The Only IDP Sit/Start You Need to Win Week 7

Welcome to the heart of the bye weeks. This is where sit or start options become crucial to winning these mid-season matchups! So let’s get rolling with the ‘The Only IDP Sit/Start You Need to Win Week 7’. And here is hoping you don’t have too many other holes to fill on the offensive side of the ball either.

As always, the goal of this series will be to take a look at those players we are not quite certain on each week and help identify at each level (DL, LB, DB) an individual you should be starting with confidence (maybe even pursuing if he isn’t on your roster) and one you should be fading at least this week or maybe more.

The big question mark with IDP though is what scoring format are you using. IDP fantasy football leagues haven’t reached a level of a “standard” scoring that the vast majority of leagues play with. So for our purposes, we will focus on a format known as ‘IDP123’ (examples: Tackles 2 points, FF/FR 3 pts, Sacks/Ints 6 pts) With that being said, let’s get into why you came here!

Defensive Line, Start – Jadeveon Clowney, DE, Cleveland Browns

Jadeveon Clowney has been maligned for a good portion of his career with spurts of sustained success. This year though has seen consistent production making plays in the backfield (he has at least 1 tackle for loss in each game this year). He has also gotten to the QB with 3 sacks and 9 QB hits and is capable of creating significant disruption in an opponent’s backfield.

Success this week is aligning quite well based on the opportunities of his opponent this week, the Denver Broncos. The Broncos have allowed one of the highest amounts of sacks through 6 games with 19 total sacks. They also are one of the top teams for total plays ran per game (65 per game). This seems like an ideal intersection of talent (Clowney), lack of talent (Denver offensive line), and the sheer number of opportunities (plays ran per game).

The mix of tackle production at or behind the line of scrimmage and the sack upside makes Clowney an ideal start this week.

Defensive Line, Sit – Yannick Ngakoue, DE, Las Vegas Raiders

Yannick Ngakoue is facing the opposite situation of the Cleveland Browns and Jadeveon Clowney in the Raiders matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Ngakoue has shown plenty of success over his career, even though he was traded twice last year and playing for three different teams. Now with his new home in Las Vegas, he has found some success again as a solid defender with 2 sacks and 8 QB hits so far this year.

This week though, Yannick faces off with Philadelphia. And this is a less desirable matchup as the Eagles have only allowed 12 sacks so for this season through the first 6 games and run one of the league’s lowest 59 plays per game (27th). The mobility of Jalen Hurts combined with his struggles to keep the offense moving and on the field for more opportunities as the Eagles offense has struggled at times to move the ball at all.

The last piece of this puzzle is the Raiders defense have played the pass quite well this year while they have struggled against the run. Perhaps this is the week Nick Siriani actually starts using Miles Sanders and this means limited ceiling in terms of sacks or other big plays. Or just more incomplete passes and limited dropbacks for Jalen Hurts.

Linebacker, Start – David Long Jr., Tennessee Titans

David Long Jr. is getting a chance to shine with an abundance of snaps with Jayon Brown out and being placed on injured reserve, this opportunity could quickly become a long-term one.

The question is, what has he done so far with this opportunity on the field? Snap counts of 98% or higher in every game, sounds good. 43 tackles through 5 games, sign me up. 13 blitz/pass-rush opportunities, I love that potential upside. The only thing that gives me pause, 9 missed tackles through those 5 games. That is quite high from someone you want to see stay out there for as many snaps as possible. So for now, he is out there and capitalizing on the snaps he is getting. However, if he wants to stay relevant, he will need to clean up some of those missed tackles before they look at giving someone else (maybe Monty Rice?) a chance out there.

On the other side of the metrics, he has looked good enough, 58.4 PFF overall grade. 53.1 run defense, 71.8 pass rush, and 60.6 coverage. The real gem here is that pass rush grade. With the success he is having in that regard coupled with the chances he is getting, the big play upside will start trickling into the great tackles floor of 8-9 per game and Long could start sneaking into consistent LB2 territory real fast!

This week though, against Kansas City and an offense that will move the ball on that weaker Titans defense should be a buffet of tackles for Long. He is a must-start this week and someone you might want to try and get in on ahead of this week if you haven’t already!

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Linebacker, Sit – Demario Davis, New Orleans Saints

This is going to be blasphemous, I know, but I am calling for a sit of Demario Davis this week. But Jake, how can we bench one of the most consistent IDP Fantasy Football producers? Well, it is simple to me. Demario thrives in stopping the run but still has the skillset and football IQ to be disruptive in the passing game and really be the only viable linebacker to do that recently in New Orleans.

Well, things have changed now with the emergence of Pete Werner over this season so far and his increased snap shares each of the last several weeks shows that the Saints’ coaching staff is most likely, seeing the same thing. Now I am not calling for some complete changing of the guard here either, I am just saying when you have a pie and cut it in half, you have a lot less. Now, what happens when someone orders you a small pie instead of that delicious larger pie?

What happens is, you get an opponent in Seattle who runs the fewest plays overall in the entire NFL. And with an injured Russell Wilson, injuries in the backfield, and the limited ability to unlock the downfield portion of their offense with Geno Smith at the helm, this has a recipe to be a very, very low total of plays ran this week and a smaller portion of plays for Demario to be making.

So we are not moving on from Demario by any stretch of the imagination, we are just looking for one of those better upside plays for this week. Also, keep an eye on Peter Werner or maybe stash him even if your roster and the bye weeks allow it!

Defensive Back, Start – Kyle Dugger, CB/S, New England Patriots

Kyle Duggar has been flying under the radar a bit from some of the IDP Fantasy Football standpoints. But he has been delivering since week 1 this year in a way that makes him a very capable DB2. 39 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 1 INT, 1 PD. He has been delivering a little bit everywhere he can.

The Patriots having the late afternoon game against the Cowboys gave him a chane to highlight that and he did. This is probably someone we should have tried to buy into prior to the national TV game, but hopefully you already landed him. If not, might still be worthwhile to try and land Dugger or pick him up off the Waiver Wire, if possible.

For week 7 though, Kyle Dugger has a fun matchup against the New York Jets! Zach Wilson has shown a penchant to make mistakes throwing the ball with plenty of interceptions throughout the year and Dugger is line for a great chance at notching his second interception of the season.

Defensive Back, Sit – DeShon Elliot, S, Baltimore Ravens

Deshon Elliot has delivered solid performances so far this year, but we have seen those boom weeks for sure. Where does this come from? It has to do with Baltimore’s lack of production from their off ball LBs and the creativity from the Ravens defense to utiliez their secondary to help create pressure and be around the ball as much as possible.

So why are we looking at benching Deshon this week? It has a lot to do with Bengals poor performance against defensive line pressure and the impact of Ja’Marr Chase on the passing attack. The Ravens have a favorable matchup where they don’t need to create unique looks or blitz packages nearly as much to get home and bring pressure against the Bengals this week and they will need the support on the backend of their defense even moreso with Chase and company challenging that Ravens secondary.

I think Deshon could be a fine safe play especially as everyone struggles through all of the byes this week. However, check those waiver wires for other options that have a much better matchup that provides a greater ceiling.

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