Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 IDP Corner: Week 15

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

Justin Varnes (@downwithIDP) previews Week 15 IDP action with Tom Simons. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Welcome to another edition of the IDP Corner, sponsored by FantasyPoint.com. My name is Justin Varns. You can follow me on Twitter at Down with IDP. I'm one of the IDP analysts over at FantasyPoints.com and with me tonight, as always, Mr. Thomas Simons. How you doing tonight, Thomas? I'll just give me a second while I take this cute tip out of my nose as I try and figure out if I got COVID.

What is going on with COVID? All of a sudden, 90% of the league is shut down because of COVID. I'm doing all right, Justin, other than dealing with the COVID. Yeah, we have to see how many football players are still left. Saturday and Sunday. We are recording this on Thursday night after the Thursday night game, which was quite a fun game, which we're going to talk about here in a second. One of my big pieces of advice for people was start the players that you know right now happen to be healthy and not on a COVID list before it's too late. So one of the players that, you know, was kind of getting, it was questionable coming into tonight's game was Star and Stud D.E.

DB1 for us in lots of leagues. Mr. Derwin James, he did in fact play, but he didn't play the whole game, did he, Thomas? No, he actually sat in the second half, apparently near the end of the first half. He tweaked his hamstring injury and enforced him to sit. As you mentioned, it's always a very risky play. And I mentioned us on the Discord board earlier today, where when you have a banged-up IDP, especially in fantasy playoff time, you don't want to take the risk of playing them and then have them do what James did tonight, which was play in the first half,

give you a couple of tackles and then disappear. Yeah, he had three tackles, two solo. You know, he looked good early on. Right. It's really a shame because he obviously didn't get to play much, but he certainly had an impact early on. And speaking of the impact, did not have. It's hard to imagine that last play with Travis Kelsey. It's hard to imagine Kelsey

getting away with that with Derwin James on the field. The other safeties looked a little bit lost. You've got to figure Derwin James probably at least slows that down. So that was a huge loss for them at the end of the game, not having James out there. Indeed. Now, speaking of not having, the chiefs were without three starters in defensive tackle Chris Jones, Willie Gay, linebacker, quarterback Ligarius Sneed. Now, Sneed's brother passed away a little over a week ago, and that's the reason why he's been out the last two weeks. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. Willie Gay would land it on the COVID list and consequently couldn't play tonight. And so did Chris Jones. And the biggest absence out of these three was Jones. The Chargers ended up rushing for 192 yards on 39 rushing attempts. And a lot of that was because Jones wasn't in the middle. Yeah, and it was really nice to see one of these. We've been waiting for a couple of these younger linebackers on the Chiefs to explode to finally, you know, and obviously one of them was knocked out, and that was Willie Gay.

But we had another one kind of shined through for us, didn't we? Oh, yeah, Nick Bolton, he had a heck of a game leading the Chiefs with 14 total tackles. He had 10 solos and four assists. He added a QB hit and he had three past defended. And he was around Justin Herbert most of the game. He was constantly in his face and giving a lot of pressure. So Bolton shined tonight in the absence of Willie Gay and is by far probably the best linebacker that the Chiefs have right now. And you might have started Bolton.

We've been talking a lot about Willie Gay and Nick Bolton. But the Chiefs linebackers have been a mess. You might have been hurting at linebacker and with Gayout, you might have thought, well, maybe this is a chance for Bolton to step up. So if you were one of the few who took that risk, congratulations. I think you came off well. How about the Chargers? What did you see from them?

I liked what I saw because you're white. The only thing, there wasn't up and down regarding his play tonight. He had a solid outing where he posted nine total tackles, all of them solos. One of them was a tackle for a loss, and he had a QB hit. The bad or downside to this was that, unfortunately, nearly all of this production came in the first half. He had eight of his nine solos, and the tackle for a loss happened in the first half. It means that in the second half, he had one tackle and a QB hit. Also, we were hoping at least some of our big-named IDPs would come through.

We knew Durbin James got knocked out early, unfortunately. But if you played Joey Bosa, you're probably pretty happy. He had five tackles, three of which were solo. He also got a sack, quarterback hit, and a forced fumble. You got a strip sack, basically. So at least one of our main IDPs out of this game, you know, Chris Jones being out, Derwin James getting knocked out kind of early on. If you started Bosa, you're pretty happy with tonight, I have to have to imagine.

Indeed. All right, let's move along to our news and notes. Thomas, why don't you get us started? Well, I want to keep on the chiefs here. I know that they play tonight, but I want to mention something about a week ago. The Raiders played Kansas City in Kansas City, and they gathered for a pregame speech on the midfield Chiefs logo. And that apparently pissed off a lot of the Kansas City Chiefs and it motivated them enough to blow the Raiders out. Now, take note that while that was a lot of motivation, the Chief's defense has been playing extremely well.

Now, they did run into a tough game tonight against the Chargers. motivation or not from last week. Mike Hughes had a solid week last week. He led the team with nine total tackles, recorded two force fumbles and a fumble recovery, had eight solos. So the Chiefs are playing really well, and they did fairly well tonight,

except for stopping the run, early on against the charters, and they were missing three of their starters. I want to talk a little bit about Cam Hayward. He's somebody who, I've been raving about on our waiver wire articles over the last couple of weeks. Of all of the kind of top DLs, the people should be starting in shallower leagues, for some reason, Hayward is poorly owned compared to the rest of them,

but he's really been putting up good numbers. One of the things we've always loved about Hayward is that he's going to give you a solid number of tackles, and he's going to come up with big plays. we often get one or the other. Even with some of the, you know, the bigger names like Aaron Donald and Joey Bosa, sometimes they'll just, they'll come up flat when it comes to tackles. Cameron Hayward finishes a DL1 and three of the last four weeks. He plays a huge snapshot.

He plays like 80 to 90 percent of the snaps, which is obviously huge for us. He's actually fourth. And when it comes to DLs, he's fourth in snaps per game with 55.2 per game. That's an average of 82.4% snap shares. He is on the field a ton. And he puts up a good amount of tackles. He's one of the leaders in tackle percentage of the amount of snaps he plays versus the amount of tackles.

He gets he has a 9.4% tackle rate, which is really good for DLs. And he has the best matchup this week. Titans, I mentioned this on my XM radio spot with John Hanson on Wednesday mornings. The Titans have been a great offense for defensive line production. They came into week 14 owning the highest number of tackles per game awarded to defensive linemen. They left week 14 with an even bigger lead. They raised that number of week 14. So the absence of Derek Henry has done nothing to prevent the Titans to be a great matchup for DLs.

I like basically the entire Pittsburgh line this week, but Cameron Hayward, he's a great guy. If you went up against Travis Kelsey tonight and you have Cameron Hayward on your bench, you might want to put him in. Yeah, you know, you mentioned the Titans in their running game without Derek Henry, but, you know, the Titans have run the ball more than anybody in the NFL. They run it going into tonight 418 times. And unlike somebody like Baltimore, whose quarterback runs the ball 17% of the time. The Titans quarterback only runs 5% of the time, so most of that rushing is from their

running backs. Now, you mentioned Hayward. Hayward has got 90%, and I believe 78% snap counts in his last two weeks. So great info on Hayward. Speaking of Titans, the addition of Zach Cunningham clouds the Titans linebacker spot a little bit, especially after Rashad Evans and Jan Brown performed well in week 14. There are decent numbers were put up by both. Evans had six total tackles, tackle for a loss, and both of them had a pick and a PD. And those numbers aren't too bad when you consider the fact that the Jaguars ran the ball

just eight times against Tennessee last week. Now, David Long is likely going to be out another week again, another week. So I'll mention that in the injury report. So it's likely that Cunningham could get into the mix, but I don't see a count, you know, a high snap count for him or much fantasy value for him in week 15. Let's talk a little bit about we're going to get into some of the giant secondary in a little bit. I know Thomas has a note on them. But the one I want to highlight is going to be Logan Ryan. This is kind of similar to Cameron Hayward.

This is a great week to fire him up. He's mostly been really good for fantasy, but I know as things kind of get tight here, now that you are either in the playoffs or this is your last week to try to get in the playoffs, you might have some decisions to make, but I love Logan Ryan this week. The Cowboys are first in fantasy points per game to DBs. And one of the things that we used to be able to rely on for Dak Prescott was keeping his interceptions down, but his low interception rate really has taken a hit this this season. His interception percentage is usually in the like mid-ones, but this season,

it's over two. It's like 2.2 this season. He's thrown 10 interceptions so far. He's on pace to beat or tie his career high of 13 interceptions back when he was a sophomore. So, remember he's throwing five interceptions in his last four games. So already the Cowboys are are really productive for fantasy when it comes to defensive backs, but particularly an aggressive tackler like Logan Ryan and a veteran back there could really do some damage this week against the Cowboys. And like I said, Thomas, you're going to talk about one of the other cornerbacks

from the secondary a little bit later in the program. Yeah, and I want to mention on Ryan that the last time he played him, the Cowboys, was week five, and he had eight total tackles. six solos. So he could be in for another big game in a divisional rivalry. Now, speaking at Dallas, what can we say about Micah Parsons? He's running away with the rookie defensive player of the year here. He posted two more sackles and excuse me, sackles. He posted two more sacks and had a tackle for a loss. He's had two QB hits in that game and a force fumble that Dorrance Armstrong returned for a touchdown. Now,

Parsons was just all over the place once again. And now that the Cowboys get or got Randy Gregory back at defensive end, who had a very nice game in his return from IR, Gregory posted a sack plus an I&T off a batted pass that he kind of did a pirouet leaping catch and then return it for a touchdown. I mean, this is, when you take a look at what Dallas is all of a sudden turning into on the defensive side with Trayvon Diggs, Parsons and they've gotten Lawrence and Gregory,

DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory back. This defense is really, really becoming a nasty defense. We've been talking about some of the bigger players, you know, players that are certainly owned in shallower leagues. So I'm going to kind of dig a little deeper here for you guys. This is on the other side of this Dallas, New York Giants matchup. And that's a slot corner for the, for the Cowboys. he's Jordan Lewis. He actually has been producing, you know, a pretty solid numbers. And if you

think about it, it makes sense. If you're, if you're a team playing the Cowboys, you know, you're probably going to be throwing it a lot to try to keep up with their offense, although their offense is obviously been a little, you know, underwhelming lately. But most, most teams are going to go in assuming that any second it's going to get turned around, kind of like what we've seen with Kansas City's offense. So if you're a quarterback, you've got Trayvon Diggs, you look out to your left there's Trayvon Diggs. Probably going to try to not throw it to him. And then you look over to your right and your second best receiver is covered by Anthony Brown, who's also having a great season. You might consider going over the middle of some of your linebackers, but you look up and you

realize that one of the linebackers is actually defensive back, Keanu Neal or Micah Parsons. These guys are really good coverage linebackers. So more often than not, you might start targeting their slot corner and that's Jordan Lewis. He gets targeted often. He gets about five to seven targets per game. And he's a really nice mix where he's solid but not great in coverage, which means he's going to allow some catches. Luckily, he's actually an above average tackler, particularly for a cornerback. So he's been between four and seven tackles and six of his last seven games. The only outlier game there was when they played the Falcons. The Falcons just got three points going. So not a whole lot that Jordan Lewis could do about that. But my guess is this week,

the Giants are going to be throwing a lot. They're pretty banged up as well. I could see them trying to find that soft spot in the defense. So if you're hurting a cornerback, I think Jordan Lewis could be a good play for you this week. Now let's move on to our quick hits. Thomas, what you got? Well, let's start off with Houston. Christian Kirksey had a really workman-like game last week, beating the team with 10 total

tackles, five solos, five assists. But Camus Grou-Groger Hill is once again continues to stand out, and his name gets called frequently by broadcasting announcers on game day. He had six total tackles, five of them solos, two tackles for a loss, and a PD. Now, the problem here is that both of them

landed on COVID, and I'll mention this in a little bit, and they could both be sitting out in the week 15. Is this actually a pretty good spot for your bills defensive lineman? We'll get into you pretty specifically as to who I like out of that group,

but the bills are likely to be playing with a lead this week. And Carolina is second in fantasy points per game to defensive linemen. So they have a fairly heavy rotation, which we've, which we've, we kind of cataloged for you earlier the season back in the preseason about how these defenses were going to work. And Buffalo Bills has been one of the most predictable defenses in the scheme that they're running and the rotation up front. The guys who should get the most amount of snaps and be in the position to soak up the most

amount of fantasy points are in the middle. Ed Oliver, defensive tackles, Ed Oliver and Harrison Phillips. Both of those guys are playing around 60% of the snaps. So I like both of those guys. Mario Addison, one of the defensive ends is usually around 60%. Jerry Hughes, a veteran is still chugging along. He's playing right around 50%. Now, Hughes has not been as productive as he's been in the past.

So I lean on these defensive tackles. I also like a little bit. of that Mario Addison. Greg Rousseau really like him as a player. He is on the bottom end of this rotation. So Rousseau would be a little bit more of a stretch as would be F.A. Obata. Both of these guys are usually on the lower end of the rotation. You can take a good shot with them if you got them. Otherwise, I like leaning on those defensive tackles who should put up some pretty solid fantasy value for you this week. Well, kudos to you, Justin, because last week, on the Discord board, you mentioned linebacker Divine Diablo on the Raiders as being a sneaky

play, and that's exactly what he was. He finished second on the team in total tackles with nine, four solos and five assists. He took only 79% of the snaps, and so he was very productive in what is an average linebacker snap count. So kudos to you for that. Thanks. And one of the nice things about Diablo is in a lot of leagues. He is a safety. He's a, he's a safety who's been converted to linebacker. We've seen a handful of those over the last five to ten years. And so he's getting put into a position to play because Denzel Perryman has been out. I do know that Paramon did not practice again today. So there is a pretty good chance that Perriman will not play this week. If Perriman doesn't play this,

this week. It's another good spot for Diablo, particularly if you can use him as a safety, which I think, like I said, a good amount of you can. I want to talk a little bit about the Green Bay secondary. Eric Stokes, Adrian Amos, these Packers, D.Bs, they should be pretty busy this week. The Ravens produced the second most fantasy points per game to D.Bs. And the Ravens are expected to be trailing. We still don't know if we're going to have Lamar Jackson, a quarterback. but if we don't have Lamar Jackson a quarterback and they are trailing, that could also be some extra big play opportunities for the secondary. Well, you had mentioned that I'd be talking about the Giants DBs in particular on the corners.

Yeah, they have James Bradbury and teams usually stay away from Bradbury and they usually go after Adori Jackson on the other side. Well, Jackson has been absent and the problem that they've had, is who do they have step up? Well, the past couple of weeks, Rookie Aaron Robinson has stepped into Jackson's role, and it was the second consecutive productive fantasy outing this past week. Robinson tied the team lead with nine total tackles as he posted seven solos to assist, and he took 96% of the snap. So I will mention this again in the injury-slash-COVID section,

but if Robinson should play and Jackson doesn't, might be another one of those sneaky picks. And I could actually see if Jackson does end up playing. I could see them using Robinson in the slot. Before Jackson went down, they were using Robinson partly in the slot. Now that he's earned a bigger role, they should move him back to the slot. And if he's in the slot, he's probably going to see a lot of CD lamb there. And offensive coordinator, Kellyn Moore, is not averse to putting any one of his

receivers in the slot looking for mismatches. So even if Jackson does play, I like Robinson more outside. I think he's going to get targeted more that way. But if he ends up, if Jackson ends up playing, I still actually like Robinson as a slot. Just maybe not, you know, maybe you're not going to put up nine to nine to 11 tackles. It might be more like six to eight. But I'm, I'm okay with that particularly in kind of deeper leagues.

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Hopefully that will help you guys get a jump on some things. Well, let's start with the injured reserve. Notable players going on injured reserve. linebacker Nick Koukowski on the Vegas, went on with an ankle injury, done for the season. In fact, all of the ones that go on injured reserves here are all done for the season. Linebacker Kyler Fackerel on the Chargers knee. Cornerback Marlon Humphreys on Baltimore torn pectoral muscle.

Safety DeAndre Houston Carson on Chicago was just becoming a fantasy, having fantasy value fractured his forearm. Cornerback Jerry Jacobs on Detroit, torn ACL. cornerback, Emmanuel Mosley, and San Francisco, an ankle. And obviously, we mentioned safety, Jamal Adams on Seattle, torn labrum. Now, coming off of injured reserve and designated to return with safety, Donovan Wilson on Dallas, he's designated to return on Wednesday, so his 21-day window opens up.

Some notable inactives from week 14, defensive end, Akeem Hicks on Chicago, sat out with an ankle injury. He full-practiced Thursday, has a Monday night game. linebacker Logan Wilson on Cincinnati dislocated his shoulder, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Linebacker Jalen Reeves, Maven on Detroit shoulder, limited practice Wednesday and Thursday. Linebacker Kevin Pierre Lewis on Houston with a hamstring injury last week sat out, limited practice Wednesday and Thursday. Now, you had mentioned Denzel Perryman on the Raiders with an ankle injury, sat out last week,

did not practice Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and has been declared out for Saturday. Linebacker Pete Warner on New Orleans, an elbow injury, sat out last week, limited practice Wednesday and Thursday. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw in San Francisco, groin injury, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Also not practicing Wednesday or Thursday was linebacker David Long and Tennessee with a hamstring injury. Safety, Richie Grant on Atlanta sat out last week with an ankle injury, has full practice. Wednesday and Thursday. It looks like a go this week.

Cornerback Michael Carter on New York Jets concussion full practice Wednesday and Thursday. Cornerback Joe Hayden on Pittsburgh with a foot injury did not practice Wednesday. Upgraded to limited practice Thursday. Keep an eye on his Friday status. Cornerback Jordan Whitehead on Tampa Bay. Cap injury sat out last week. Limited practice Wednesday and Thursday. And cornerback Janoris Jenkins on Tennessee and ankle injury did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Now, a whole boatload of players landed on the COVID list on Monday. It's gone up to like 45 to 50 players. Some teams have 20 to 25, maybe even 27 players that are on the COVID list.

Now, before I go into all these players, I need to make sure that everybody understands that not all of them are unvaccinated and have to sit out for 10 days. Some of them are vaccinated and could be symptomatic or asymptomatic. If they're asymptomatic and they pass or give two negative tests in the next 48 hours, then they can play Sunday. So be very leery and careful on Saturday night when you start looking at your lineups for probably close to the last time. You have to make sure that you get as much information about these guys as you can because a lot of these players that I'm going to mention will actually be activated for the coming week. Now, their sites will tell you they're out, but if they pass and, you know, give two negative tests, they could be activated. So be very, very careful. And that's where the hang-up is because a lot of these players and a lot of these teams won't divulge the COVID information like they do injuries because of, you know, the regulations and laws that they face.

Now, start off with the defensive end Mario Edwards on Chicago when on COVID list Monday. December 13th. Noose tackle Kenny Clark on Green Bay went on today, December 16th. We mentioned defensive tackle Chris Jones going on it on Tuesday, December 14th. Defensive end, Cameron Jordan on New Orleans has been on the COVID list since Monday, December 6th. It's 11 days since he's been on there. Defensive tackle Matt Ionidis on Washington, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen on Washington, and defensive tackle Montez sweat on Washington all went on the COVID list on Wednesday, Monday, and Saturday, the 15th, 13th, and 11th.

Now, they also added Tim Settle and one other player on defensive line to their, oh, it was James Smith Williams also went on it on Wednesday, December 8th. So their entire defensive line is sitting on the COVID list. Linebacker Tyrell Dodson, Buffalo placed on the COVID list on Monday, December 13th. Linebacker Anthony Walker on Cleveland has been on the COVID list. COVID list since Monday, December 13th. Linebacker Malik Reid on Denver, Saturday, December 11th. Linebacker Christian Kirksey on Houston and linebacker Kamu Grugier Hill. Both of them went on the COVID-19 list on Wednesday the 15th and Monday the 13th.

So Houston could be looking at Neville Hewitt as there's, and maybe even Eric Wilson as their two starting linebackers that you're going to account for. Linebacker Willie Gay went on Wednesday. December 15th. The Rams, linebacker Vaughn Miller was placed on COVID list today, as was Troy Reeder on the Rams. He was placed on the COVID-19 list. Safety Chuck Clark

on Baltimore landed on there today as well. So we did safety Eddie Jackson on Chicago. Cornerback Chidobo Yuzzié and Cincinnati was placed on the COVID list on December 13th, or 16th, which was today, as of this podcast. Cleveland, another team that just got hammered by this COVID list junction. Safety John Johnson, the third on Cleveland, safety Ronnie Harrison, and Safety Grant

DelPet all landed on the COVID list on either Wednesday or today, Thursday the 16th. Troy Hill on Cleveland, the cornerback. He had a knee injury. He was likely going to sit out week 15 anyways, but he was placed on the COVID list yesterday. Safety Tracy Walker on Detroit placed on the COVID list on Friday, December 10th. We're not sure if he was tested positive or not. Everybody else I've mentioned and everybody I will mention from this point on have all tested positive. So cornerback Terrence Mitchell on Houston has a knee and an ankle injury.

It was questionable for the week. Well, he's on the COVID list to cornerback Jalen Ramsey and safety Jordan Fuller and cornerback Kareem Orr all from the Rams were placed on COVID Monday the 13th, Tuesday the 14th, and Thursday the 16th. Miami safety, Javan Holland, was placed on the COVID list on Monday the 13th. I had mentioned to Dory Jackson. Well, he's cornerback was missed last week because or had a quad injury, and that's the reason why Aaron Robinson has been playing. Well, he was placed on the COVID list today.

Cornerback Kendall Fuller on Washington Tuesday, December 14th, placed on the COVID, as was teammate Cameron Curl Safety, was placed on COVID today. Now, linebacker A.J. Klein on Buffalo was on the COVID list, was activated from the COVID list yesterday, December 15th. Safety Kyle Dugger on New England was activated from COVID list yesterday as well. Safety Xavier McKinney was placed on the COVID list, but as a close contact and is expected to be ready and play for week 15 once he submits to negative tests, which they, think he will do. Now, that's another note to make that the NFL, NFL in their weird ways is going about changing the protocols as to how players can become active because there are so many of them on this list. There are some teams, half the team is on the COVID list. Some notable injuries as well

that were not inactive, but got hurt in week 14. Defense of N. Kales Campbell on Baltimore has a soft tissue injury, has not practiced this week yet. Defense of N. T-TUrish, Trey Hendrickson on Cincinnati had back issues, did not practice Wednesday, but was a full practice on Thursday. Defensive end Shelby Harris on Denver with a knee injury was limited Wednesday and Thursday. Defensive end, Draymond Jones on Denver, foot injury did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. On the Giants, defensive tackle, Austin Johnson had a foot injury and did not practice Wednesday or Thursday.

And defensive end, Leonard Williams on the Giants, has a triceps injury that seemed worse and expected, but has been limited Wednesday and Thursday and actually has a chance to play in week 15. Defensive end, Quinnon Williams on the Jets, shoulder injury, full practice Wednesday and Thursday. Defensive tackle, DJ Jones on San Francisco and knee injury has not practiced yet this week. Also not practicing yet this week is defensive end Carlos Dunlap from Seattle. Now, defensive tackle, excuse me, Dunlap is out with a quad injury at this point.

defensive tackle Brian Monet on Seattle has a PCL strain. He was limited in practice Wednesday, didn't practice Thursday, as trending in the wrong direction. Linebacker Dante Foyer on Atlanta calf injury did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Linebacker Kenny Young on Denver had a concussion, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Jonathan Cooper on Denver is looking like a good play this week if Young is out. Linebacker Alex Anzalone on Detroit suffered an ankle injury, did not practice. Wednesday but was upgraded to limited practice Thursday. Linebacker Bobby Oker-Uk-A on Indianapolis has an illness.

Did not practice Tuesday or Wednesday was a full practice Thursday. Looks like he's going to be a go Saturday night. Linebacker Corey Littleton on Las Vegas had a stinger full practice all week, looks like a go. Linebacker Eric Kendricks on Minnesota had a lower back issue. He did not practice Thursday for a Monday night game, so he has time to. to actually get to practice and be ready for the Monday night contest. Linebacker Reggie Raglan, New York Giants has an illness, did not practice Thursday. Linebacker T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh, a groin injury.

It seemed like he tweaked it, limited practice Wednesday, full practice Thursday. He's probably a go for this week 15. Linebacker Alex Highsmith on Pittsburgh, a quad injury. He, again, was limited Wednesday and full practice Thursday looks like a go. Linebacker Fred Warner, San Francisco, ankle injury, limited practice Wednesday and Thursday. Linebacker Aziz Al-Shayr on San Francisco, sprained elbow, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Into the DBs, cornerback Robert Alford on Arizona has a pectoral injury, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Safety, Eric Harris on Atlanta, torn pectoral muscle needs season-ending surgery.

Has not been placed on IR, but is destined for it. Cornerback, AJ Bowie and Carolina has a foot injury. has not practiced yet this week. Safety Kareem Jackson on Denver, a back issue. Did not practice Wednesday, limited practice Thursday. Safety Justin Reed on Houston not only has a concussion, but he's dealing with an illness as well, not COVID-related. Did not practice yet Wednesday or Thursday. Cornerback Trayvon Mullen Jr. on Las Vegas is a toe injury, but most likely a turf toe. Did not practice Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday is out. Safety quandary Diggs on Seattle, knee injury, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Safety Antoine Winfield on

Tampa Bay, foot injury hasn't practiced yet this week. Cornerback Richard Sherman in Tampa Bay retweaked his Achilles injury and did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. And cornerback, Jamal Dean on Tampa Bay has a possible concussion. He was sick last week and they think that may have been concussion symptoms, did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Well, we're going to give Thomas a break and step aside and pay a few bills. All right. We're going to wrap up with some Discord questions here. If you are a FantasyPoint.com subscriber and you are a premium subscriber, you get access to our Discord boards where you can ask questions about IDP, defensive.

We've been doing a lot of, you know, DST, defensive and special teams advice. There's advice, obviously, on the offensive side of the ball. more advice than you can possibly imagine. So this Discord app has been a really good way for us to connect to some of our hardcore fans and hardcore readers and listeners. So we like to give a little shout out to them. There's a couple good questions here. So what we're going to do here, Thomas, is I'm going to set you up, tee you up,

and then you can take first crack of these two questions. We're going to start with Vickus 07, who asks us, can you discuss the Browns? LB situation when Anthony Walker returns, now that J.O.K. is back in the mix. Who is the guy to own there? Well, Walker has six or more total tackles in all nine of his games he's played this year. Now, Jeremiah Owasu, Coromo is good for two to four total tackles when Walker plays. But J.O.K. is good for five to seven total tackles when Walker doesn't play.

Now, in the last three games that Walker has missed, J.O.K. has posted five or more solos in each game, but has not had five or more solos in any game that Walker has played in this year. So JOK has seven big plays to Walker's three this season. So Walker is the better play unless you're in a very heavy big play scoring system. None of the other brown linebackers are even in this discussion. So it basically comes down to Walker or JOK. If Walker is healthy, he's the one that you should probably go to. Yeah, and so this is something I've been talking about more and more, partly on the podcast, but a lot in my articles on fantasy points.com with how linebackers are deployed these days. You know, terms like Mike linebacker and Buck linebacker or, you know, the Will, the Sam, things like that are becoming more and more outdated.

And for us, what matters most is, you know, how those terms may or may not affect, you know, will the Mike get more points than the will, you know, how does this defense set up? One of the things I've kind of shifted to more and more because most teams now use two main linebackers. They might, you know, they might employ, you know, three or four and get them out on the field. But I've been using the terms primary linebacker and secondary linebacker. And what that basically means is probably exactly what you think it means. If you take two linebackers, for example, if you take Fred Warner and, you know, normally it's Drake Greenlaw, right?

Well, Warner is going to be the one to play more snaps regardless of what happens on the field. However the snap counts break down, you assume that Warner is going to be the one that stays on the field. And usually Warner is the one that produces more. You can think back to when, you know, like the Luke Keekly days, right? And, you know, back then you had two linebackers. Keekly usually outproduced, well, I'm a blanket on his name. Who's the other Panthers linebacker?

Damian Wilson. No, it was. Oh, Panthers. I'm sorry. Yeah, Tom's. So, yeah, you get these linebackers who, there's one guy who normally outproduces the other and normally out snaps the other. Right.

There are going to be weeks when the secondary linebacker might even be two weeks in a row. Out produces the primary linebacker, but more often than not, you want to lean on the primary linebacker. The odds are in the primary linebacker's favor. And that's what's going on here. And I think Thomas did a great job of kind of outlining what that looks like. So as of now, Walker is their primary linebacker. He's the guy that will be their primary linebacker. Yeah.

He's the guy who will be their primary linebacker. Now, as JOK develops, he will start seeing more and more snaps. And there's a chance that starting next year, JOK may be that primary linebacker. But as of now, it has been Walker and we see no reason why that won't continue. Yeah. And Anthony Walker, as you mentioned, is the primary linebacker and is a huge factor in tackle heavy leagues. Whereas JOK, Jeremiah Owasu, Coromoa is the secondary linebacker and has a lot more value in big play scoring leagues, but even then he doesn't really outscore Anthony Walker, because

as you mentioned, Walker is the one that's going to get the primary snap count over JOK, who will get a secondary snap count. Thomas Davis. That was the linebacker I couldn't think of who paired with Luke Keeckley, right? So Thomas Davis was actually a really good fantasy asset, but more of an LB2 or LB3. He played next to Luke Keekely, but if Thomas Davis had nine tackles, you can, pretty much guaranteed that they Kekley had 12 or 15, right? Exactly.

And that's probably a good example of a primary or secondary linebacker situation. All right. Last question is going to come from a loss of here. There we got Jekyllby. Jekyllby asked, this is a dynasty question. And this is, you know, for those of you who are out of the playoffs, it's time in dynasty leagues to start figuring out how you're going to get yourself set up for next year. So this is an IDP league.

it's a big play league. That's really important in this discussion. He's got Chen, you got Jeremy Chin, this is a DB question. Jeremy Chin, Minka Fitzpatrick, Taylor Rap, Jalen Thompson. And John Johnson is also in the mix. John Johnson obviously started to perform again. He had a very slow start to his season, but has been turning it on as of late. Of course, he's on COVID-I-R at the moment, but he's a free agent. Johnson's a free agent in this league. So the question is, is it worth dropping one of those other players for him, for John Johnson, in case his role changes between now and next year? What do you think, Thomas? Well, Jacobi has got, you know, a, first of all, I'm, I've said this back in the spring

or preseason, I'll say it again. D.Bs are a dime a dozen. And unless you get a top five, even in there's even the five to ten range is starting to get cloudy for me. DBs can be pretty much scoured and streamed on every week off the waiver wire. But in this particular case, to answer the question, the first thing you have to look at is the experience of these players heading into the 2020 season. Now, Chen will be entering his third NFL season, Rapp and Thompson into their fourth season, and Fitzpatrick and Johnson, they're sixth.

Now, the second thing to look at is who is the big playmakers out of these five IDPs? And in their careers, Fitzpatrick has averaged 11.4 big plays per season, whereas Johnson has averaged 10 big plays a year, rap 8.3, chin 5.7, and Thompson just 1.3. Jalen Thompson is a huge tackle producer as of this year, but does very little for you in big scoring leagues. So at this point, I would consider dropping Thompson for John Johnson based on big play opportunities going in the next year.

But I give you a note that Johnson is going to be entering a six season and it doesn't take much for him to land on injury reserve or get hurt or have Grant Delpit step up and they lean on Delpit and Ronnie Harrison and end up cutting into Johnson's role. So Johnson has the bigger play opportunities more so than Thompson. I think you can do better than Thompson in this big play league, not necessarily a tackle heavy league, but Thompson is not going to give you many big plays.

Yeah, I think that's a great breakdown. And I'm actually going to hammer away a little bit more at your opening statement, which I agree with. D.Bs are always a risky dynasty. investment. I'll give you a couple of good examples. Remember Buda Baker? I mean, he was a surefire top three DB heading into this season. And then speaking of Jalen Thompson, the Cardinals shifted their secondary around and they decided to put Buda Baker a little bit more in like, they don't really play the same role, but picture this. You know, Tyron Matthew is an amazing safety. He's a world-class safety.

And the chiefs elect to use Tyrone Matthew in a way where he's at the back of the defense, last line of defense, he can kind of see the whole field. And he's a very crucial element to their defense. But because he spends the majority of the time, 10 or 20 yards sometimes, you know, in front of the play, there's just not a lot of tackles. Like tonight, I think he had two tackles maybe, right? But that doesn't mean he's not a great player. Buda Baker is in a similar situation.

They shifted the defense around so that now Buda Baker plays in some respects a more important role as the last line of defense. But it's Jalen Thompson who has moved up to where more often than not, they both play in the box. They'll both play deep. But more often than not, Jalen Thompson is going to be the one that gets closer to the action. So, excuse me, that's what's happened. Buda Baker, just like that, he's off the fantasy. Radar. Minkin Fitzpatrick, one of the, one of the players that Jekyllabby owns, has gone up and down in fantasy value. So it really is a tough, a tough prospect to try and invest in defensive backs.

But the one I definitely wouldn't invest in would be Jalen Thompson. Yeah. And you, again, this comes down to, you're talking about doing an investment in a defensive back. And they can be a dime a dozen. I mean, at this point in time, when you start looking at that players on the, you know, the week 14 and week 15 and week 16 lists of players that are going to be productive for you, I mean, Aaron Robinson is a defensive back that came out of nowhere, and all of a sudden it's like, where did he come from? The same thing people were thinking about with Jalen Thompson. We kind of saw this coming into the season, especially with the fact that Baker was being used, Buda Baker was being used in a linebacker role,

and they went out and got, they, you know, signed, they had an, Isaiah Simmons and then Xavier and Collins this year. So you see how this all changes with acquisitions and also drafting things. We can sit here and tell you how to go in one direction. And then in two months down the road or three months down the road, we'll be changing our mind because of things have changed. Yeah. And, you know, it's not just for some comparisons, right?

it's not likely that Joey Bosa is all of a sudden going to be a defensive tackle and all of a sudden he's going to miss some of his edge rushing, you know, capabilities. It's not likely that, you know, some stud lineback. It's not likely that DiMario Davis is all of a sudden going to be, you know, yeah, like a defensive end or all of a sudden he's going to be a safety. more often than not, it's the D.Bs who get shifted around and moved into roles where they all of a sudden are not as fantasy relevant as we thought. As a matter of fact, if we look at the, I'm looking now at the basic leaderboard, right? You've got like J. Ron Curse, who's fifth, you know, in fantasy production. J. Ron Curse, you know, who raised your hand if you drafted J. Ron Curse back in August? We were looking at, hmm, is it going to be Donovan Wilson or Keanu Neal who's going to be the main producer there?

Jalen Thompson's right behind him, sixth. How about Harrison Smith at seven? Harrison Smith is like Minka Fitzpatrick. You know, over his career, he's been a top 10 DB. And then he's been almost completely off the radar. When Anthony Harris was with the Vikings, Harrison Smith's role changed. And it was Anthony Harris who was getting more of the fantasy value. Now Harris has gone. They've moved things around and now Harrison Smith's the top 10 DB again.

This is just how it goes. You know, so as far as investing, you know, heavily into dynasty, I wouldn't do it too much. But one thing I will say, if you look at Jekyllby's lineup, you know, there's a lot of dbys there. This is clearly a deep league. This is a league that uses a lot of of dbs. So when we say it's tough to invest in dynasty, you've got to have somebody on your roster. You can't just say, well, I'm not going to even worry about it. I'm going to go into the next season with zero defensive backs. So we just want to be clear about that. We're talking about a general dynasty approach here, but it's clear that you have to roster three to four defensive backs.

And, you know, Jalen Thompson, you know, he has two tackles for loss all season, just five. passes defense doll season, you know, these are really poor numbers, you know, in terms of, you know, big play upside, if you will. Yeah. So, yeah, go ahead. And, you know, I mean, who would have thought somebody like Rizul Douglas would be a stud in the Packers secondary and be, you know, a turnover machine or who thought that Trayvon Diggs would, would approach 10 I&Ts before week 14?

I mean, these things you just can't account for. They're those rare, if you get them, you get them. But if you don't, you don't. You're hoping that you can get them. I mean, you're trying to position yourself to acquire or have players that have the upside potential for these big plays. And I think that what Jekyllby has is very, very approachable in that regard because of the fact that, you know, Minka Fitzpatrick, even though he's had an up and down. career and in very short up and down career, he still is averaging, you know, close to 11.4 big

plays a season. And out of the group he has, that's the one who averages the most. And John Johnson, even though he's been injured lately, is another one who is double digits per year, big plays on an average. So, you know, this, when, and again, let's identify big plays as I&Ts and PDs. and Fet Force fumbles and fumble recoveries and touchdowns and sacks. So this is what we're trying to tell you is that even though they're dime a dozen, in this type of league, you're going to have a lot of DBs already taken.

So you have to come up with somebody. We haven't been on a rant. And I don't know how long, Thomas. That was great. We haven't done this in a while. So luckily we saved that rant for the end of the podcast. So you got all your good information there. but, man, great questions.

We've had a lot of fun this year. It's also nice to see in our Discord app how many people we're still chatting with because they're in the playoffs. So it's been a lot of fun this season. We have a couple more weeks of this coming up. Hopefully we'll help the rest of you all get through the fantasy playoffs and take home some championships.

My name is Justin Varnes. Again, you can follow me on Twitter at Down with IDP. We work for FantasyPoint.com. We hold down the IDP. section there. We're having a lot of fun doing so. So thank you so much for listening. Thomas, take us out. Be well and be safe. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.