2019 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 14
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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 13 of the NFL season.
Injuries
Derek Wolfe was having perhaps his best season as a pro before dislocating his elbow near the end of the Broncos’ game against the Chargers. He was placed on injured reserve and has consequently been shut down for the season.
Frank Clark left with a shoulder injury. There haven’t been many updates on his status heading into Week 14, so we will need to monitor the practice reports closely to get a better sense of his availability.
C.J. Mosley was officially placed on injured reserve and will miss the remainder of the season.
Despite playing essentially all of the game last week, DB1 Jamal Adams was obviously hindered by an ankle injury and is now considered “week to week.” This said, it looks like he’s going to miss some time.
For the second straight week, Rashaan Evans saw his snaps counts fall into the 75% range which is making him a hard player to trust in starting lineups heading into the fantasy playoffs.
Although he wasn’t quite every down last week (~75% of defensive snaps), it looks like rookie Drue Tranqill has taken over Denzel Perryman’s starting job.
Both Derwin James and Adrian Phillips returned to the active roster last week after extended layoffs due to injury. James played essentially every down while Phillips was eased back into things in a part-time role. The former is obviously back to an every week start whereas the latter is someone I think we need to temper expectations on until we see him get back to 75% of the defensive snaps played or more.
Now onto The Guru’s IDP waiver wire selections for Week 14!
Defensive Linemen
(Previously recommended DLs: Sam Hubbard, Nick Bosa, Quinton Jefferson, Denico Autry, Chase Winovich, Robert Quinn, Brian Burns, Stephon Tuitt, Josh Allen, Robert Quinn, Ezekiel Ansah, Vic Beasley, Takkarist McKinley, Nick Bosa, Robert Quinn, Matt Ioannidis, Mario Addison, Jarran Reed, Jerry Hughes, Jarran Reed, Taco Charlton, Jabaal Sheard, Jeffery Simmons, Jason Pierre-Paul, DeMarcus Walker, Jason Pierre-Paul, Bruce Irvin, Yannick Ngakoue, Frank Clark, Jabaal Sheard, Leonard Williams, Clelin Ferrell, Derek Wolfe, Jordan Phillips, Maxx Crosby, Jarran Reed, Chad Thomas, Carlos Dunlap, Jabaal Sheard, Lawrence Guy)
DE Derek Barnett (PHI) – Barnett hasn’t quite developed into what the Eagles hoped for when they selected him in the first round a few years ago. However, he’s still young and has time to develop. He’s playing a lot of snaps and is coming off one of his better games of the season in which he had six solo tackles, a sack, and four quarterback hits. He gets to square off against a Giants line that has really struggled against edge rushers, so I like Barnett’s chances to extend his sack streak another game.
DE Olivier Vernon (CLE) – Vernon has had a down year to say the least, but he’s still capable of producing when give the right matchup and he typically plays a ton of snaps. He was eased back into his role last week after returning from injury so he saw lower than normal snap counts. I expect those to rise substantially this week against a Bengals team that has really struggled to protect the quarterback. Additionally, he has the Cardinals in Week 16, so he makes for a nice pickup in deep IDP leagues for those that like to play matchups.
DE Tanoh Kpassagnon (KC) – The Chiefs have had a slew of injuries among their front four which has pushed Kpassagnon into a more prominent role. He played 80% of the defensive snaps last week and produced a nice 3-2-1 stat line. If Frank Clark misses next week due to his shoulder injury, Kpassagnon becomes a decent DL3-/DL4+ in a slightly below average matchup against the Patriots.
Linebackers
(Previously recommended LBs: Jordan Hicks, Shaq Thompson, Josey Jewell, Kyzir White, Blake Cashman, Zach Cunningham, Quincy Williams, Mark Barron, Kevin Minter, Anthony Walker, Bobby Okereke, Shaq Barrett, Mack Wilson, Ryan Connelly, Todd Davis, Devondre Campbell, Nicholas Morrow, Nick Kwiatkoski, Vince Williams, A.J. Johnson, Ben Niemann, Troy Reeder, Rashaan Evans, Wesley Woodyard, A.J. Johnson, David Mayo, Nate Gerry, Najee Goode, Bernardrick McKinney, Lorenzo Alexander, Blake Cashman, Rashaan Evans, Blake Cashman, Austin Calitro, Sean Lee, Wesley Woodyard, Brandon Copeland, Nick Kwiatkoski, Jerome Baker, Drue Tranquill, Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, Neville Hewitt, Clay Matthews, Bernardrick McKinney, Drue Tranquill, Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith)
OLB Sean Lee (DAL) – The injury to second-year standout Leighton Vander Esch has opened the door for Lee to reemerge as a serious fantasy threat. He was all of the field last week and made the most of his defensive snaps (85%). It sounds like LVE’s injury is more serious than the team is willing to admit, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Lee keeps a three-down role for at least the next couple of weeks. If this holds true, consider him a LB2-LB2+ against the Bears in Week 14.
ILB Anthony Walker (IND) – Since the team decided to slot rookie Bobby Okereke into the starting strong side linebacker role, Walker has stayed on the field for more subpackage looks and his snap counts have risen into the 80% range. This has greatly helped his production as witnessed by his 8-4-0.5, 1 FF stat line last week. There’s always the risk he “duds” out given Darius Leonard’s tackle-hog abilities, but he’s a guy that’s likely available and can probably help your team down the playoff stretch in deeper IDP leagues.
ILB Donald Payne (JAX) – With Myles Jack inactive due to injury, Payne got the starting nod and played in an every down capacity. With very little tackle competition within the back seven, it’s not a huge surprise that he was able to put up very strong numbers with 13 total tackles and a sack. Jack will need to be inactive again for Payne to carry any value and there’s a chance recently activated Jake Ryan could eat into Payne’s snaps even if that’s the case; however, at this point in the season, it’s worth making a claim on a guy like Payne in case he does up in a starting role again come Sunday afternoon.
ILB Joe Walker (ARZ) – Walker has slowly increased his playing time throughout the year – starting off as a reserve, then moving into a timeshare with Haason Reddick, and as of last week, he seems to have completely taken over Reddick’s ILB role. Although the 3-1 stat line isn’t impressive from Week 13, none of the Cardinals linebackers produced much. The most important thing is Walker played nearly every snap and could be a sneaky LB3-/LB4+ option for those in desperate need to fill a void at this position.
Defensive Backs
(Previously recommended DBs: Juan Thornhill, Jordan Whitehead, Xavier Woods, Ronnie Harrison, Terrell Edmunds, Tracy Walker, Darnell Savage, Kemal Ishmael, Roderick Teamer, Tre Flowers, Reshad Jones, Khari Willis, Dre Kirkpatrick, Eric Weddle, Isaiah Oliver, Eric Reid, Byron Murphy, Maurice Canady, Jermaine Whitehead, Taylor Rapp, Marquise Blair, Ken Crawley, Morgan Burnett, Darnell Savage, DeAndre Baker, Taylor Rapp, Tavon Wilson, Patrick Peterson, Erik Harris, Morgan Burnett, Khari Willis, Reshad Jones, Kenny Moore, Adrian Amos, Derwin James, Adrian Phillips, Adoree’ Jackson, Julian Love)
S Malcolm Jenkins – Jenkins has been a fairly reliable fantasy DB throughout his career, but he got off to an extremely slow start during the first half of the season which made his roster rates plummet. However, he’s been one of the better and more consistent safeties over the last handful of weeks and gets a favorable matchup against the Giants in Week 14. Consider him a DB3+/DB2- for this coming week.
S Tre Boston (CAR) – Although fellow Panther safety Eric Reid has been getting all the attention the past several weeks due to his DB1 dominance, Boston has had a handful of solid games in the second half of the season as well. He’s actually been a top 10-15 safety since Week 8 and he has the #1 fantasy matchup for safeties in Week 14 as he faces off against the Atlanta Falcons. If there was ever a week to insert Boston into your starting lineups, it’s this week. I’d feel comfortable with him as my DB3 in most leagues.
S Andrew Wingard (JAX) – Wingard got the start at strong safety with Ronnie Harrison unable to suit up due to injury and he managed a strong stat line of 6-1-1. This position is a fruitful one from a fantasy perspective, so I think the numbers are sustainable. But Harrison may be back this week and Wingard did lose some snaps to Marcus Gilchrist (25%), so those are two things to take into consideration when deciding to roster Wingard or not.
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Last Updated: December 3, 2019