Hello and welcome to the Week 9 waiver wire watch!
Another weekend of NFL action is in the books and congratulations, you’ve survived bye-mageddon…or so we hope. It wasn’t really a great week for defense on the fantasy front with only a few units accumulating 10+ points while six units finished in the negative.
We’ll go over some D/ST squads that you should consider scooping off the waiver wire ahead of Week 9 and as always, we’ll classify a waiver add as someone who is rostered in 50% of leagues at the max.
Week 9 byes: Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Los Angeles Chargers D/ST (38.1%)
The Chargers’ defense has been a middle-of-the-road unit through the first half of the 2025 season, but they got a chance to put 11 points on the board for fantasy managers in last Thursday’s 37-10 victory over the Vikings. This is what facing Carson Wentz can do for you as they ended up with seven passes defensed, five sacks, an interception, and a forced fumble.
L.A. is once again appealing for this week just for the fact that it will visit a Tennessee team that ranks either at or near the bottom of the league in every offensive category. Like the Vikings team that they just faced, the Titans have a sack rate of over 10% and that could mean another big day for defensive tackle Justin Eboigbe. Cam Ward, good luck.
Los Angeles Rams D/ST (29.2%)
Sticking with L.A., the Rams are fresh off their bye and have a favorable matchup when hosting the Saints this Sunday. The Rams’ D/ST has averaged 8.7 fantasy points per game and has surprisingly been undervalued given their rostership percentage across all leagues. They’ve been elite at creating havoc as they are second in the league in sacks with 26 while also ranking in the top 10 in forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.
This makes their matchup against New Orleans extra enticing as the Buccaneers almost exclusively roasted the Saints on defense in a 23-3 blowout on Sunday. Tampa Bay’s D generated 26 fantasy points with five sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and two picks, one of which got housed by Anthony Nelson for a pick-six. The struggling Saints’ offense is now at a point where rookie Tyler Shough is starting to get reps, so the Rams have to be licking their chops coming off a bye.
Jacksonville Jaguars D/ST (6.0%)
The Jags are also coming off their bye week and will visit the struggling Raiders this Sunday. As a refresher, Jacksonville’s D is averaging 7.3 fantasy points per game and has stood out as one of the more effective, chaos-causing units in the league with 10 interceptions and five fumble recoveries heading into Week 9. And to their benefit, they’re facing Geno Smith, who is coming off his bye tied with Tua Tagovailoa for most interceptions thrown at 10.
Something to also note is that Smith has just a 41.98% success rate this season and that failure to stay on schedule leads to more passing situations, leading to more interceptions. The Jags have an opportunity to take advantage of this and set the tone for the second half of the season.
