Welcome to the IDP Waiver Wire article. Each of the three main positions will be broken down by league size. For shallow leagues, visit the Higher-owned Options. For 6-9 IDPs, check out the Top Targets, and for deeper leagues, check out the Going Deeper section. In general, we’re focusing on players who are less than 50% rostered in Yahoo! leagues.
Defensive Linemen
Higher-owned Options
These IDPs have steady, productive roles with high floors. Others may have better weeks but at the end of the season, these are most likely to help you most.
Myles Garrett (Cle, 48%) — A Week 9 bye and a two-week absence due to COVID has opened up an opportunity in shallow leagues. Garrett’s roster % has dropped noticeably in leagues where you only start one DL. For reference, Garrett has missed 2 games and he’s still the #1 DL. Check your waivers carefully for Garrett’s presence. HC Kevin Stefanski said Garrett is cleared for this week’s game. And if you needed any other reason to consider Garrett, he’s facing Bal, NYG, and NYJ in Weeks 14-16. Those teams are #4, #7, and #13 for DL production, including allowing over a sack per game.
Joey Bosa (LAC, 37%) — I’m not much of an “I told you so” kinda guy, but I sure hope everyone reading this already picked up Bosa. A few duds are no reason to bench/drop/pass over one of the few stud DLs left (Danielle Hunter, Nick Bosa, and Chandler Jones are all on I.R., and Myles Garrett was on COVID/Reserve). Bosa had all the peripheral stats to show us he’s still a beast. And beast he did in Week 12: 8 tackles (7 solo), 3 sacks, 6 TFL, 1 PD, 1 FR.
Top Targets
In leagues with 2-3 IDPs per position, these could be league-winners. We’re going decent floor, but mostly upside here.
Sam Hubbard (Cin, 5%) — It looks like Hubbard is back on the DL1 train. After hanging around the 60-70% usage mark before and even right after his injury, Hubbard now has back-to-back 80%+ games, and also has 11 tackles (7 solo) and 2 TFL in his last two games. His usage and role give him a high tackle floor. Let’s hope the Bengals don’t mess with his snaps again.
Chase Winovich (NE, 9%) — After a few promising games of production and usage, Winovich had a Week 11 dud. He did play 90% that game though, so I still thought this was a good sign. And it turned out that his 2-assist dud was indeed the outlier, as last week he posted 5 solos and a sack on 81%. This is four games of over 80% usage, and three games with at least 5 tackles.
Leonard Williams (NYG, 6%) — Williams racked up another sack in Week 12, giving him a sack in four of his last six games. His usage hasn’t dipped below 70% since Week 4 and he’s usually good for 2-5 tackles as well. He’s a backend DL1 who is perfect in your DL2 slot.
Going Deeper
In leagues with 11-14 total IDPs, these are high-upside options who could come out of nowhere to be at least a solid 2nd/3rd starter, and at best give you a 1A option.
Kerry Hyder (SF, 3%) — Hyder has been heating up lately, settling into the role vacated by Nick Bosa (IR). He has 15 tackles and 4 sacks in his last four games, with usage in the 65-70% range. As the 49ers continue to turn their season around, Hyder has been playing more aggressively and that has paid dividends for IDPers.
Randy Gregory (Dal, 0%) — Gregory notched his first two sacks of the season in Week 12 and has settled into a 40-60% player now that he’s been activated and Everson Griffen was traded. Gregory also gets some great matchups rolling into the fantasy playoffs: @Bal, @Cin, SF.
Linebackers
Higher-owned Options
These IDPs have steady, productive roles with high floors. Others may have better weeks but at the end of the season, these are most likely to help you most.
Tremaine Edmunds (Buf, 36%) — After a sluggish start to the season - where Edmunds only had 2 double-digit tackle games in his first seven games - the Bills MLB has been back to his normal LB1 ways lately. Over the past three weeks, he has 32 tackles (including hitting double digits in each game) and has 2 PD and 2 TFL as well. He’s the #4 LB over that span.
Myles Jack (Jax, 16%) — Jack had another 9 tackles in Week 12, giving him at least 8 in three of his last four games since returning to 100% usage (he was injured before that). In the seven full games he’s played this season, Jack has four games of 11 tackles, and only one game posting fewer than 8. He also is good for a big play or two each game. Jack has 11 big plays so far, which gives his high tackle floor some solid upside. His home stat crew is brutal, where he’s had to play four of the last five games, but he’ll close out the season playing three of his last five games on the road, and faces three of the top-5 teams for producing tackles to LBs (Min, Ten, Bal).
Top Targets
In leagues with 2-3 IDPs per position, these could be league-winners. We’re going decent floor, but mostly upside here.
Troy Reeder (LAR, 1%) — Reeder has played two games in place of Micah Kiser, and in those two games he has 26 tackles and 3 sacks. With Kiser on IR, Reeder has the potential to be a top-5 LB while Kiser is out. Kiser might not be back before Week 16, in which case most leagues have wrapped, so you may have a new LB1 to ride to a championship.
Alex Singleton (Phi, 13%) — Singleton had another strong game, considering the circumstances. He recorded 5 tackles (all of which were solos until the official scorer changed 2 of them to assists), which is low for him. However, the Seahawks found success through the air, resulting in 9 tackles for Darius Slay (who had the marquee matchup with D.K. Metcalf), and 7 tackles from free safety Jalen Mills. Singleton played every snap and also recorded a TFL, so pick him up now while his slow statistical game may keep him out of your league mates’ waiver orders.
Matt Milano (Buf, 4%) — Milano is eligible to come off IR this week, and should instantly be inserted into his fruitful ILB role. A.J. Klein has been a monster over the last few weeks in that role, but Milano’s skill set and talent are on another level. Milano - who has been dealing with a pectoral injury ever since Week 1 - is a high-floor LB2 when healthy. There’s no guarantee Milano will play this week, but he’s worth a stash due to his value as you head into the playoffs.
Going Deeper
In leagues with 11-14 total IDPs, these are high-upside options who could come out of nowhere to be at least a solid 2nd/3rd starter, and at best give you a 1A option.
Harvey Langi (NYJ, 1%) — With Blake Cashman active in Week 12, it was still Langi who started and played 90% of the snaps. Word just came in that Cashman will now be out a few more weeks (likely due to his balky hamstrings), so this is Langi’s job for the foreseeable future. Langi has 29 tackles in his three starts and is the #9 LB over that stretch.
Cole Holcomb (Was, 1%) — With no other LB stepping up for Washington, Holcomb has been moving up the depth chart since he returned from injury. In three of his last four games, Holcomb has eclipsed 80% usage and has 23 tackles in those games. He also carries some big-play upside as well, with 1.5 sacks (including one in Week 12), 4 TFL, 1 INT, and 1 PD. For being virtually un-rostered, Holcomb has LB2 upside on this defense if he can keep his snaps up.
Defensive Backs
Higher-owned Options
These IDPs have steady, productive roles with high floors. Others may have better weeks but at the end of the season, these are most likely to help you most.
Daniel Sorensen (KC, 36%) — After posting LB tackle production since taking over the starting job in Week 6, Sorensen saw a dip in production in Week 11. That was due to his high number of snaps at deep safety. Sorensen had been playing in the box at about a 2:1 ratio, but that flip-flopped to a 2:1 deep safety ratio. Consequently, Sorensen’s tackle numbers dropped to just 4 tackles. And while that’s still not bad for a DB, that’s not what we’ve been expecting from Sorensen. Luckily, that ratio flipped back in Week 12, as did his tackle production. Sorensen had 7 tackles in Week 12, and has been the #2 DB since he became the starter.
Jabrill Peppers (NYG, 13%) — While the team got rookie Xavier McKinney back from the IR, he barely played. One of the big reasons for that is the excellent play of Peppers, who will likely remain an every-down player even when McKinney’s snaps increase as the 3rd safety. Peppers pushed his streak of at least 6 tackles in a game to six straight games, which is impressive since the Bengals only produced 49 snaps for the Giants defense. Keep in mind that Peppers usually returns a few punts per game, so he’s got extra value in return-yardage leagues.
Top Targets
In leagues with 2-3 IDPs per position, these could be league-winners. We’re going decent floor, but mostly upside here.
Kamren Curl (Was, 5%) — Over the past four weeks since Curl won the starting job over Troy Apke, no DB has more tackles (37), sacks, (2), and fantasy points (67.5). He’s been all over the place, cleaning up after this rag-tag LB corps in front of him. Curl’s high tackle floor and sack upside make him a DB1 candidate going forward.
Rayshawn Jenkins (LAC, 4%) — Since Week 5, Jenkins has at least 5 tackles in every game, and has at least 7 tackles in five of his last seven games. In Week 12, Jenkins racked up 11 tackles (8 solo) and a TFL, and his 53 tackles in those seven games are 5th-most. He’s the #8 DB since then.
Vonn Bell (Cin, 6%) — What’s this? Bell a tackling machine? Where’s this been all season? Over the last two games, Bell has 24 tackles (15 solo), 2 TFL, 1 PD, and a FF/FR combo. This may have been a post-bye adjustment to the defense, as their bye was three weeks ago. We’d love to see another game or two of this before trusting him fully, but this is the kind of production we were hoping for when the Bengals signed him, so this may be the time to snag him and hope he’s the 8-10 tackle DB we had him pegged as.
Going Deeper
In leagues with 11-14 total IDPs, these are high-upside options who could come out of nowhere to be at least a solid 2nd/3rd starter, and at best give you a 1A option.
Donovan Wilson (Dal, 1%) — Wilson has been up and down in his usage and production, as Dallas tries to figure out their best safety combo. But over the last two weeks, Wilson has played every snap and has 19 tackles (11 solo), 2 FFs, and a sack. The team really likes the second-year DB, so he’s got a good chance to hang on to this job. Just watch his snaps carefully going forward.
Nik Needham (Mia, 0%) — With stud perimeter corners Xavien Howard and Byron Jones locking down opposing receivers, Needham has been active as the slot corner. Needham had 5 tackles and a pick-six in Week 12, giving him at least 4 tackles in each of his last three games, and five of his last six. He also has 4 PD and a sack in his last four games.
