2017 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 9
Hello and welcome back to the IDPGuru.com’s most popular in-season article, IDP Waiver Wire Pickups, which will be releasing every Tuesday of the regular season.
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Let’s start things off by going through some IDP news, notes, and commentary from Week 8 of the NFL season.
Injuries
Number one overall pick Myles Garrett missed the Brown’s London game against the Vikings as he was still struggling with concussion symptoms. My guess is that he’s able to suit up this week, however.
Michael Johnson had to leave last Sunday’s game with a back injury after just 24 snaps. He did not return.
Rookie Solomon Thomas has a low-grade MCL sprain and will likely miss the next couple of weeks.
In a somewhat surprising move, the Bucs placed Noah Spence on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. He will be out for the rest of the season.
It was announced late last week that Mason Foster has a torn labrum. He’s expected to go on injured reserve and miss the remainder of the year. Martrell Spaight and Will Compton will fill in for him.
Dont’a Hightower has a torn pec and is out for the season.
Jimmie Ward broke his forearm and will be out until 2018. There’s a chance the team moves Eric Reid back to safety with this news, but my gut tells me he will continue to see most of his action at weakside linebacker.
Bashaud Breeland was somewhat of a surprise inactive last Sunday with a knee injury.
Karl Joseph was battling a groin injury heading into Week 8 and wound up missing the game.
General Player Notes
The Jaguars traded for Marcell Dareus. I don’t see much of a change in value for him with this move. I would still consider him a DT2/DL4+.
With Dont’a Hightower out, Elandon Roberts saw his snap count increase to over 70%. He’s not a player I would trust enough yet to warrant a pickup outside of extremely deep leagues, but he’s someone to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.
Jarrad Davis had a fantasy week to forget as he only posted 2 tackles despite being on the field for 100% of the defensive plays and the Steelers running the ball 25+ times. I’m chalking this one up as an anomaly.
Jerrell Freeman got slapped with a 10-game suspension for again violating the league’s PED policy. Since he’s on IR, he will really only miss the first two games of next season.
On a similar note as Jarrad Davis, DB2 Matthias Farley laid a goose egg last week even though he played every snap. Farley has been up and down this year (mainly due to playing time variances) but with Clayton Geathers potentially returning soon, Farley’s rest of season value is a bit up in the air. It’s a situation we need to monitor closely.
Now onto The Guru’s IDP waiver wire selections for Week 9!
(Please note that a majority of these pickups early on are long-term, rest of season pickups as opposed to matchup-type recommendations. As the season progresses and the waiver wire becomes thinner and matchup information becomes more reliable, the focus of this article will shift more towards recommendations based on the weekly matchup.)
Defensive Linemen
(Previously recommended DLs: Aaron Donald, Geno Atkins, Yannick Ngaokoue, Noah Spence, Mario Edwards, Julius Peppers, William Gholston, Alex Okafor, Jurrell Casey, Emmanuel Ogbah, Anthony Zettel, Yannick Ngakoue, Myles Garrett, Frank Clark, David Irving, Solomon Thomas, Alex Okafor, Mario Edwards, Carlos Dunlap, Cameron Heyward, Jarran Reed)
DE Henry Anderson (IND) – Anderson had a great start to his career back in 2015 but his production quickly tapered off and he missed a large portion of the 2016 season due to injury. He’d been very quiet to start this year but finally looks healthy and has notched a sack in back-to-back games. He has the Texans on the schedule next who give up the most points to defensive ends, so he makes for a good spot start for owners in a pinch due to all the teams on bye this week.
DE Vinny Curry (PHI) – Curry is coming off his best game of the year, posting 5 solo tackles (2 for loss) and a sack. He’s still only serving as a situational pass-rusher but should see enough snaps in a very favorable matchup against the Broncos to be a top 30-35 DL this week.
DE Leger Douzable (SF) – Douzable is filling in for the injured Arik Armstead and came up with 5 solo tackles and 2 sacks last week. He should continue to see a heavy workload with both Armstead and now Solomon Thomas out of the lineup. He plays the Cardinals this week who are giving up the fifth most points to defensive ends and allow 3.5 sacks per game. He’s a player likely available in close to 100% of leagues and has a good shot at notching another sack.
Linebackers
(Previously recommended LBs: B.J. Goodson, Demario Davis, Mason Foster, A.J. Klein, Ramon Humber, Joe Schobert, Jon Bostic, Vincent Rey, Ramon Humbar, Mike Hull, Zach Cunningham, Danny Trevathan, Kendell Beckwith, Cory James, Derrick Morgan, Kendell Beckwith, Shaq Thompson, Ray-Ray Armstrong, Kyle Van Noy, Reuben Foster, Danny Trevathan, Blake Martinez, Hayes Pullard, Mychal Kendricks, Craig Robertson, Thomas Davis, Shaq Thompson, Matt Judon, Navarro Bowman, Mychal Kendricks, Craig Robertson, Keenan Robinson)
MLB Joe Schobert (CLE) – Schobert was pushed into the starting lineup after Tank Carder went down with a season-ending ACL injury in preseason. He’s made the most of his opportunity racking up 60 total tackles over his first eight games and establishing himself as the team’s third every-down linebacker next to Jaime Collins and Christian Kirksey. He’s coming off his best game of the year in which he compiled 11 solo tackles to go along with an interception and a forced fumble, so he’s likely going to be top of mind for IDP owners scouring the waiver wire. However, the Browns are on bye this week so he may slip through the cracks in some leagues. He should be viewed as an LB2-/LB3+ for the remainder of the season.
WLB Cory James (OAK) – The acquisition and subsequent LB1 production of Navarro Bowman has taken nearly all the spotlight off James but he showed last week he’s still capable of starter-type fantasy production. He had 8 solo tackles in a very favorable matchup against the Bills and should put up LB3- production as long as he continues to play nearly every down.
WLB Ramon Humber (BUF) – Humber got off to a surprisingly good start to the season by posting 37 total tackles across his first four games. He’s missed the last month with an injury though and has seen his ownership percentage drop as a result. He’s close to returning (if not this week, likely next) and is worth an add/stash as he should pick up right where he left off prior to his injury.
OLB Clay Matthews (GB) – Matthews hasn’t had a sack since Week 4; however, I think he’s due for one this week coming out of a bye against a Detroit team that is top 5 in sacks allowed to opposing defenses. With Aaron Rodgers out, the Packers will need their defense to step up and make big plays and I think that starts with Matthews. So for those looking for a bye week, streaming option in sack-heavy scoring formats, Matthews is a fairly good option if he’s available.
Defensive Backs
(Previously recommended DBs: Tyvon Branch, Kevin Byard, Daniel Sorenson, Ron Parker, Jalen Mills, Matthias Farley, Jordan Poyer, Vonn Bell, Derrick Kindred, Josh Jones, Terrance Mitchell, Brian Poole, TreDavious White, Chris Conte, Adrian Amos, Trevor Williams, Andrew Sendejo, Tavon Wilson, Justin Evans, Adrian Amos, Justin Evans, Justin Simmons, Morris Claiborne, Tramon Williams, Jamal Adams, Eric Reid)
S Adrian Phillips (LAC) – The Chargers have been using Phillips in a Deone Bucannon-type role (i.e. a safety playing as a linebacker in passing situations) the last few weeks and it’s shown in the box scores. He led the team in tackles last week with 12 and played ~70% of the defensive snaps. He’s not a full-time player but is being put in enough high leverage situations to warrant an add in most IDP leagues.
S Kurt Coleman (CAR) – Although he’s a bit inconsistent week-to-week, Coleman has been a top 20 fantasy DB the last couple of seasons. He returned from a multi-week absence last week and had a nice performance against Tampa Bay (7-2, FR). If he’s available in your league, he makes for a solid pickup, especially in big-play IDP leagues.
S Trai Elston (BUF) – Elston, an undrafted second-year player out of Mississippi, filled in at safety for an injured Jordan Poyer and came through with an 8-3, PD, INT stat line. Poyer may be back this week, but if he’s not, Elston makes for a decent streaming option as that safety position has been productive from a fantasy standpoint regardless of the player.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at theidpguru@idpguru.com or follow me on Twitter. Also, feel free to post any questions or comments for me in the comments section of this post.
Last Updated: November 1, 2017