Welcome to the 13th weekly edition of “Raiding the IDP Waiver Wire” for 2021! For those returning for another installment of defensive player recommendations, your interest and support are appreciated!
This weekly column will help you, the reader, plunder your league’s waiver wire for real value where it counts: in your line-ups. We’ll dig into the past week’s top performers among available options for repeatable production.
“Raiding the IDP Waiver Wire” is written for fantasy football gamers in leagues that require a full complement of 11 defensive starters in leagues of 12 to 16 teams. Recommendations rely on scoring settings from FantasyPros.com, even though their value for passes defensed is low. We’ll look for options at both conventional and true defensive positions as they arise.
Players qualifying for this column are those rostered in no more than a third of IDP leagues on MyFantasyLeague.com (MFL); moreover, new names appear in each edition. Occasional readers are encouraged to visit past weeks’ write-ups for more options. Finally, these recommendations further assume you, the manager, have finite roster space with challenging cut decisions to add new names.
Fantasy football’s regular season has come to a close in most leagues. Those fortunate enough for their seasons to continue are dealing with an unprecedented number of Reserve/COVID transactions Monday the 13th (according to Adam Schefter reporting at halftime of Monday Night Football). This adversity follows a tough weekend of injuries to players that fantasy gamers have relied on much of the season.
Denico Autry, Titans DE
Roster management has bedeviled IDP fantasy gamers all season. Those who cut Denico Autry going into his Week-13 bye undoubtedly regret not re-adding him for a Week-14 cakewalk against a Jaguars team in turmoil. Autry collected his sixth QB sack of the season.
Randy Gregory, Cowboys DE
2021 has been a rough year for your writer’s teams with respect to injuries. I can only assume many gamers playing fantasy football on MFL need to convince their commissioners to add IR slots. Count me among them! Randy Gregory, meanwhile, is on too many waiver wires.
DeMarcus Lawrence’s bookend returned to the Cowboys’ defense after a four-week absence to help lead an assault on Washington QB Taylor Heinicke. Gregory was involved in two turnovers and two QB hits in limited action returning to play. He’ll face the Giants in Week 15 ahead of a rematch with Washington.
Kyle Phillips, Jets DE
Readers in deeper or sharper leagues still in need of a recommendation should look to Jets defensive end Kyle Phillips. The UDFA in his third year began to earn opportunities in Week 11 and collected his first sack of the season in Week 14. The Jets need to see what they have in the pending restricted free agent and have nothing to lose by scaling back journeyman Shaq Lawson’s snaps in favor of the younger Phillips.
Dre’Mont Jones, Broncos IDL
The Broncos deemed veteran Jurrell Casey expendable this past offseason due to the emergence of Dre’Mont Jones. A player I had deemed a sleeper in true-position IDP leagues is finally blossoming with three sacks in two games. He faces a vulnerable Bengals offensive line in Week 15.
Neville Hewitt, Texans LB
‘Tis the season for warm bodies at the linebacker position in fantasy football. Exit Kamu Grugier-Hill; enter Neville Hewitt. Grugier-Hill was the first player since Week 2 to make 20 tackles in Week 13 (Bobby Wagner). He sprained a knee in Week 14 and made a trip to the Reserve/COVID list the following day.
Grugier-Hill has been this year’s Neville Hewitt. Hewitt stepped into a starting role in a depleted linebacker corps for the 2-14 Jets last year and collected 134 tackles. Hewitt poetically replaced fellow retread Grugier-Hill after the starter was carted off last Sunday. The Texans’ next two match-ups aren’t ideal for linebacker production, but attrition might necessitate adding Hewitt for a fantasy playoff game.
Josh Woods, Lions LB
Neville Hewitt was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2015. Josh Woods was a 2019 UDFA. The younger man began seeing opportunities for the Lions last week.
News broke in the lead-up to the Week 14 game that starter Alex Anzalone would cede snaps to Woods and rookie Derrick Barnes. The report had Barnes calling defensive plays.
A first-half injury to Anzalone opened the door for both, Barnes and Woods. The latter, however, started alongside Anzalone and took over the headset once Anzalone left. More importantly for us, Woods piled up tackles – 13 in total, a season-high for all Lions defenders.
Woods’s string of match-ups to close the season appears middling at best for linebacker production. The Lions, like the Texans, could struggle mightily to get off the field with former reserve defenders on an already bad defense thus increasing tackle opportunities.
Happy Bidding!
This column drops every Tuesday afternoon. I’ll attach recommendations of widely rostered players one might consider dropping to make room for these players on Twitter. I look forward to interacting with you there!
Fantasy gamers entering their league’s playoffs must be especially vigilant given the increased number of COVID impacts and injuries of varying severity in Week 14. Good luck to all! May your playoff match-ups break on big plays, not major injuries.
A Clemson and Michigan alum, a fan of the Cowboys and Panthers, I try to see both sides of every debate and every fantasy football trade. Reach out to me @DynastyTripp on Twitter.
