IDP Recap: Week 10
With Week 10 complete, let's get you up to speed with a recap of the biggest IDP headlines from each game.
We’re into the home stretch. Week 10 is the turning point where your playoff races are finally taking shape, as most leagues will only have four or five games left. We didn’t get any truly monstrous performances, but we did see 6 QBs get sacked 4 times or more in their games, giving us nine players with at least 2 sacks. Including old friends like Micah Parsons (welcome back), Nnamdi Madubuike, and Cameron Heyward.
What else happened in Week 10? Read on and find out.
Bengals 34, Ravens 35
Kyle Hamilton left Thursday Night Football halfway through with an ankle injury. It was initially reported that it “wasn’t considered serious.” However, “non-serious” ankle injuries this season have resulted in multiple-week misses on the offensive side of the ball, like in the case of Jonathan Taylor. Wednesday’s first practice report of the week will bear monitoring.
Welcome back to the spotlight Nnamdi Madubuike. Madubuike was a monster in 2023 with 13 sacks, but this season has been disappointing, to say the least. Happily, though, Week 10’s top IDP scorer had 3 sacks on Thursday, which equaled 60% of his current season total of 5, and are his first since Week 6.
Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh have gone stone-cold over the past six weeks. Both were top 10 in sacks through the first four weeks with 6 for Van Noy and 4.5 for Oweh. Though the underlying metrics for both have remained strong, in the past six weeks, neither has recorded more than one sack apiece, and in the case of Van Noy, he’s scored more than 8 points just once in that span per Big 3 Scoring.
It was a quiet night for big plays on the IDP side for the Bengals with only one player (Cam Taylor-Britt) scoring over 15 PPG, and one other (Logan Wilson) getting over 10 points. Taylor-Britt’s solid outing was thanks to 2 passes defended and 1 tackle for a loss, which made up 11 of his 16 total points.
Giants 17, Panthers 20
Last week I said, “There’s not a single Panther you can trust in your lineup at this point.” Well, I didn’t factor in the “Giants Bump” that comes from playing New York. Four Panthers and one former Panther (Brian Burns) all scored 18 points or more in this game.
Jared Verse is the frontrunner right now for DROY but Tyler Nubin should finish top 3 if he keeps playing the way he is. Nubin led all Giants players with 12 tackles (20% rate) on Sunday, is the season leader for all rookies in solos and assists, and is top 10 in both categories amongst all Safeties.
D.J. Wonnum returned from PUP this week and got into the sack column. Wonnum had a mini-breakout in 2023 with 8 sacks in 15 games equaling his career high, but tore his quadriceps on Christmas Eve. Carolina has very little pass rush, so Wonnum will get plenty of opportunities to rush the passer.
Josey Jewell had a vintage 2022 performance against the Giants with 2 turnovers and 6 tackles. Jewell had a rocky start to the season putting up over 15 points just once in the first nine weeks and missing three of those due to injury. However, he’s played 100% of snaps since returning in Week 8 and showed this week he can still make impact plays. My trust in him is increasing by the week.
I mentioned after Week 8 that I wasn’t trusting A’Shawn Robinson moving forward, but foolishly I didn’t consider the Giants matchup on the schedule. However, with a bye in Week 11, then Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Dallas, Arizona, and finally Tampa Bay again on the fantasy schedule, he can be considered a possible matchup play in one or two of those games.
Bills 30, Colts 20
This game was the nickel corner showcase. Both Taron Johnson (36.15 points) and Kenny Moore (22.95 points) paced their respective teams in points scored, with Johnson finishing as the second-highest scorer on the week amongst all players. It was an impact play-driven performance with only 3 tackles (5.1% rate) on the night for him, but a sack and a pick-6 were a welcome sight to those who’d rolled with him through consecutive 8-point performances in Weeks 8 and 9.
That’s back-to-back sacks for Greg Rousseau for the first time this season, giving him 2.5 in his past four games, and 5.5 on the season. Buffalo’s next five weeks have them against the Chiefs, the 49ers, the Rams, and the Lions, with a bye week included in that timeframe.
Nick Cross, E.J. Speed, and Zaire Franklin are averaging 9.8, 9.8, and 10.5 tackles per game a piece putting them top 10 in the NFL in total tackles. I can’t remember the last time I saw three 160+ tackles players on the same defense. Neither Speed nor Franklin has a sack yet this season after combining for 6.5 over the past two seasons, so there’s still room to build off the elite tackle floor.
DeForest Buckner had 5 pressures on Sunday, though he didn’t collect a sack for the first time since returning from injury in Week 8. In the past 3 games, Buckner has 14 pressures and a 15.4% pressure rate. He also had a 90.3 Pass rush grade from PFF this past week from 4 hurries and 1 QB hit. His next three matchups are the Jets, Lions, and Patriots.
Falcons 17, Saints 20
We saw two 25-year-old former 1st-round edge rushers have great IDP games in this one, and unless you’re in a 32-team start 12 IDP league (looking at you, Eric), it wouldn’t have helped you at all. Both Payton Turner and Chase Young got to Kirk Cousins and put up over 18 points per Big 3 Scoring. Even Cam Jordan joined the “Fantasy Points that helped no one” party with a sack of his own.
Ugo Amadi will probably pop up in a whole bunch of waiver wire articles. Amadi played 100% of the snaps, and 87% of those were in the slot. With Paulson Adebo gone to injury, and Marshon Lattimore in Washington, Amadi is the new slot corner for New Orleans, and that’s a massively productive role, as he showed in his 24.25 performance.
Troy Andersen returned from injury this week and only lasted 13 snaps before reaggravating the knee injury that had him miss the past five weeks. Nate Landman returned from his injury in Week 6, putting up 16 points on 8 tackles with 2 forced fumbles. Since then Landman has averaged 8.75 PPG on 7.5 tackles per game while only playing 100% of the snaps just once, in Week 7.
Atlanta has 9 sacks through 10 games, the least in the NFL. Arnold Ebiketie earned my “Cardio King” award this week, as he played 35 snaps and didn’t record a single fantasy point, and Matt Judon was fractionally better, getting just 0.75 points on 32 snaps. Both edge rushers are droppable if, for some weird reason, you’re still rostering them.
Broncos 14, Chiefs 16
Denver got after Mahomes in this matchup sacking him four times, with two of those going to Jonathan Cooper and Nik Bonitto. Cooper and Bonitto have 6.5 and 7 sacks so far on the season and are well within reach of their career highs of 8.5 and 8 which both set in 2023. Next five weeks? Atlanta, Las Vegas, Cleveland, bye week, Indianapolis. Double-digit sacks are within the reach for both players.
Another guy approaching his career high in sacks thanks to one this week? Zack Allen, who notched his fifth on the season leaving him half a sack shy of his career-best through just 10 games. Allen is also tracking 1.5 PPG above his career best of 13.45 PPG obtained in Arizona in 2022. Allen was going off the board as DL63 this offseason — what a steal!
Nazeeh Johnson started at cornerback opposite Trent McDuffie and played the highest snap share of his career at 89%. He parlayed that into 10 tackles and 1 sack for a game-high and career-best total of 22.2 points. McDuffie is one of the best outside corners in the game, so this could lead to the 2022 7th-rounder in Johnson seeing a lot more looks to his side of the field. However, for a proper in-depth look, check out Johny the Greek’s cornerback Corner here.
Here are Justin Strnad’s snap shares in the past four games: 60%, 61%, 25%, 62%. He’s scored 16, 10.75, 5.25, and 8.5 PPG in those four outings. On the season he has 3 sacks so far, and in games with a sack, he’s at 16.35 PPG. In four games without, 9.44 PPG. He’s averaging 5 push rushing opportunities a game in those four weeks. Unfortunately, Strnad is firmly in the untrustworthy bucket for linebackers until that snap share gets over 75%.
Steelers 28, Commanders 27
Speaking of volatile off-ball linebackers who’ll disappoint you if they don’t get a sack. The poster boy for that role this season is Frankie Luvu, and he came through for you against Pittsburgh. However, in six games without a sack this season, Luvu is averaging 7.17 PPG, compared to four games with a sack at 23.31 PPG. Part of the problem is that Luvu is only averaging 6 tackles (10.2% rate), and 10 pass rushes a game, leading to large inconsistencies.
Cam Heyward made the most of his opportunities on Sunday. The poster boy for “old man strength” only had 2 pressures on the day and still came away with 2 sacks. Heyward currently has 5 sacks on 31 pressures through nine games and currently has his third-highest career PFF overall grade at 90.1 on the year, coupled with his best-ever season-long pass rush grade of 86.3.
Preston Smith was acquired from the Packers at the trade deadline on Tuesday and only played 36% of snaps. However, Alex Highsmith sustained a pretty serious ankle injury that led to him leaving the stadium on crutches and will require an MRI. Nick Herbig has been out since Week 5 with a hamstring injury and expects to return against Baltimore in Week 11, so it could be an even rotation between the two opposite of T.J. Watt.
*Smith was credited with a sack on Sunday, though I think that could get stat-corrected to either half or even the full sack going to Keanu Benton. (PFF has it with Benton.)
Patrick Queen had his best fantasy outing of the 2024 season, cresting 18 points for the first time, something he was able to do five times last season. His on-field play has been improving, too, as he has only missed 1 tackle in the past three weeks after missing six from Weeks 4-6. His coverage has also improved. After posting PFF coverage grades of 48.9 and 51.7 in Weeks 6 and 7, it’s up to 65.4 and 66.2 in the past two games.
Our 2019 throwback tour continues for a second straight week as Dante Fowler and Jeremy Chinn had monster games again. Fowler once again had 2 sacks, whilst Chinn led all Commanders with 12 tackles to go with a fumble recovery and an interception. It’s an incredibly small sample size of two games, but Fowler has averaged 28.98 PPG and Chinn 23.63 PPG in that span.
49ers 23, Buccaneers 20
Baker Mayfield and Nick Bosa is a rivalry that tracks back to college and the infamous midfield flag-planting melodrama in an OU vs. OSU matchup. Bosa got to Baker once in this game and could have had a second except for the fact Baker was able to hold him off and complete one of the best fourth-down conversions I’ve seen in recent memory not performed by Lamar, Mahomes, or Josh Allen.
Find yourself someone in life who loves you as much as Bobby Reynolds loves Calijah Kancey. Bobby has been all-in on Kancey since the predraft process in 2023, and he’s looking bang on the mark, as we could be right amidst the breakout. After missing Weeks 1-5 due to injury, Kancey is averaging 15.89 PPG and has 4 sacks in his five games this season. The Pitt product was often compared to Aaron Donald due to size and college, I think we can also add “level of affection from Bobbo” to that comparison chart.
Tykee Smith cleared the concussion protocol and returned with a bang in Week 9 only to be taken from us and ruled out pre-game on Sunday after he picked up a knee injury in practice on Friday. The severity of the injury isn't clear, but the Bucs are on bye this upcoming week, so here’s hoping we get the rookie stud back for the Giants matchup in Week 12.
De'Vondre Campbell had his best fantasy performance in a 49er uniform in Week 10 thanks to a pass defended and tackle for a loss which gave him his first 14+ point performance of the season and just his second with double digits. 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan said Monday that he “doesn't expect” to open the 21-day practice window for Greenlaw (Achilles) this week, meaning Campbell will get the continued run beside Warner at the second off-ball linebacker spot.
Vikings 12, Jaguars 7
For how low-scoring this game was by NFL standards, you’d expect at least one monster IDP score — nope. Only two players posted over 20 points, though we did have eight players over 14 points.
Devin Lloyd once again played on less than 80% of snaps, and it didn’t matter at all. Lloyd had 16 tackles for an absurd 24.6% tackle rate on his 64 snaps to net him 16.5 points. On the flip side, Foyesade Oluokun had his first 100% snap share game and second 20+ point game of the 2024 season, his first since Week 1. Is this a sign of us getting back that LB1 overall ceiling for Foye?
On the other side of the field, Minnesota had their own linebacker shenanigans going on, as Blake Cashman returned from injury and played 79% of snaps. This meant Ivan Pace Jr. was relegated to a bit-part role again, playing just 59% of snaps himself. Logically, this didn’t matter a damn as both players collected 1 sack each and scored 40 points between them.
Was last week just a glitch in the matrix? Just seven days after Andrew Van Ginkel played his lowest snap-share of the season and Dallas Turner hit his second-highest snap-share at 48%, we see AVG back at over 90% of the snaps and Turner play just 11 snaps all game. Oh well. AVG got his first sack in three weeks, and that’s all that matters.
Patriots 19, Bears 3
The Patriots had 16 sacks through eight games coming into this week. They got to Caleb Williams nine times in this game. He’s now the most sacked QB in the NFL with 37, with 15 of those coming in the past two games, they now face Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit, and San Francisco in their next four weeks.
Anfernee Jennings had 2 sacks this game, he’s never had 2 sacks total in an entire season. Deatrich Wise had 2 sacks in this game, he hasn’t had a multi-sack game since 2022. Jeremiah Pharms had a sack in this game, he was signed out of the UFL two years ago and this is his first NFL career sack. Brenden Schooler had a sack, he played five snaps… you get the idea.
Both teams had star safeties miss another game. Brisker missed his fourth game in a row with a concussion, which is worrying in and of itself. Kyle Dugger missed his third game in a row with his ankle injury and he’s still yet to practice, so Week 11 could also be in jeopardy.
T.J. Edwards had his second-best state line of the season and best since Week 1. Edwards was able to pick off Drake Maye, which combined with his 13 tackles (20.3% rate), had him pacing all Bears defenders in fantasy points at 23.25.
After missing the majority of 2023 through injury, Marcus Jones is having a bounceback 2024 of sorts and is CB8/DB21 on the season so far at 11.1 PPG. He started slow, but since Week 6, he’s averaging 13.47 PPG. The return yards are playing a huge part in that. Over the past three weeks, he’s averaged 62 return yards per game.
Titans 17, Chargers 27
I’ve trawled the interwebs, and I can’t find the specific reason that Khalil Mack only played four snaps before exiting the game and not returning. I can speculate it’s tied to the groin injury he’s been carrying, but it’s not been confirmed. Either way, Bud Dupree was the biggest beneficiary of that absence, picking up 2 sacks and a forced fumble against his old team.
The Chargers have got a budding young star for sure behind their established injury-prone vets. Tuli Tuipulotu is just 22 years old and in his second season, he’s also accumulated 5.5 sacks in his past three games, setting his season high for his career.
Daiyan Henley has three straight games of double-digit tackles and has 26 tackles through his last two weeks on 97% of snaps. Henley’s tackle rate through those games of 21.5% is unsustainable, of course. However, he was able to supplement it with a sack this past week, giving him the highest IDP score in his young career.
Jack Gibbens played 100% of snaps and was the highest-graded defender on the Titans per PFF with an 84.2 overall grade. Gibbens was also the only Titans IDP to score 11 or more points thanks to 15 total tackles (25% rate). The Ernest Jones departure has led to a full-time role for Gibbens and he’s making the most of it.
Eagles 34, Cowboys 6
How bittersweet it was that we got the true DeMarvion Overshown blow-up and lost him to knee bursitis in the same game. Overshown was destructive as a blitzer and collected 11 tackles in the blowout loss but with one other player, were the lone bright spots on the week for Dallas.
The other bright spot? The return of Micah Parsons. Parsons had been injured since Week 4 but had been struggling before that, as he only had 1 sack through those first 4 games. He put all that behind him as he tallied 2 sacks in this game along with a forced fumble. Next up? Houston and C.J. Stroud, who’s the second-most sacked QB in the NFL currently.
Yes, Bryce Huff got a sack, but he also played just 12 snaps. I’m not reading into it until we see those snaps rise. Jalen Carter, on the other hand, is worth talking about. Carter only has 3.5 sacks on the season on 32 pressures, at an 11.4% pressure rate, but all of them have come since the Week 5 bye week along with 19 of his pressures.
At the end of the season, I think Zack Baun will probably end up being my IDP MVP. He put up his second straight 20+ point game and is currently LB2 on the season and the IDP #12. He’s put up his third straight game of an overall PFF grade of 90.0 or higher and is the second-highest-graded LB in the league, again only behind Fred Warner.
Jets 6, Cardinals 31
Ten weeks in and we got our Budda Baker blow-up game. Baker hadn’t recorded a sack or generated a turnover through the first nine weeks, yet was still a top 6 safety. Now, after a 31-point outing, he’s S2/DB3 on the season and is second in the entire NFL in total tackles with 100.
Jamien Sherwood might be the waiver wire pickup of the season, Since Week 2, when he took over for C.J. Mosley, Sherwood is averaging 14.9 PPG, and this past week he put up 19.25 points on 17(!) tackles (29% rate). Quincy Williams refused to be outshone, as he put up his best IDP showing of the season thanks to 10 tackles (16.9% rate), 1 sack, and 1 forced fumble. It was always going to be hard for Williams to replicate his 2023 breakout, but he’s still been a top-20 linebacker so far this season.
Baron Browning played in his debut game with the Cardinals and failed to score a point. With it being a short week as he was traded at the deadline, he was used sparingly, but was still tied for second on the team with 2 pressures. As he gets assimilated more into the gameplan, he should see plenty of opportunities.
Arizona picked Dadrion Taylor-Demerson in the fourth round of this year’s draft and on Sunday afternoon he played his first meaningful action of this season. It just happened to be 100% of snaps due to Jalen Thompson missing the game with an ankle injury. Taylor-Demerson had 15 points powered from 2 passes defended, but the Cardinals have their bye week in Week 11, so Thompson will probably be back by then, relegating Taylor-Demerson back to being a name to watch for the future.
Lions 26, Texans 23
Welcome back Azeez Al-Shaair! The Texans’ standout linebacker returned to the starting lineup beside Henry To’oTo’o and both guys had strong games at 18.5 and 19 points respectively. Al-Shaair had 8 tackles (13.1% rate) and a forced fumble, with To’oTo’o posting 6 tackles (9.4% rate) and an interception.
I hope you’re reading Johny’s cornerback corner. If you are, you’d know he highlighted Carlton Davis as one of his “ideal” plays this week. Davis was a demon in the passing game, as he picked off Stroud twice and defended 2 passes on the way to a 25-point game.
Last week I highlighted Alim McNeill and his strong ability to generate pressure while also pointing out how few of those he’d converted into fantasy points. Well, this week he was able to get one of his four pressures converted, and the big fella grabbed his third sack since the Lions bye week in Week 5.
Brian Branch was able to avoid completely lighting up a defenseless receiver this week, which meant he was able to play the whole game. And like usual, when Branch plays the whole game he’s spectacular. Branch had 23.5 points thanks to 2 passes defended, 1 tackle for a loss, and 1 QB hit. This was the sixth out of eight games that Branch has put up 19 points or more. The dude is phenomenal.
Jalen Pitre is scoring over 3 PPG more than last season and is somewhat of a post-hype sleeper this season. I would attribute the fact he’s moved into the slot and is Houston’s nickel corner as a large reason for that. In 2023, Pitre played 60% of his snaps in a deep safety role, so far this season he’s spent just 1.2% of snaps deep with just seven total snaps played at free safety.
Dolphins 23, Rams 15
It’s only Week 10, but we’re almost at the point where would can say that Jared Verse is going to Win DROY. He’s putting up numbers in a similar vein to the great rookie edge rushers like Nick Bosa in 2019, Chase Young in 2020, Micah Parsons in 2021, Aidan Hutchinson in 2022, and Will Anderson in 2023.
It was a rookie showcase on MNF, as Chop Robinson followed up his first career sack with another one this week. Chop has steadily been putting it together recently and he gets Vegas and New England in his next two weeks. Plus, he’s got a super sick nickname, so he’s easy to root for.
Kobie Turner and Byron Young aren’t rookies, but they refused to be overshadowed by Verse, as they both got in the backfield for sacks and put up over 20 points apiece as they both harassed Tua all night long.
Zach Sieler returned after missing the past two weeks with an orbital bone fracture, and he returned in style both in play and in on-field swag. Sieler was rocking the dark visor for protection and looked like a throwback to a mid-90s lineman as he harassed Stafford throughout the game in both passing lanes and when rushing the passer for his third-best IDP performance of the season.
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Really look forward to and enjoy these breakdowns every week. Excellent content guys!