5 breakout fantasy football stars to pick up for Week 11

We're getting close to crunch time in the fantasy football regular season as most standard leagues have just four weeks left before the playoffs. Byes are still a factor over the next several weeks, so finding that critical flex option or defense is vital if you're hoping to make a playoff run or improve your positioning.

The return of fantasy superheroes from Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles next week will help as Atlanta, Indianapolis, New England and New Orleans take a seat. Check out this week's top fantasy pickups below with all rostered percentages based on Yahoo! leagues.

Top Fantasy Football Pickups To Make Ahead Of Week 11

5. Detroit Lions, D/ST

The mantra goes that defense wins championships is important in real life and does have some implications in the fantasy game. While each league has its own scoring quirks, any smart owner will look to take advantage of a defense that has a lot of strong matchups on its schedule.

This week's potential playoff hero defense is the Detroit Lions, who have a fearsome pass rush and should be widely available on waiver wires thanks to their tough Week 10 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers. Once you get past that game, take a look at what the Lions have ahead of them: Chicago, Green Bay, New Orleans, Chicago again, Denver and Minnesota.

That is not a fearsome lineup of opposing offenses so make sure you pick up the Lions now if you want to have them for the playoff run. Detroit is only rostered in 30 percent of leagues so this should be the last opportunity to snag them.