Sometimes, fantasy football managers focus on the wide receiver position. But don’t forget about your defense, and the full list is here. However, for some start ’em, sit ’em advice, here are some key defense and special teams units for Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season.
If you like playing the hot hand, you need to look closely at the Seattle Seahawks. However, other teams rival the Seahawks as good bets for this week.
Let’s dive into it!
Start ’em — Seahawks at Falcons
One of the best teams in the NFL has one of the best defenses. And that Seahawks team gets a chance to attack the aging Kirk Cousins this week.
Coming off back-to-back four-sack games, the Seahawks also went wild against the Vikings in Week 13. They picked off four passes, returning one for a long touchdown, and also had a fumble recovery.
Now, the Falcons should be better on offense than the pitiful Vikings. But still, this is a good spot for the Seahawks.
It starts with their fantastic defensive tackles, led by Leonard Williams, according to The Athletic.
“Turn the tape on and show me players that are playing better than him,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said. “I’d be willing to watch that tape. It wouldn’t be a long tape. The amount that (Williams) sets his teammates up for success is understated. There’s so many plays where he’s setting somebody else up.
“Whether he’s getting doubled in the pass rush or he’s running a stunt to free somebody else up or in the run game, he’s making the ball go a certain direction. There’s at least a dozen plays every game where not a lot of people in the world can make those types of plays.”
And Byron Murphy is keeping teams from being able to focus too much on Williams. He has 12 quarterback hits on the season.
“It means a lot,” Murphy said of his uptick in production. “It’s showing that my preparation and everything I did in the offseason is paying off.”
Macdonald said Murphy’s game is getting better weekly.
“We’re probably putting (Williams) in more position flexibility than we are with Murph,” Macdonald said. “Not that Murph can’t do it. It’s just Leo has more experience, and we can move him around a little bit more than we do with Murph. But Murph is on his way. He’s doing a lot of great things.”
Watch out, Falcons. These dudes are coming.
Start ’em — Broncos at Raiders
When good defenses perform poorly, the next opponent had better watch out. The Broncos weren’t very good overall against the Commanders. Yes, they made enough plays to win, according to denverbroncos.com.
‘We just answer the bell': Broncos' win over Commanders the latest example of Denver’s resolve in big moments
“Even if you look across the league this week, I mean, a lot of the teams that were supposed to win those games lost a lot of them,” linebacker Nik Bonitto said. “You know, that's what the championship teams [do] — you're going to find ways to win, and we did that today, so we're not going to take any wins for granted. We know this was a game that, you know, we wanted to win, and we found a way.”
But there is still a pride factor. And the defensive players will take out their frustrations against the struggling Raiders.
First, the Raiders enter the game as one-dimensional. They are last in the NFL with 75.4 yards per game. It’s truly awful. Their only chance to move the football will be through the air. And that means the sacks are coming.
And look for Bonitto to feast. Against the Commanders, he became the first Denver player since Von Miller to have consecutive seasons with double-digit sacks. And he’s pumped about it, according to broncoswire.com.
“Yeah, that’s big time, man,” said Bonitto. “I mean, getting 10 sacks in this league isn't easy. Just finding ways to be effective with the quarterback, finding ways to be disruptive during the game, is always my main goal coming into the year. But being able to reach 10 again is really special for me.”
Bonitto has 10.5 sacks on the year, ranking No. 6 in the NFL.
Sit ’em — Eagles at Chargers
Yes, the Eagles still have a good defense. But after what the Bears did to them, you simply can’t trust them this week. They’re traveling across the country, and the Chargers have a good offense.
The Chargers have indeed struggled to protect Justin Herbert this season. And perhaps the Eagles will get a few sacks. But unless they fix that run defense, they won’t have a lot of sack opportunities. The Eagles got crushed for 287 yards rushing by the Bears.
At least the Eagles understand the problem, according to NJ.com.
“This game is just going to be a launch pad for us to either get better or we can just stay the same, and nothing changes,” Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis told reporters after the game.
Also, newcomer edge rusher Jaelan Phillips said the team must take things seriously. Now.
“It’s definitely unacceptable,” Phillips said. “We’re going to definitely take that on the chin and kind of make improvements from there.”
Linebacker Nakobe Dean added, “It is frustrating. You shouldn’t ever hear a defensive player whose defense just gave up over 200 rushing yards saying it’s not frustrating. It’s definitely frustrating to give up that many yards.”
