Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings: Buffalo Bills and Great Plug-and-Play Defenses

One piece of fantasy football methodology that seems to be catching on is the notion of plug-and-play defenses.

What this means, essentially, is that instead of wasting a valuable draft pick on a defense, you simply pick up the defense with the best matchup on a weekly basis.

While this strategy isn't guaranteed to work 100 percent of the time, it is pretty reliable. Sometimes having a defense that is facing a terrible offense is just as good as having a legitimately great defense.

With that said, here are three plug-and-play defenses that should pay big dividends in Week 9.

Kansas City Chiefs

There are certainly some question marks surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs defense—they rank last in the league in sacks and were blown up in the first two weeks of the season. However, the unit as a whole has played much better over the Chiefs' four-game winning streak.

When you combine that momentum with a matchup against the winless Miami Dolphins on Sunday, you have a recipe for fantasy success.

First and foremost, you have to identify a matchup where the opposing team isn't going to put up too many points. That is the case with the Dolphins: Quarterback Matt Moore simply isn't going to be able to hurt the Chiefs.

Miami's biggest offensive weapon is undoubtedly wide receiver Brandon Marshall. He will have his work cut out for him, though, against elite cover corner Brandon Flowers.

If Flowers can take Marshall out of the game, then it will allow the Chiefs to fluster Moore and possibly force him into making some mistakes.

Houston Texans

The Houston Texans defense could possibly be owned in your league since they have improved so significantly this season, but many people are still late to the party. This isn't the Houston defense that opposing teams passed at will on last season; they rank fifth and sixth against the pass and the run respectively.

On top of that, the Texans have a dream matchup against the punchless Cleveland Browns.

Running back Peyton Hillis is banged up, and even if he does play he may not be effective. Also, the Browns lack any real threats in the passing game, so quarterback Colt McCoy probably isn't going to do much damage beyond 10 yards down the field.

It will be pretty difficult for the Browns to score any more than 10 to 17 points in my estimation, and that is fantasy gold.

Any sacks or turnovers the Texans can force in addition to that will be gravy, and might go a long way in helping your squad win this week.

Buffalo Bills

It is true that the Buffalo Bills defense hemorrhages yardage and is capable of giving up some big point totals, but perhaps no defense has made bigger plays than Buffalo's this season. The Bills lead the league with 14 interceptions and have scored three defensive touchdowns on the year.

While pressuring the quarterback has been an issue, the Bills erupted for nine sacks against the Washington Redskins last week en route to a 23-0 shutout.

Say what you will about the Redskins offensive line and quarterback John Beck being awful, but the New York Jets offensive line has had some issues of its own this season.

That is the line the Bills will be operating against on Monday, and Mark Sanchez is the quarterback they will be trying to stop. Regardless of how great Sanchez is made out to be by the media, he has a penchant for being a turnover machine.

That certainly isn't a good quality to have against the ball-hawking Bills, but it should lead to fantasy dominance for Buffalo's defense on Sunday.