IDP Recap: Week 14
With Week 14 complete, let's get you up to speed with a recap of the biggest IDP headlines from each game.
That’s a wrap on the fantasy regular season, folks. Hopefully, you did enough to progress to the promised land of the playoffs, or if you found yourself in a “win and in” scenario this week, you had linebackers like Jamien Sherwood, Josey Jewell, Zach Baun, and T.J. Edwards in your lineup. Or some of the big boys in the middle who had a day: Zach Sieler, Cam Heyward, Brian Bresee, or A'Shawn Robinson.
Either way, congratulations, or commiserations on your fantasy season so far, as we take yet another stroll down recap lane to see what happened in every game.
Packers 31, Lions 34
Keisean Nixon led all players in this game in terms of fantasy points scored, and while that’s not a foreign concept, he did it without any return yards, which is slightly unusual. Nixon was great in coverage, with 2 PDs and an interception, which was Jared Goff’s first INT at home since Week 2. Nixon had an 84.8 coverage grade from PFF, the second highest in his 6-year career.
I pseudo-dunked on Rashan Gary at the beginning of the year, and rightly so as he only had 1 sack in his first 6 games. However, since Week 7, Gary has put up 4.5 sacks in 7 games, giving him a 17-game pace of 11 sacks. Something worth monitoring though, is Gary hasn’t played more than 64% of snaps in any one game and is averaging 59% in that entire stretch.
Brian Branch limped off the field with cramps on Thursday night. It was late in the 4th quarter though, and didn’t hugely impact his day massively overall, which was another disappointing outing. That’s now 4 straight games under 10 points, and in 3 out of those 4, he had less than 8 points (per Big 3 Scoring).
Isaiah McDuffie and Quay Walker both played at least 79 of Green Bay’s 80 snaps on Thursday night and tallied 28 tackles between them both. McDuffie’s 15 tackles (18.8% rate) was a career-high surpassing his 12 set in 2022, and only the second time he’s reached double-digits this season. For Walker, that’s now back-to-back weeks with both at least 10 tackles and 13 fantasy points scored.
Za'Darius Smith has been around the block a little, especially in the NFC North, so revenge games are bound to happen. He made the most of his very limited opportunities in this one putting up his 3rd sack in 4 games and rewarding managers who played him after last week’s big performance.
Falcons 21, Vikings 42
The Vikings are 4th in team sacks in 2024, and the Falcons are dead last, so obviously the 5 sacks this game were collected by Minnesota with their high-profile edge rushers like Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard or their blitzing stud linebacker Blake Cashman right? Wrong. The Vikings had 1 of the 5 sacks and it went to Jamin Davis, who played 9 total snaps… wonderful!
That leaves 4 unaccounted-for sacks to go to Atlanta, which is just over 25% of their total coming into this game (they had 15). Arnold Ebiketie has been cooking with gas since the Falcons’ Week 12 bye, as he had 1 today to go with his 2 last week while playing just 20 snaps a game. Matt Judon had one to take him to 3.5 on the season and 2 in his past 3 games, and Eddie Goldman had his first full sack since Week 9 of 2019 in playing for Chicago.
Kaden Ellis had the last of Atlanta’s 4 sacks, pairing it with 10 total tackles (16.7% rate) for his 3rd 20+ point performance of the season. However, thanks to sacks in back-to-back games, 2 of those 3 performances came this week and last week. Blitzing has been a strong aspect of his game dating back to 2022 when he had 7 sacks in New Orleans, so it’s encouraging to see Elliss be offered more chances to rush the passer later in the season.
Minnesota is still deploying 3 safeties at over an 85% rate, this week’s beneficiary of that was Josh Metellus, who snagged a wayward pass from Cousins to go with his 7 tackles on the night (10.5% rate). This was Metellus’ 2nd best fantasy showing of the season, after finishing as a top 10 safety last season but currently sitting outside the top 24 this season. Metellus, Cam Bynum, and Harrison Smith have truly vultured each other, as no one of the 3 has managed to average 11 PPG or more after both Bynum and Metellus were up over 13 PPG last season.
Saints 14, Giants 11
Bobby Okereke was ruled out before Sunday’s game with a back injury which meant Micah McFadden got the start, and he was a monster against the run. McFadden had 11 total tackles (16.2% rate) and 5(!) of them were for a loss. He practically lived in the backfield, and it was fantasy managers reaping the rewards as he put up over 27 points.
Week 14 was the first time since Week 5 that Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux recorded a sack in the same game. Burns now has 7 through 13 games, and Thibodeaux’s injury-shortened season has left him with just 3 in 8 games so far.
Demario Davis can still get it done at 35 years of age occasionally, putting up his 2nd 20+ point performance in his past 3 games. It has been a down year for Davis outside of this 3 game stretch as this marks only the 5th time in 12 games he’s been over 10 PPG and without this little run, he would be averaging just 8.18 PPG on the season.
That’s now 4 out of 6 weeks that Ugo Amadi has been amongst the top IDP scorers for the Saints, as he posted a 17-point game on Sunday afternoon. Since taking over the slot corner role, Amadi has at least 8 tackles in 4 straight games and is a must-start in CB-required leagues.
It was the big boys in the middle in the spotlight for New Orleans on Sunday, as both Khalen Saunders and Bryan Bresee got to Drew Lock for a sack a piece. Bresee had an exceptional game, posting just under 27 points and impacting all levels of the field, including blocking the game-tying field goal as the Giants attempted to push the game to overtime.
They may not have gotten to the QB, but Chase Young and Carl Granderson combined for 20(!) freaking pressures on Sunday Afternoon, 12 for Young and 8 for Granderson. Both of them have been sack-allergic this season so far but I’ll be keeping an eye on this for the rest of the season, even just to see where Young lands in free agency.
Jets 26, Dolphins 32
C.J. Mosley hit the IR on Saturday and with him should have gone any suspicions about Jamien Sherwood for the rest of the year. No longer weighed down by the possible return of Mosley, Sherwood was an absolute force to be reckoned with, totaling 18 tackles, 2 for a loss, and a pass defended, making him the second-highest IDP scorer on the week with a big old 30 burger.
Zach Sieler is a man on a mission currently. After a slow start and missing 2 games in the middle of the season, he looked set to disappoint fantasy managers after a breakout season in 2023. However, since their Week 9 bye, Sieler has been on a blistering pace of 17.95 PPG, with 4 sacks in his last 5 games, and looks set to propel those same managers to a fantasy title.
Haason Reddick ended his holdout in Week 8 and in those 6 games since, he has 16 pressures, (with 8 coming in Week 9 against the Texans) and just half a sack. He got his money for this year, but this experiment can be added to the long list of holdouts that carry on into the season and fail, as moving forward I can’t see him commanding anywhere close to the number he wanted in the offseason.
Anthony Walker left the game against the Jets with a hamstring injury, Tyrel Dodson was the direct replacement though the Jets only played 6 more snaps after the injury. If you’re curious about how to proceed with this situation, make sure you’re checking out Mike Woellert’s green dot article. It’s free!
Jordyn Brooks is playing arguably the best football of his life in Miami. Week 14 was the second time this season he’s earned an overall PFF grade of over 91.0. In terms of fantasy, he’s not far behind his career-best season in 2021 of 15.13 PPG, as he’s at 14.37 PPG, but he’s smashing his PFF grades from previous years.
Panthers 16, Eagles 22
No linebacker has been hotter since Week 10 on a PPG scale than Josey Jewell, who is averaging 24.7 PPG and is second in total points scored in that span while having a bye week. Jewell had 10 tackles (17.2% rate) and 1.5 sacks on just 58 snaps and there might be only one other linebacker I trust more than him heading into the playoffs.
That linebacker who I’d trust more than Jewell was in this game also and is the player ahead of Jewell on total points scored since Week 10 by just 4.6 points. (Jewell leads on PPG due to playing 4 games rather than 5.) That player is Zach Baun. I’d love to see the correlation between playoff rosters and rosters that have Zach Baun. The guy has been phenomenal.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson wound the clock back to 2022 and gave us a vintage “CD Deuce" outing when he picked off 6 passes. Gardner-Johnson grabbed his 3rd interception of the season and paired it with 6 tackles (10% rate) to pick up his first 20+ point performance of 2024, even with having to leave the game in the first quarter with a suspected concussion.
Ah yes, the old “9th season breakout.” I should have seen it coming as A'Shawn Robinson is determined to be a thing this season. He now has the same amount of sacks in the past 6 games that he did in his previous 6 seasons combined, and has now set his career high for fantasy points.
Raiders 13, Buccaneers 28
“Taylor Rapp, Kevin Byard, and Amani Hooker. These might be names on your waivers and are guys at this point of the season I’d trust over Moehrig in a must-win Week 14 matchup with fantasy playoff implications.” Yep, that was me, just last week, and guess what? Those 3 guys’ points combined were still less than what Moehrig had this past week. He also outscored his own past 3 performances combined, which was the source of my concern, but yeah, huge miss from me on this.
Baker Mayfield was sacked 4 times by the Raiders on Sunday, 1 by the aforementioned Moehrig, the other 3 were by guys who weren’t started except in the deepest of leagues. Darnay Holmes had his first sack since his rookie season with the Giants in 2020 and Amari Burney had his first career sack in his 20th career game. K'Lavon Chaisson got his 3rd on the season, giving the former first-rounder a career-high of, well, 3. Adam Butler is interesting, he’s starting on the interior for the Raiders and has 2.5 sacks in the past 4 weeks
Antoine Winfield Jr. played just 16 snaps before leaving the game with a knee injury. He’s since been ruled out for the next few weeks and is probably done for the fantasy season. It’s been a rough injury-laden season for last year’s DB1 overall. When he’s been on the season he’s been incredible like usual, but he’ll end the season likely just playing 9 games overall.
If anyone is still holding onto hope of a repeat of his Week 6, 20-point performance from Divine Deablo, stop it, it’s not coming. (Watch it come this week now.) But seriously, Deablo hasn’t posted double-digit points since that point and has just one game over 7.5 points in that same span. He’s only played over 80% of snaps just once since 9 and posted a season-low snap share of 61% this past week.
No Yaya Diaby puff piece this week. I’m struggling to justify my midseason take of a late-season breakout. Just a last piece of info though, both himself and Kancey had 6 pressures each this past week pacing the team.
Jaguars 10, Titans 6
No Kenneth Murray? No Jerome Baker? No problem, especially not for those of us who followed the Green Dot King’s advice and grabbed either Luke Gifford or Otis Reese. Both played at least 98% of snaps and while Reese topped the scoreboard with 23 points thanks to an interception, Gifford and his 16.5 points on 11 tackles (18.6% rate) weren’t far behind at all.
Josh Hines-Allen continued his mini hot streak coming off the bye, as he now has sacks in back-to-back games. Allen’s 7 sacks in 2024 are a far cry from the 17.5 he collected last year, but with the Jets, Raiders, Titans again, and Colts to close out the year, you’d feel confident in him extending the streak and reaching 10 on the season at least.
It’s been a bit of a down season for Harold Landry too, who started the season at a scorching pace with 4 sacks in his first 4 games. After cooling right off through the middle of the season, he’s collected 2 sacks in his past 3 games. 2024 is arguably his worst pass-rushing season in recent memory though, as his 50.9 pass rush grade from PFF is his worst grade by at least 6 points (2nd worst, 56.8 in 2021) with his best grade of 62.6 coming last season.
Jarrian Jones was the Jaguars slot corner on Sunday and though he only played 67% of snaps he was highly productive in that limited role. Jones had 5 total tackles (11.6% rate), 1 for a loss, 1 sack, 1 QB hit, and 2 PDs giving the rookie a career game in Week 14. A sub 70% snap share is hard to trust, but don’t listen to me, check out Johny the Greek’s CB Corner here and see what he has to say.
Browns 14, Steelers 27
From 2021 to 2023 Myles Garrett has averaged 17.25 PPG and 15.3 sacks a season with an overall PFF grade of at least 92.0 and a pass rush grade of at least 92.7. Even with this week’s 1 sack, 21.35 point performance, he’s still a little behind that pace with 16.34 PPG, an estimated 14 sacks, an overall PFF grade of 91.9, and a pass rush grade of 92.7. This is all while playing through an injury that could require offseason surgery on one or both of his feet. He probably won’t win DPOY, but he’s still exceptional.
For the second week in a row, DeShon Elliott led the team in tackles, this time with 13 (20.6% rate). Elliott now has a career-high 96 tackles (13.8% rate) and 164.5 fantasy points through just 14 games. He’s posted double digits in 10/14 games so far this season and has hit 17 points on 4 different occasions this season. It’s negligence on my part that I’ve waited till Week 14 to mention him as he’s been as solid as they come at the DB position.
Alex Highsmith returned to action this past week and kicked Nick Herbig back to the bench in a rotational role. He was able to pick up his first sack since Week 8, taking him to 4 for the season. It’s been a rough year for Highsmith with injuries only playing 7 games so far, and his 17-game pace would still sit him under the 10-sack mark for the season. But with medium-level matchups, in the Eagles, Ravens, and Chiefs to come in the fantasy playoffs, barring injury you’re not sitting Highsmith.
DL scoring is predominantly dominated by edge rushers, especially on Sleeper. But when there are those special big boys on the interior who stand out no matter if they’re lumped in with the edges. Cam Heyward is one of those big boys this season. He’s currently DT1 in total points scored and is DL9 on the season thanks to another multi-sack game this weekend.
Seahawks 30, Cardinals 18
Heyward is DT1 in total points, but just behind him in that category and ahead of him in points per game is everybody’s favorite beefy boy in Leonard Williams. Williams didn’t even record one pressure on Sunday, let alone a sack, yet he still put up a solid 16.75 points thanks to 2 tackles for loss and 1 pass batted down at the line. It’s a far cry from the 100 points he scored in the past 2 games combined, but seeing him post up good games without sacks is encouraging for his long-term sustainability.
Uchenna Nwosu returned to the field for the first time since Week 5 of this season. It’s been a horrendous season for Nwosu in terms of injuries, having played just 2 games all season. I’m not expecting anything from him moving forward, so anything he gives us is a bonus, I just want good health for the guy to close out 2024.
Tyrice Knight posted 12 tackles (20.7% rate) on Sunday afternoon on just 82% of snaps, giving him his second great game and third good game since returning Seattle’s Week 10 bye. Even though he’s not at 100% the fact he’s seen at least 78% in every game since the bye is enough to give me confidence to start him as he averages 14.29 PPG in that span.
Budda Baker is playing out of his mind right now. I saw three different occasions where he was checked out by training staff in the Seahawks matchup and he still finished with 18 total tackles (28.1% rate). Baker is second in the NFL behind only Zaire Franklin on the season with 132 tackles and is on pace to shatter his single-season best of 147 set in 2019.
Liking the #2 guy who’s getting fewer snaps doesn’t preclude one from liking the main guy who’s getting all the snaps, which is the case with Ernest Jones. Jones has played every single defensive snap in nine of 11 games this season and has 39 tackles in his past 4 games (15% rate). He’s yet to post a sack this season after collecting 4.5 with the Rams last year, though he did grab his first interception off Kyler Murray this week, giving him his first 20+ point game of 2024.
I’ve been keeping an eye on Baron Browning in Arizona. He’s still only a rotational guy for the Cardinals, though he did have his 3rd best-ever pass rush grade from PFF with a 90.5. Browning failed to record a sack but did have 4 pressures, 3 hurries, and 1 QB hit with a 50% pass rush win rate. On the flip side, his run defense and tackle grades were some of his worst ever with a 32.2 run defense and 25.2 tackle grade. So, still a bit of a mystery in the desert.
Bears 13, 49ers 38
Nick Bosa missed another game with his hip flexor injury, and the 49ers pass rush didn’t miss a beat against the most sacked QB in the NFL, Caleb Williams. Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos combined for 5 sacks and over 60 fantasy points with “Big Yeets” taking home the trophy for highest IDP scorer of the week in the league.
T.J. Edwards was playing like a man possessed on Sunday and looked like the only Bears defender making an impact on Sunday and it reflected in his scoring. Edwards has been massively hit-and-miss this season, a far cry from his previous 2 seasons where he averaged 14.7 and 15.8 fantasy points and scored less than double digits just 11% of the time.
Jonathan Owens is still performing since taking over for the injured Elijah Hicks in Week 12. Since then he’s put up 22 tackles (10.9% rate), a forced fumble and recovery, and picked off his first pass since 2021 this past week, having him average 14.12 PGG in that 3-week stint. You could do a lot worse as a guy you grabbed off waivers.
If you’re stubborn like me and still haven’t been able to sit Fred Warner down even with his fractured ankle because he’s Fred Warner and you don’t want to miss the ceiling game, take this as your official permission. I’m going to do it in the leagues I have him in. If you’re unsure of a replacement, check out Mike’s article I linked at the top.
Bills 42, Rams 44
This game had 86 points scored with no turnovers and no sacks. I could jokingly say that no one was playing defense, as only 3 players managed to score in double digits.
I mentioned Taylor Rapp as a guy I’d start over Tre’von Moehrig, and while we’ve already established how foolish that would have been, Rapp wasn’t a bad start in and of himself. He finished with a solid game of 13.75 points thanks to 13 total tackles (16.9% rate).
Christian Benford found himself with plenty of work to do covering Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp, and Demarcus Robinson at different points of the game. He made the most of his opportunities for his IDP managers, collecting 8 total tackles (10.4% rate) and 2 passes defended for a game-high 17 points.
Aggregrate Donald (my nickname for the Rams’ four main defensive linemen as a collective) combined for 12 total pressures on Josh Allen, though they were unable to convert any of them, as the presumed MVP had the best fantasy performance by a QB since 1950, according to CBS Sports.
If you have a taxi squad in your dynasty league, Omar Speights is worth a stash, but I wouldn’t do anything else with him unless you have absurdly deep benches. The undrafted rookie is still trying to find his feet and only playing a part-time role. In the past 3 weeks, Speights has posted overall PFF grades of 30.9, 94.1, and then 26.9 this week after starting his career in Week 8 with 4 straight games between 65.8 and 77.0.
Chargers 17, Chiefs 19
Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, and Tuli Tuipulotu all split snaps on Sunday night, and split sacks too. Bosa finished with a full sack, while Mack and Tuli collected half a sack each on Mahomes. This rotation is encouraging for all parties involved, the vets have shown the ability to perform on smaller snap shares, and hopefully giving them a rest will save them from injury, and the Chargers aren’t trying to put the Tuli genie back in the bottle, meaning he still has relevance too.
Daiyan Henley hasn’t scored below 12 PPG since Week 7 versus Arizona, and while it’s been a minute since we had a 20+ point outing (Week 10 against the Titans) his tackle production (10.8 per game, 15.6% rate) since that Week 7 game has meant that you’re confident rolling him out each week knowing he’s got your back allowing you to play for higher variance in different positions. It’s not flashy, but it’s huge for roster construction.
We got a multi-sack game from a Kansas City D-lineman. No, not Chris Jones, or George Karlaftis, or even Mike Danna. Just like we all predicted, it was Tershawn Wharton with the 2-sack, 27-point game. If I believed in black magic, I could be convinced that the Chiefs are powering their 12-win season and winning these unlikely matchups due to sacrificing the IDP consistency of their former studs.
I wrote in the Cardinals matchup about keeping a lazy eye on the trade deadline guys, well another one of those was moved to the Chiefs in Josh Uche. Since joining the Chiefs in Week 9, Uche has played 37 total snaps across 5 games which culminated in a healthy scratch this weekend against the Chargers. It’s Joever for Josh.
Bengals 27, Cowboys 20
DeMarvion Overshown left the game in the 4th quarter with a knee injury which Mike McCarthy said post-game was of a “serious nature.” This morning, Jerry Jones said Overshown could return in 2025 OR 2026. Yikes. This is such a bummer, as Overshown was in the midst of a breakout season.
Cowboys rookie Maris Liafau made a splash against the Bengals last night, creating issues on the blitz and collecting 1.5 sacks for the evening, With Overshown set to miss significant time, Liafau might be a playoff add that your roster needs.
Joseph Ossai is on a heater, that’s now 3 games in a row that Ossai has collected a sack in, stretching back to before the Bengals Week 12 bye. Next up is the Titans, here’s hoping he can push it to a 4 game streak.
Trey Hendrickson maintains his hold on the NFL sack lead, thanks to another one on Monday night. Hendrickson now has 12.5 on the season, and though he will probably finish shy of his 17.5 from last season, has been spectacular again this season.
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