waiver wire this week.

The Bears are rolling on a three-game win streak and their 19-17 victory over the Vikings on Sunday propelled them to the top of the NFC North standings. They harassed J.J. McCarthy with five passes defended and two interceptions for the day and their kick returners made a big difference on special teams with an average of 36 yards per return.

The Steelers come to town this Sunday and the Bears will either face a limited Aaron Rodgers dealing with a wrist fracture or backup Mason Rudolph. Either way, Chicago’s defense can do some real damage in this one.