Jerry Donabedian

The past couple months have been extremely friendly to D/ST streamers, and Week 14 was no exception as four of the five recommendations from this article scored nine-plus fantasy points (a mark just three other defenses reached). There's no guarantee the hot run continues, but this does tend to be the best part of the season for picking up D/STs off waivers, as we don't have any more bye weeks and most fantasy leagues only have a handful of teams still seriously competing to make transactions.

Dissly's run as a low-end TE1 seems to be over, with the Chargers reportedly expecting him to miss "a couple of weeks" after an early exit from Sunday's loss to the Chiefs. It sounds like he'll be back for the real-life playoffs but maybe not before the end of fantasy playoffs, leaving Stone Smartt as the Chargers'top pass catcher at tight end for now.

Unless otherwise noted, references to 'fantasy points'are based on PPR scoring with 25/10 yards per point and 4/6 points for TDs. Start% comes from Yahoo, as of Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

A shockingly light year for RB injuries took a turn for the worse Week 15. Six running backs left games early and never returned, including four starters, and three others ( Joe Mixon, Tony Pollard, Braelon Allen ) got banged up but were able to continue playing. Fantasy managers who relied on Alvin Kamara, David Montgomery, Kenneth Walker or J.K. Dobbins for much of the year may now have to put their faith in backups like Kendre Miller and Jerome Ford, or even worse, desperation options along the lines of Craig Reynolds, Ameer Abdullah and Kimani Vidal.

It's playoff season in nearly every fantasy league at this point, with a vast majority having just two weeks remaining. Streaming Defenses will still run Week 18 for those few leagues that continue into January, but the analysis and rankings will focus on the two remaining weeks that are used in most formats.

Unless otherwise noted, references to 'fantasy points'are based on PPR scoring with 25/10 yards per point and 4/6 points for TDs. Start% comes from Yahoo, as of Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

Cardinals RB James Conner left in the third quarter and didn't return, handing Arizona's backfield over to (mostly) Michael Carter, who was fifth in the pecking order just a few weeks ago. Trey Benson (ankle) didn't play Sunday, and Emari Demercado (back) is on IR. There's a real chance for Carter to go from the practice squad two weeks ago to 20 touches Week 17, although I imagine

A few of you may be in leagues that run through Week 18, but for the most part its championship or bust in Week 17. The focus below will be on the current week, although I'll still have look-ahead rankings for Week 18 at the bottom of the page, and I'm always more than happy to discuss planning-ahead strategy in the comments below (or on twitter - @rotocats ).

Unless otherwise noted, references to 'fantasy points'are based on PPR scoring with 25/10 yards per point and 4/6 points for TDs. Start% comes from Yahoo, as of Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

It's Kenny Pickett time in Philadelphia, with Jalen Hurts officially ruled out for Week 17.