Raiding the IDP Waiver Wire: Week 4

Your author assumed responsibility for this weekly column midway through the 2019 season. Deep into a fantasy football season, the waiver wire is often simply a source for a line-up salve. I sought to recommend a player that could help a team survive and advance. I used immediate past production as an indicator of potential performance. I also considered scheme fit, match-up, game flow, snap counts, injuries, and returning players to make recommendations.

A September waiver wire serves a very different purpose for some gamers. Sure, the spate of injuries has many scrambling for a fill-in or two. September, however, is also the month in which pleasant surprises begin to emerge. Some of these players, I overlooked before the season started. They may even be players that coaching staffs errantly relegated to reserve duty in training camp. Such oversights were easy to make by all parties in a summer without preseason games.

I’ll trust readers have heard about the NFL’s leader in quarterback sacks by now. I recommended adding him after Week 1, making Cowboys EDGE Aldon Smith a reactive pick-up.

Following Week 2, I advised adding Washington linebacker, Kevin Pierre-Louis. Readers who track box scores didn’t need an article to inform them of Pierre-Louis’s 15 tackles against the up-tempo Cardinals offense. 

I recommended Pierre-Louis for a blend of upside and expected longevity. He’s riskier than Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson, who looks like a safer bet to maintain a full-time role for the season, but Wilson isn’t any threat to lead the NFL in tackles playing alongside All-Pro Eric Kendricks in a scheme that prioritizes gap integrity from its one-gapping defensive lineman.

For Week 3, this column will offer a blend of reactive and proactive pick-ups. Reader feedback is not only welcome but desired! Waiver-wire articles with one- to two-sentence missives in favor of players likely available in leagues that start six IDPs are plentiful and free. I’ll assume you’re looking for more in an article behind a paywall. Let’s get to it.

Injuries continued in Week 3 of the 2020 NFL season at a sickening rate. The rash received less press today because fewer star IOPs (individual offensive players) went down. Those leaving the field with injuries sustained in Week 3 include Broncos DL Jurrell Casey, Packers LB Christian Kirksey, Football Team DE Chase Young, and two more Seahawks: safety Jamal Adams and linebacker Jordyn Brooks. 

The players recommended below are available in at least two-thirds of IDP leagues on MyFantasyLeague.com (MFL). Recommendations are position-specific for lineup requirements including cornerbacks and defensive tackles unless noted otherwise.

Shelby Harris, IDL – Denver Broncos

Harris was one of the Broncos’ few bright spots versus the Buccaneers. He sacked Tom Brady twice and is therefore a reactive add for IDP fantasy gamers.

Harris is worth a sizable FAAB bid in true-position IDP leagues in part because his position group is decimated by injury. Not only is Jurrell Casey out for the year, but their young back-ups, Dre’Mont Jones and DeMarcus Walker are on the injured-reserve list for the short term. 

Harris will play a huge number of snaps as the team’s featured interior pass rusher. Harris showed out in a similar role last year, tallying six QB sacks, after toiling for the first three weeks of 2019 as the Broncos’ nose tackle.

Maurice Hurst, DT – Las Vegas Raiders

Reserve undertackle Maurice Hurst has played fewer than half the Raiders’ defensive snaps for three straight weeks, but he’s outplaying starter Maliek Collins. Hurst compiled 6 tackles, including 1 for loss, and a QB hit versus the Patriots. 

The Raiders signed Collins to a modest free-agent contract then surprisingly granted him the job. Hurst was coming into his own down the stretch in 2019. Head coach John Gruden realizes that Collins isn’t getting the job done. It might be only a matter of time before the incumbent Hurst gets his job back.

Uchenna Nwosu, DE – Los Angeles Chargers

Uchenna Nwosu has played essentially full time at Melvin Ingram’s defensive-end spot since the Pro Bowler was injured in Week 2. Pro Football Focus ranks Nwosu among the NFL’s top ten edge defenders in both pass-rush productivity and quarterback pressures for the young season. 

Ingram held out last summer for a contract revision that would guarantee his salary for the 2020 season. Perhaps Ingram himself thought it possible that Nwosu would take his job. 

Emmanuel Ogbah, DE – Miami Dolphins

Fellow Miami edge defender Shaq Lawson signed a headline-making free-agent deal with the Dolphins last spring, but Ogbah the afterthought appears at least as integral to the Dolphins’ plans for 2020. Lawson’s snap counts have ebbed over the first three games while Ogbah has played nearly full time.

Miami’s defense started the 2019 season atrociously but improved steadily as players learned and bought into new head coach Brian Flores’s system. The 2020 Dolphins have almost as many new pieces, albeit with conventional free agents rather than street free agents. Ogbah and the rest of the pass rush could gel sooner than later.

BJ Goodson, LB – Cleveland Browns

An earlier edition of this column recommended Cleveland’s young OLB Sione Takitaki, but it’s the journeyman middle linebacker Goodson who’s holding value. Takitaki was apparently benched for missed tackles in Week 2 and played part-time in Week 3. 

Goodson has compiled 19 tackles on the season and helped create two turnovers in Week 3. His role looks safe when teammate Mack Wilson returns from injury later this season.

TJ Edwards, LB – Philadelphia Eagles

Edwards was a popular sleeper in deep leagues as the penciled-in starter at middle linebacker for the Eagles. He surprisingly played only a minority of the defense’s snaps in Weeks 1 and 2, leaving the field in sub-packages. Former Falcons bust Duke Riley played ahead of him until Week 3. 

The Eagles lead linebacker Nate Gerry, meanwhile, is struggling in pass coverage despite his resume as a college safety. Edwards is worth an add in deeper leagues in case he can overcome yet another teammate. 

Rayshawn Jenkins, S – Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers lost phenom Derwin James to a knee injury in August. The team’s experimentation with adjustments leaked into the regular season. 

After significant reshuffling from Week 1 to Week 2, the formula seemed to stabilize between Weeks 2 and 3. Last year’s starting free safety Rayshawn Jenkins played 37 of his 51 defensive snaps in the box while Nasir Adderley played deep. Safety/linebacker hybrid Kyzir White played 98% of snaps. Three cornerbacks accompanied them on most plays. 

After a quiet first game playing deep and an injury-shortened second outing, Jenkins erupted for 9 tackles, including 2 for loss and a sack against the Panthers. This combination of uncertainty and upside informed my preseason ranking of Jenkins at #33 among safeties.

In Closing

The aforementioned seven players are recommended adds for waiver wire runs ahead of Week 4 games. They’re not all immediate plug-and-plays. Some are prospective midseason bloomers that could propel your line-up when you need it most! Share your thoughts with me on Twitter!

Clemson and Michigan alum… Panthers and Cowboys fan… I try to see both sides of every debate and each trade. Find me on Twitter @DynastyTripp.