DL Streaming 101: Week 15
The bye weeks are over and for many of you reading this, the fantasy playoffs are here: Welcome to the Week 15 edition of DL Streaming 101!
In the spirit of transparency, we’ll get to some fantasy duds from last week in a moment, but celebrating some wins is also important. For the first time this season, we nailed the weekly overall IDP #1 in Yetur Gross-Matos. If you held on to some past players featured in this article, you were also pretty happy since Tershawn Wharton and A’Shawn Robinson also finished among the top 12 overall IDP scorers in Week 14.
While YGM was a huge hit and there were five other very solid performances by players featured in last week’s article, we had some struggles as well. While you may feel as if you got burned by playing guys like Javon Kinlaw (3.5 pts), Kingsley Enagbare (3 pts), Dalvin Tomlinson (1.75 pts), Anthony Nelson (.5 pts), or Michael Hoecht (0 pts) it is important to keep this in context as all of these players were likely free for you to pick up and play. The same can’t be said for Quinnen Williams (3.5 pts), Uchenna Nwosu (2 pts), Sam Hubbard (1.5 pts), Greg Rousseau (1.5 pts), or Micah Parsons (1 pts) so while streaming carries risk so does IDP in general! Despite a strange week for IDP, we still averaged a respectable 9.8 points in Week 14 and have an 11.14 average picking from players rostered in 0-25% of all IDP leagues.
Week 15 features a new slate of 20 players for your consideration. One slight change this week is that I am featuring some players below from the top, middle, and bottom of this week’s options to help give a sense of why I am high on some players, why I’m sticking with some, and some background on some new names.
As always, be sure to check for actives/inactives that would either help or hurt an individual player before making your lineup decisions and feel free to use the data I provide to help your decision-making as you know your risk tolerance, league set-up, and needs this week. For instance, I did not include Nick Herbig last week since Alex Highsmith was trending up which ended up being a great call for all of you!
Featured DL Streamers
B.J. Hill, DT, CIN (🎓🎓🎓🎓)
Hill rewarded fantasy managers who stuck with him (including this one in two leagues) with a sack against the Cowboys in Week 14. He now sits at 22 pressures on the season with only two sacks suggesting more may come. His season-long run-defense grade per PFF is strong at 65.8 and he has recorded 28 tackles and eight assists despite missing time earlier in the season. He is fully healthy and one of the few bright spots on the Bengals' defense after posting back-to-back games with a snap share of over 80%. The Titans have been a sneaky tough matchup for opposing fantasy DT over the past 5 weeks but have allowed multiple huge games to the position this season against Miami and New England giving some hope to those considering streaming Hill this week.
Milton Williams, DT, PHI (🎓🎓🎓)
I had written Williams up in my pre-season DL to watch article and thus far in 2024, there has been not much to see. Williams has had an increased snap share each of the last two weeks playing 65% of snaps in Week 14 with 12 pressures over this stretch. He also notched 2 sacks on limited action in Week 12 for an overall average PFF pass-rush grade of 81.2 over the past 3 weeks. Williams is a boom play for managers needing upside in Week 15 as he has only 12 combined tackles in 2024. Still, an advantageous matchup against a Steelers team that has allowed over 38 fantasy points to opposing DT rooms in seven of the last nine games.
Tavius Robinson, DE, BLT (🎓🎓🎓)
Robinson is a speculative play this week as the Baltimore pass rush room was banged up when last we saw them in Week 13 with Kyle Van Noy missing the game and Odafe Oweh playing only 27% of snaps. If both players are healthy (early reports are pointing this direction), downgrade Robinson a tier but his snap floor of 54% over the Ravens’ last three games and a ceiling of 93% when Van Noy was out would still warrant consideration in deep leagues. The Ravens also have the advantage of playing the struggling Giants offense this week which should lead to plenty of pass-rush opportunities to go around.
Elijah Chatman, DT, NYG (🎓🎓🎓)
Speaking of the Giants, with Dexter Lawrence on IR, it appears that the undrafted rookie out of SMU will be the next man up. Chatman played 82% of snaps and posted a 77.8 PFF run defense grade on his way to four combined tackles. With the Ravens typically operating as a run-heavy team (fifth highest average rushing attempts per team in 2024) and as heavy favorites (as much as 15 points as of this writing) you can do worse than a run-stopping DT playing a great snap share. Chatman is still unproved so proceed with caution but he does seem to represent a decent floor streaming option in Week 15.
Sam Okuayinonu, DE, SFO (🎓🎓)
Another undrafted DL warranting some consideration this week is Sam Okuayinonu. With the 49ers thin at DT after Javon Hargrave’s injury, it was unclear who would step up alongside Maliek Collins. Since Week 10, Okuayinonu has that player has been finishing either first or second in DT snaps for the team over that time including a season-high 74% in Week 14 (he is listed as a DT in some places and a DE in others). The pass-rush production has not been overly impressive (three sacks on 22 pressure with no sacks since Week 9), but he has been a stout tackler with 11 solo tackles since Week 10. Jacksonville has not been a good matchup for the opposing DL and the possible return of Nick Bosa to eat into edge snaps, proceed with caution but if you are in need Okuayinonu is worth a second look.
Al-Quadin Muhammad, DE, DET (🎓🎓)
This is a volume play, through and through. The Lions are arguably the most beat-up offensive line in the NFL and just need health at this point. Enter Al-Quadin Muhammad, who played 74% of snaps in Week 14. He acquitted himself well posting serviceable PFF pass-rush (56) and run defense (58.7) grades as well as good fantasy output (three solo tackles, one assist) and advanced metrics (three pressures and three stops). Despite some reasons for optimism, Muhammad is a very risky play as the Bills have only allowed three viable DE starters (10+ pts) over their past six games, and the only two DE to break the 20 fantasy point mark were Will McDonald (Week 6) and Zaven Collins (Week 1).
Good luck and if you have any questions about deep DL plays, my office is always open on Twitter (@ProfessorIDP). While this article is a freebie, please consider supporting me, the show, and the broader IDP community by adding your league(s) to the 2024 State of IDP Survey!
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