2017 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 6
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 5 of the NFL season.
Injuries
J.J. Watt suffered a left tibial plateau fracture and will miss the remainder of the season. Wow.
In another devasting blow to their defense, the Texans also lost edge rusher Whitney Mercilus for the year with a torn pectoral.
Cory James suffered a knee injury in the Raider’s 30-17 loss against the Ravens. The extent of the injury is not yet known. Marquel Lee also exited the game with an injury so the Raiders may be quite thin at the position in Week 6. This is a situation to monitor throughout the week as it could provide us with a useful, last-minute LB fantasy option for those in desperation mode.
Jarrad Davis finally returned from injury and played every down last week while racking up 8 total tackles. He’s safe to put back in your starting lineups.
Jamie Collins has missed the last three games as he’s struggled to get over a concussion suffered in Week 2. It was recently reported that he finally passed the concussion protocol, so his chances of returning this week have definitely gone up.
Morgan Burnett pulled a hamstring in the Packers’ win over the Cowboys. He’s struggled with soft tissue injuries in the past so I wouldn’t be surprised if he misses at least a week. If that were the case, you should definitely bump rookie Josh Jones up the DB rankings.
General Player Notes
Kendell Beckwith has been playing at an elite level this year and it’s shown in the box scores as he’s been a top-tier fantasy linebacker the last couple weeks with both Kwon Alexander and Lavonte David out. Both of those veterans have a decent chance of returning this week which will likely bump Beckwith back to the strong side and greatly diminish his fantasy value. He’s someone to definitely sell high in redraft leagues as he’s no more than an LB3- once those guys return.
Jatavis Brown was only on the field for 50% of the defensive snaps as he was still working his way back from injury. He still managed 5 solo tackles in limited playing time and should be back close to playing 100% of the snaps next week.
Deone Bucannon was back to playing full-time at inside linebacker and led the group in tackles. He should be a solid LB3 for the remainder of the year.
B.J. Goodson once again was splitting snaps with Keenan Robinson. However, both players became every-down players once Jonathan Casillas left the game with an injury. Casillas is currently listed as “day-to-day” with a burner (nerve injury). If he were to miss any time, Goodson should be a safe start. However, if Casillas is back in the starting lineup, Goodson’s fantasy outlook becomes more muddled as there’s a chance he continues to only play ~70% of the defensive snaps.
For the third week in a row, Shaq Thompson played every down over Thomas Davis. It seems like there is finally a changing of the guard in Carolina and that Thompson will finally be a full-time linebacker next to Luke Kuechly.
Mathias Farley’s week-to-week variation in playing time continued last week as he saw less than 70% of the snaps compared to the week prior where he was on the field for every play. He’s going to be an up and down fantasy player this year but he should net out in the top 30 over the course of a full season.
Now onto The Guru’s IDP waiver wire selections for Week 6!
(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)
DE Myles Garrett (CLE) – Garrett finally made his professional debut after missing the first quarter of the season with an injury. He got things off on the right foot by generating a sack in his first NFL snap. He followed that up with another sack later in the game. Granted, he was going against the Jets poor excuse for an offensive line, but this kid is the real deal. He has the talent and skill set to be pretty dominant right away (i.e. Joey Bosa), so if he’s still available in your league I would grab him. He’s a top 15-20 DL rest of season in my book.
DE Frank Clark (SEA) – Clark is someone I mentioned in my article last week as a player that could quickly become a hot IDP commodity if Cliff Avril were to miss any time. Well, Avril is going to miss time and Clark has now been forced into playing a ton of snaps. He came through with 3 solos, a sack, a forced fumble, and a pass deflection. He’s on bye this coming week but has a very attractive matchup in Week 7 against the Giants. This said he’s probably worth grabbing this week and stashing if you have the bench space. At a minimum, he’s someone you should keep top of mind for the waiver wire next week. Consider him a DL2- while Avril is out.
DT David Irving (DAL) – Irving wasted no time getting back into the box scores in a big way in Week 5 after missing the season’s first four games due to a PED violation. The Cowboys used him more than anticipated (45 snaps) and he responded with five total tackles and two sacks. Given how much offensive attention is being focused on DeMarcus Lawrence right now, Irving has a very good opportunity to continue his strong play for the rest of the season. He’s on bye this week but is someone to keep in mind for Week 7, particularly in DT-required leagues.
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)
LB Reuben Foster (SF) – This is more of a reminder than anything, but if Reuben Foster is still available in your league, now is the time to scoop him up. He’s going to be an elite fantasy linebacker once he returns (which could be as early as this week depending on if/how much he can practice throughout the week).
ILB Danny Trevathan (CHI) – Trevathan returns from his one-game suspension this week. He’s still available in a decent amount of leagues given he was playing second fiddle to Jerrell Freeman earlier in the year and then missed a game due to that illegal hit on Davante Adams in Week 4. He should be a clear-cut LB2 moving forward however and deserves serious waiver wire consideration as he should have no problem racking up fantasy points on a defense devoid of any tackle competition.
LB Blake Martinez (GB) – Martinez still isn’t an every-down player as he’s coming off the field for about 20% of the team’s defensive snaps. But he’s been very productive on a per snap basis, racking up 37 total tackles over five games. He should see 80%+ of the snaps this week against a Vikings team that doesn’t use a lot of multiple receiver sets. This makes him a decent LB3 option in 10-12 team leagues.
LB Hayes Pullard (LAC) – Pullard has surprisingly been one of the league’s most efficient linebackers in terms of tackles per snap this season. His ceiling is fairly limited as a two-down linebacker playing alongside Jatavis Brown, but with him averaging over 7 tackles per game, it’s time for us to take some notice. He’s a solid LB4+/LB3- until Denzel Perryman returns from injury in the second half of the season.
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)
S Tavon Wilson (DET) –The Lions play a lot of three safety sets so it can get difficult to decipher which safeties have the most value week-to-week. Both Wilson and Killebrew project as strong tackle producing safeties; however, it’s Wilson that is the every-down player next to Glover Quin so he’s the defensive back I would target. He’s a top 25 fantasy DB in balanced and tackle-heavy scoring formats.
S Justin Evans (TB) – Evans, a second-round draft selection this year, had his coming out party on Thursday Night Football, racking up an impressive 8-1, INT, 2 PDs stat line. He may head back to the bench once T.J. Ward and/or Keith Tandy return to the lineup, but that may be another week away from happening. As long as he’s starting for the Bucs, he should be in your fantasy lineups.
S Adrian Amos (CHI) – I highlighted Amos as a pickup in last week’s article and he came through in spades with 8 solo tackles on Monday night. He’s still available in a lot of leagues, so I’m throwing him out there again as someone that could be a stable addition to your IDP lineup as a third defensive back.
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: October 10, 2017