2025 IDP Waiver Wire: Week 12
Who are the IDPs you should target on the waiver wire in your league?
Hopefully, you are well on your way to the playoffs and, at this point, are just working to solidify or improve your seed. Several linebackers are stepping into great opportunities, a couple of young defensive linemen are providing safe floors recently, and multiple defensive backs can help you on the road to victory this week.
We all play in leagues of varying depth—with different IDPs on the waiver wire—so I’m going to identify IDP waiver targets at each position for shallow, average, and deep leagues. I’m using data from PFF and NFL Pro. Rostership percentage (in parentheses) is from Sleeper dynasty leagues. Any reference to fantasy points per game is based on Big 3 Scoring.
Let’s dive into this week’s targets.
Defensive Back
Shallow: Dane Belton, S, New York Giants (5%)
Whenever Dane Belton gets real playing time, he produces. With Tyler Nubin out in Week 11, Belton played 100% of defensive snaps and once again delivered strong tackle numbers. In the four games where he has played more than 75% of snaps this season, Belton has averaged 9.5 tackles and 14.25 fantasy points. In those 4 games, he has played 53.7% of his snaps have come in the box, slot, or on the defensive line.
If Nubin misses Week 12, Belton becomes an immediate streamer and a strong starting option even in shallower leagues, especially in a top 10 matchup for safety tackles against the Lions.
Average: Ronnie Hickman, S, Cleveland Browns (10%)
Ronnie Hickman has been close to a full-time player all season, reaching a 100% snap share in all but two games. After a slow start, he has put up solid tackling numbers in five of his last seven matchups, supplementing the two down weeks (Miami’s monsoon game and an outlier Jets matchup) with interceptions. Over his last seven games, he is averaging 7 combined tackles, even including the two low-tackle production weeks.
Week 12 brings a slightly below-average matchup against the Raiders, but he has been consistently productive and follows that game with a top-tier matchup against the 49ers.