2014 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 10

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.

Let’s start things off by going through some IDP news, notes, and commentary from Week 9 of the NFL season.

Injury Round-Up
The Eagles confirmed DeMeco Ryans has a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. A combination of Casey Matthews and Emmanuel Acho will replace him at WILB.

Ryan Shazier left Sunday night’s game with an ankle injury and did not return. However, his injury is not believed to be serious. That said, let’s still make sure and watch the practice reports this week to get a better gauge on his game status.

CB1 Prince Amukamara tore his biceps muscle on MNF and is likely out for the rest of the season. This is a big blow to those in CB-required leagues.

Troy “Head and Shoulders” Polamalu was forced from the Steelers’ Week 9 game against the Ravens with a sprained knee. He will be further evaluated as the week progresses.

Texans CB Johnathan Joseph left Sunday’s Week 9 game against the Eagles in the first quarter with a concussion.

Although the injury is not believed to be season-ending, MLB Nate Irving is slated to miss some time with a sprained MCL. The Broncos could opt to move current weak side backer Brandon Marshall into the middle and play Corey Nelson at WILL. They could also move Lamin Barrow into the MLB spot. It’s a situation we will monitor in practice throughout the week.

General Player Notes
Robert Quinn continued his hot streak with his 2nd straight multiple sack game, increasing his total of the last three games to 5. Hopefully you weren’t one of those impatient owners who dropped Quinn earlier in the year!

The Browns coaching staff is still not ready to give Christian Kirksey the every down role in Cleveland. I’m still a believer in his long-term dynasty value as a DB3+/DB2-, but that will likely not come to fruition until next season.

Although he was eligible to return to the active roster this week, the Colts decided not to activate LaRon Landry for their Week 9 tilt against the Giants. Their hesitancy has me a bit concerned, but I’m not ready to panic just yet. I’m still hopeful he will be active and back to starting come Week 11.

Eric Berry was back on the field for the first time since Week 1 and put up a respectable 5-1 stat line while playing 75% of the snaps. Expect that percentage to increase to closer to 100% next week which should help boost his stats. He’s a DB1 value in my mind still.

Notice to Antonio Allen owners – don’t be fooled by the 5-1 FF stat line. He was benched in the 2nd half of last Sunday’s game as the Jets secondary was plagued with poor play. Suffice to say, he remains a very risky play moving forward.

The Cincinnati stat crew continued their trend towards more assist-heavy tackle recording. This is slightly troubling news for our Bengals IDPs – so make sure to take this account when setting your weekly IDP lineups.
Now onto The Guru’s IDP waiver wire selections for Week 10!

(Please note that a majority of these pickups are long-term, rest of season pickups as opposed to matchup-type recommendations. As the season progresses and the waiver wire becomes more thin and matchup information becomes more reliable, the focus of this article will shift more towards recommendations based on weekly matchup.)

Defensive Linemen
(Previously recommended DLs: Gerald McCoy, Willie Young, Cameron Heyward, Sen’Derrick Marks, Wallace Gilberry, William Gholston, Jurrell Casey, Corey Liuget, Mario Addison, Johnathan Hankins, Michael Johnson, Anthony Spencer, Cameron Heyward, Brian Robison, Jurrell Casey, Frostee Rucker, Ezekiel Ansah, Jerry Hughes, Jason Hatcher, Aaron Donald, Michael Johnson, Charles Johnson, Ryan Davis)

DT Gerald McCoy (TB) – McCoy was my 2nd ranked DT heading into the season,with plenty of upside to push him well into the #1 overall spot. Early-season injuries derailed a lot of his initial fantasy value, but he looks healthier every week and has 2.5 sacks in the last two weeks. He should be rostered in all DT-required leagues and as a high upside DL3 in standard formats.

DT Henry Melton (DAL) – It’s been a hard task determining which of the Cowboys d-linemen will produce in any given week (if any at all), but Melton is by far their most productive player as of late. He has 3.5 sacks over the past two games and has a very good chance of adding to that in Week 10 against the Swiss cheese-like Jaguars offense line.

DT Dontari Poe (KC) – Poe is coming off a strong performance against the Jets in which he registered 4 solo tackles and a sack. He will look to continue that production against a Bills team which has been giving up points to defensive linemen in the truckloads since Kyle Orton took over at quarterback. He’ll be a top 30 DL play this week.

Linebackers
(Previously recommended LBs: Sio Moore, Jamie Collins, Josh Mauga, Rolando McClain, Brandon Marshall, Emmanuel Lamur, Larry Foote, Jelani Jenkins, Preston Brown, A.J. Hawk, David Hawthorne, Anthony Hitchens, Brian Cushing, Jelani Jenkins, Danny Trevathan, Donald Butler, Prince Shembo, Keenan Robinson, Tahir Whitehead, Justin Durant, Jacquian Williams. Nigel Bradham, Miles Burris, Vincent Rey, Malcolm Smith, Dont’a Hightower, Chad Greenway, J.T. Thomas, Anthony Barr, Avery Williamson, Chris Borland, Michael Wilhoite)

ILB Chris Borland (SF) – Borland was the talk of the IDP world on Sunday afternoon after posting an absurd 18 tackles (15 solos!). Keep in mind, he had a great matchup against the Rams but anytime a linebacker posts numbers like this you have to take notice. There’s a solid chance Patrick Willis comes back next week which would send Borland back to the bench or, at most, into a rotational role with Michael Wilhoite until Navorro Bowman returns. This said, his value window this year is very short. In Willis can’t go, get Borland into your lineups.

WLB K.J. Wright (SEA) – With both Bobby Wagner and Malcolm Smith out, Wright was the Seahawks lone every down linebacker – a fact he took advantage of in the box scores posting 13 total tackles against a very poor Raiders matchup. The matchup is greatly improved in Week 10 against the Giants, so make sure to get Wright in your lineups next week if Wagner and Smith are still out, and even if both play, Wright is still worth a flyer as a LB3- in deeper leagues.

ILB Mychal Kendricks (PHI) – I called out to owners two weeks ago to rush to the waivers and grab Kendricks if he was still available in your league. His first week back from injury saw him in a part-time role, however he looked back to full health in Week 9 and played a full complement of snaps racking up double digit tackles and sack. With DeMeco Ryans out for the year, Kendricks will have more opportunity than ever and is a fairly safe bank for LB1 numbers the rest of the way.

OLB Jacquian Williams (NYG) – Williams had a standout night in the stat columns on Monday night putting up 18 tackles (14 of them solos) in a game that saw the Giants on the field a lot. Although the Seahawks have been a bad matchup for linebackers, the Giants have not been playing well offensively which may force their defense to be on the field for a ton of plays against a Seattle team that has been very strong at home. Risk/reward LB3.

Defensive Backs
(Previously recommended DBs: Donte Whitner, D.J. Swearinger, Leodis McKelvin, Ryan Mundy, Robert Blanton, Josh Evans, Prince Amukamara, Tyrann Mathieu, Kyle Fuller, Antoine Cason, Aaron Williams, Tony Jefferson, Byron Maxwell, Husain Abdullah, Brock Vereen, Tony Jefferson, Rashad Johnson, Brandon Meriweather, Reshad Jones, Brandon Flowers, Kemal Ishmael, George Wilson, Quintin Demps, Usama Young, Cortez Allen, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, James Ihedigbo, Deone Bucannon, LaRon Landry, Kendrick Lewis)

SS Major Wright (TB) – Wright has taken over at starting strong safety for the recently traded Mark Barron. In a game in which the Bucs saw a good amount of tackle opportunity, Wright clocked in 13 total tackles. This obviously isn’t a reasonable expectation every week, but Wright has shown strong fantasy potential playing under Lovie Smith last year in Chicago, so I don’t think it’s a full blown fluke. Expect some week to week variation in his numbers with David and Foster in front of him, but he’s a smart DB4 roster in most leagues.

CB Brent Grimes (MIA) – The scrappy 9th year veteran out of Shippensberg has three INTs in his last two games and will square off against the pass-happy Lions in Week 10. He’s averaging a little over 4 solos per game, so he should provide owners with nice upside while maintaining a relatively high floor.

S Rafael Bush (NO) – Much of the IDP focus in the Saints secondary has been centered on 2nd year player Kenny Vaccaro. However, fantasy owners should be directing their attention towards Bush who has out-tackled Vaccaro 26-21 since taking over for Jairus Byrd in Week 5. The 49ers are a top 6 matchup according to our IDP Points Allowed By Position ranker, so 5-6 and a couple of assists are reasonable projection for Bush.

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 4, 2014