IDP Recap: Week 6
With Week 6 complete, let's get you up to speed with a recap of the biggest IDP headlines from each game.
Goodnight, sweet prince. Unfortunately, Week 6 of the 2024 season will be remembered as the week we lost Aidan Hutchinson in the middle of his bid for his first DPOY trophy. Will Anderson erupted for a 40 burger, and we got back a couple of DB mainstays with strong performances in Antoine Winfield Jr. and Taron Johnson. What else happened in Week 6? Well, let’s find out together.
49ers 36, Seahawks 24
San Francisco’s injury woes at the safety position continue; however, they’re still getting production. Talanoa Hufanga was put on IR before their Week 6 outing with a wrist injury, and the other usual starter, Malik Mustapha managed to grab an interception before he went down with an ankle injury early in the game. Ji'Ayir Brown is the replacement for Hufanga and put up an average outing: 12 points on 8 tackles (10.3% rate). If Mustapha misses any time, George Odum will start in his place.
Boye Mafe returned to the lineup after missing the two previous games with a knee injury. He was relatively quiet in his return as he only played sparingly (35% snaps). However, before his injury, he’d had a sack in each of the 3 games and was averaging 19.85 PPG, so as he returns to full health, the scoring should pick up.
Nick Bosa put together the most freakish single-digit scoring game from a defensive lineman I’ve seen all season. Per Mike Woellert on X, there were at least 4 instances where he could have gotten a sack, yet he finished with just 8 points (Big 3 Scoring) and no sacks. I mean, the guy had 14(!) pressures.
Fred Warner is the 7th highest-scoring player on either side of the ball, leading all IDPs and trailing just 4 QBs and 2 RBs. He’s 18 points above the next closest linebacker, and his 21.17 PPG really shows up when you look at who else was drafted at the top of the LB position. Foye Oluokun, LB1, 15.97 PPG, on IR and missed the last 3 through injury. Roquan Smith, LB2, 12.92 PPG. Bobby Okereke, LB4, 11.79 PPG. Ernest Jones, LB5, 10.85 PPG, was traded from his original team.
Jaguars 16, Bears 35
Elijah Hicks got the start with Jaquan Brisker missing the game due to concussion and he performed admirably, especially if you 1-for-1 swapped them after news came out Brisker wouldn’t travel to London. Hicks had 6 tackles, 1 pass defended, and 1 fumble recovered. However, he hadn’t seen the field before the Brisker injury, so I’d assume the status quo to resume when Brisker passes protocol.
Devin Lloyd has been a frustrating play since the Foye Oluokun injury. After missing Week 4 with an injury of his own, he’s played 97% and 100% of the snaps the past two weeks in what we could call the “Foye role.” However, his production has been anything but “Foye-like.” Lloyd is averaging 8.63 points and 7.5 tackles (11.2% rate) per game, with no splash plays at all. Ventrell Miller is averaging 71% of snaps, 14 points, and 9 tackles (18% rate) per game across the same period.
Andre Cisco picked up his first interception of the season and was the top IDP scorer for the game (18.95 points). Cisco has averaged 3.5 interceptions in his past 2 seasons showing a nose for the ball and gets rookie Drake Maye in London in only his second career game. Maye threw 2 picks versus the Texans, so if you need a spot start at DB and waivers are thin. Cisco might be your go-to.
Trevor Lawrence and Caleb Williams were both sacked 3 times each; however, it was a relatively quiet day for the marquee names at pass rusher. Montez Sweat and Josh Hines-Allen managed just 0.5 a sack each, and Travon Walker lived up to his ultra-streaky nature not even recording a QB hit just one week after being the highest-overall fantasy scorer.
Texans 41, Patriots 21
Marte Mapu left the game in the second quarter and did not return with a neck injury. Mapu has become an important part of the Patriots’ defense and for IDP managers with Jabrill Peppers on the commissioner’s exempt list so this injury will need monitoring.
Houston got a double-whammy on Sunday afternoon, losing both Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To'oTo'o in the 41-21 rout of New England. Al-Shaair was ruled out fairly quickly post-injury so that could preclude something serious. To'oTo'o’s injury was concussion, so the safe assumption is he’ll miss Week 7 and be back in Week 8. Christian Harris is eligible to return from IR currently, so if he’s on waivers check him out as a possible stash.
I may have buried the lead by waiting till the third talking point, but we had another IDP top the scoring charts overall. Will Anderson got home on Drake Maye 3 times to the tune of 48.20 points (Big 3 Scoring) and might have single-handedly won you a week. (I know he won me 2.)
Keion White hasn’t had a sack in a month after exploding for 4 in his first 2 games. He’s still getting strong usage and has proven disruptive in the passing game with 3 passes defended in the past 2 weeks.
Colts 20, Titans 17
After being top 3 in tackles (47) through 4 weeks, EJ Speed has regressed to a more realistic tackle pace (6.5 per game) over the past 2 weeks. Unfortunately for fantasy managers, it’s meant he’s only averaging 8.88 PPG over that span. Historically, Speed has sprinkled in splash plays with his tackle numbers and has yet to do so this season, so I’m not hitting the panic alarm just yet.
Harold Landry had another strong performance, and he did it without recording a sack. Landry has 4 sacks on the season so far; however, this past game he was able to put up 17.75 points from 7 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and a QB hit. Jeffery Simmons returned from injury and though disruptive in the pass rush was unable to convert, leaving him with his third game out of four with less than 7 points.
That’s two weeks in a row now that Ernest Jones has scored less than double-digit points. He’s playing 100% of snaps, and his 14.2% tackle rate is within a solid range. However, he’s not made an impact play in any of his 5 games outside of 3 tackles for loss and 1 pass defended, which has severely lowered his ceiling.
Will Levis is an absolute meme machine and the one thing you could count on was some bone-headed turnover and a handful of avoidable sacks meaning you’d feel great playing defensive line players against him. Well anyone who played Laiatu Latu or Kwity Paye must feel harshly done by, as the Colts couldn’t register a single sack against him, though Latu did manage 2 QB hits.
Buccaneers 51, Saints 27
Another week, another 10-tackle performance from Paulson Adebo that he complimented with an interception to give him his third 24+ point performance of 2024 and an average of 17.15 PPG since he broke onto the scene in Week 7 last season.
Welcome back, Antoine Winfield Jr.! Winfield returned to action with a splash, picking up the Chris Olave fumble and taking it to the house giving him a monster 14.8-point play. He was still active in other aspects with a QB hit and a pass defended, but with the emergence of Tykee Smith, it will be interesting to see what the splits are like moving forward.
Speaking of Tykee Smith, the rookie had the top-scoring game of his career (25.25), besting last week’s total by another 5 points. Smith forced the fumble that Winfield returned and later in the game picked off fellow rookie Spencer Rattler to go with his 5 tackles.
Week 6 was the season debut for Calijah Kancey after he missed the first 5 weeks with a calf injury. Kancey wasted no time getting to work, as he was PFF’s top-graded pass rusher on Tampa’s side (77.5 grade), led the team in pressures with 4, and had 1 of the 5 sacks on Spencer Rattler.
Yes, Willie Gay put up a great performance in the fantasy box score. No, I do not care and will not be doing anything with it. Here’s why: 38% of his points came from a sack of Baker Mayfield, and he rushed the passer a grand total of 2 times all game. This is his best performance since Week 14 of 2022. Don’t chase it!
Carl Granderson was banged up and played just 76% of snaps with a neck injury versus the Buccaneers. This is especially relevant, as the Saints have a short week and play on Thursday night, and he was estimated as limited in their practice estimation.
Browns 16, Eagles 20
If you woke up from a one-year coma and were asked who the leading touchdown scorer for the Browns through six weeks was, you’d probably say Nick Chubb, Amari Cooper, or David Njoku. Cooper is correct, but you’d also be right if you said veteran safety Rodney McLeod, thanks to a 25-yard fumble return touchdown in Week 4, and a blocked field goal for a 50-yard touchdown return this past week. He can’t keep doing this right?
He’s arrived! The Prince That Was Promised, Cooper DeJean, got the start at nickel corner for the Eagles and played 91% of snaps. Not only did he get half a sack, but he also had 51 punt return yards and another QB hit to go with 6 tackles (11.5% rate). Game of Thrones nicknames aside, if he can continue to accrue points in such a varied manner, he might just live up to preseason hype.
Maybe we (me) were too quick to jump on the Zach Baun hype train after an amazing Week 1. Since then, he’s averaged 10.25 PPG across 4 games by way of 36 total tackles and 1 tackle for a loss. After grabbing two sacks against the Packers, he’s only had 2 total pressures since. It might be time to dial back expectations on his rest-of-the-season outlook.
Grant Delpit missed Week 6 with a concussion and now his Week 7 outlook could be in question. Delpit is still in concussion protocol following Sunday's game at Philadelphia, so Cleveland's practice report on Wednesday will give us more insight into his future availability.
As expected, Philadelphia like every other team got to Deshaun Watson, taking him down 5 times in total. That O-line is so miserable, Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter got their first sacks of the season. Hell, even Bryce Huff got half a sack.
Cardinals 13, Packers 34
Kyzir White left the game early, with a knee injury and wasn’t seen again. White had been an inconsistent start at linebacker up to this point, with 2 games over 15 points and 3 under 10 points. But he was playing 100% of snaps, so keep an eye on Krys Barnes, who replaced him in the game, purely just from a volume standpoint.
Xavier McKinney came crashing back down to earth in terms of fantasy points this past weekend. Unable to secure an interception for the first time this season, his low tackle numbers and positioning meant that he was only able to put up 5 points. You’re not sitting McKinney because of his upside, but be aware that if “the ceiling is the roof,” the basement is the floor.
There it is: the baseline we were drafting for in the best balls this offseason. Against the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, Keisean Nixon had 99 total return yards, 60 from kickoff and 39 from punts. He had 9.9 points on top of a 100% defensive snap share, which is just what the doctor ordered.
Slowly but steadily, Edgerrin Cooper is taking over for Isaiah McDuffie. This past week, Cooper played 65% of snaps to McDuffie’s 45%. Cooper’s 38 snaps were his highest of the season so far. And while Walker is still the LB to roster in Green Bay in terms of fantasy, his poor on-field play hasn’t gone unnoticed in the media, so his leash might be shorter than we know.
The Packers have four edge rushers who all have name recognition but only have one good game each so far through the season. Preston Smith has 1 game over 8 points all season, while Rashan Gary has played in all 6 games, yet 58% of his season points came in Week 1. Kingsley Enagbare and Lukas Van Ness are similar, except they play reduced snaps. It’s a mess.
Commanders 23, Ravens 30
Jonathan Allen will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle. It had been a quiet start to the year for Allen; however, he’d begun to put things together with back-to-back sacks in Weeks 4 and 5 leading into this matchup. Not only did they lose Allen, but they also lost their other best pass rusher this season, Dorance Armstrong, to a rib injury. Armstrong is set to undergo more testing this week to determine the severity. But for now, his Week 7 availability against the Panthers is in doubt.
Looking to fill that void will be Daron Payne and Dante Fowler. Payne has been non-existent on the score sheet this season, and Sunday against the Ravens it was no different. Fowler, however, wound the clock right back and had his best game since 2019 on the back of 2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss.
Rookie cornerback Mike Sainristil collected his first career interception on a dropped Mark Andrews pass, to go with his season-high in tackles (6 on a 12.8% rate), giving him his first fantasy day over 20 points in his young career. Unfortunately, Sainristil isn’t a full-time player yet, and when he does play it’s outside on the boundary with Noah Igbinoghene in the slot role currently.
Roquan Smith started hot but has cooled right down over the past 3 weeks. Smith has only posted one game over 8 points (Big 3 Scoring) and he hasn’t forced a turnover since Week 1 or posted a sack at all this season. He’s still on pace for just shy of 160 tackles (14.9% rate) thanks to his blistering early-season pace, though without those big plays his ceiling is massively capped.
Yep, we’re way past the early section of the year now. We’re at the “Yannick Ngakoue had a sack — should I pick him up?” part of the season. Short answer, not unless you’re playing in a 32-team league where nearly any player on an active roster should be picked up. He played just 13 snaps against the Commanders and is firmly entrenched behind Odafe Oweh, Kyle Van Noy, and company.
Chargers 23, Broncos 16
Alex Singleton tore his ACL in Week 3. Since then, Cody Barton has played 100% of snaps and put up 24.75 total points in 3 games. Justin Strnad has moved into the second LB role and is playing about 75% of snaps. He’s scored 46.3 total points in comparison. Strnad’s production from sacks has been flukey at best and isn’t predictive. But I’d rather take flukey production over no production at all.
Nik Bonitto has a sack in four straight games, Jonathon Cooper has 4.5 sacks through 6 games, and Zach Allen hasn’t put up less than 12 points all season and has 3.5 sacks, too. This defensive line gets the job done and they play New Orleans and Carolina in their next 2 games.
After posting 17 sacks last season, Khalil Mack is off to a slow start in 2024. Currently, Mack is on pace for just half that number through 5 games and hasn’t recorded 1 sack in the past 2 games. Joey Bosa got injured early in Week 2 and only played 2 snaps in Week 3. However, he was limited in practice last week, so could be in line for a Week 7 return.
Los Angeles is in a full-blown rotation at linebacker now, as Junior Colson’s playing time is increasing in his return from injury. This past week, no linebacker played 100% of snaps, with Colson at 57%, Daiyan Henley at 77%, and Denzel Perryman at 39%.
Steelers 32, Raiders 13
Divine Deablo was back in the Raiders lineup after missing Weeks 3-5 with an oblique injury and he played 93% of snaps too. Deablo had 6 tackles (9.7% rate) and collected his first sack of the season. Tommy Eichenberg did miss the game with a hamstring injury; however, he was terrible in his debut last week. Nevertheless, the snap share is worth monitoring when both are at full health.
Nick Herbig missed the game with a hamstring injury, and will probably see his role reduced once again in Week 7. Alex Highsmith was practicing in a limited capacity in the lead-up to Sunday’s game as he returns from a groin injury suffered in Week 3.
Nate Hobbs had his best game of 2024, recording 10 tackles (16.1% rate) and 13.5 fantasy points. Hobbs received plenty of preseason hype following a strong 2023 campaign but has mostly been underwhelming. This was his first game over 5 tackles, and though he’s yet to force a turnover, he is seeing close to 100% of snaps.
Patrick Queen had his best game of 2024 on Sunday too. Queen recorded 13 tackles on 100% of snaps, giving him 29 in the past 3 weeks combined. Queen has been a disappointment so far since coming over from Baltimore on a big free-agent deal, could this be him turning the corner?
Lions 47, Cowboys 9
There’s no other way to start this section. No joke, just sadness. Aidan Hutchinson is lost for the season with a gruesome tibia fracture. While sacking Dak Prescott, his leg got whipped around into the shin of an O-lineman and fractured. Lions head coach Dan Campbell has said they’re hopeful he can return this season. Just… no. Let the guy heal up and come back at 100% next season.
Brian Branch fell to the 2nd round of the NFL Draft due to a perceived lack of athleticism and a slow 40 time. Branch is averaging 25.58 PPG in 2024, and 15.88 PPG in his career. This was his first 2-interception game ever, and his best fantasy performance. Branch is a stud, he’s got three 30+ point games in his career, and 50% of his career games have been 18 PPG or higher.
Kerby Joseph had his 4th good game of the season, (not) shockingly it came on the back of another interception. Joseph has 4 picks through 5 games, and his only game without an interception resulted in 4.5 fantasy points. Comically, this latest interception was in the endzone again, meaning he’s still 100% on interceptions happening in the endzone.
Damone Clark was one of the few bright spots for Dallas in the blowout. Starting for the injured Eric Kendricks, he had 9 tackles (16.4% rate) and 0.5 a sack. Clark had been reduced to special teams alone the past two weeks, and with DeMarvion Overshown already set in a close-to full-time role, Clark could disappear just as quickly as he appeared when Kendricks returns.
Falcons 38, Panthers 20
Trevin Wallace followed up on his monster 15-tackle debut with another quality showing. Wallace had 9 tackles (12.9% rate), 1 forced fumble, and 1 recovered fumble against Atlanta to the tune of 16.75 points. With Shaq Thompson on season-ending IR, Wallace looks set to be an every-week IDP starter at the linebacker position.
Nate Landman returned off of IR, back into our lineups, and back into our good graces. Landman put up 8 tackles (15.4% rate), and 2 forced fumbles as he returned to 79% of snaps beside Kaden Elliss. Troy Andersen missed this game but could return in Week 7, so if you’re stuck with which one to play, make sure to check out Mike Woellert’s weekly rankings that drop tomorrow.
The Falcons’ pass rush is underwhelming, to say the least. They have 5 sacks all year, and that’s now 4 straight weeks without a sack for Matt Judon. Judon has 1.5 on the year, having started well picking them up in the first 2 games. However, he’s only put up 7 pressures in the past 4 games, with just 1 QB hit in that time too. On the other edge, Arnold Ebiketie is not converting either, as he has 7 pressures on the year (4 this past week) and no sacks.
Second-year defensive back Clark Phillips paced this whole game in scoring thanks to an interception, a pass defended, and a tackle for loss. This 22-point performance isn’t the norm though. Through 5 games, Phillips was averaging just over 2 points per game. Interestingly, he is getting some work as a punt returner, so we’ll bookmark this and see how he looks in about 4 weeks.
Bengals 17, Giants 7
Kayvon Thibodeaux hit injured reserve last week and in response, Azeez Ojulari got the start and hit Joe Burrow two times in the backfield. Ojulari was presumed dead for fantasy this season due to a decline in play over the past two years and the acquisition of Brian Burns (who was also awesome this week) via trade. The most encouraging sign for Ojulari was the 77% of snaps. He’s in a contract year so maybe there’s some juice worth a squeeze with him while Thibodeaux is out.
Tyler Nubin continues his strong run. He’s averaging just shy of 9 tackles a game (15.8% rate) the past 3 weeks, and is at 13.9 PPG through that same stretch. Nubin was highly touted out of Minnesota this past year, so it’s good to see the fantasy points reflect the pedigree.
Bobby Okereke has been good so far this season but hasn’t been what was expected. After a stellar 2023, Okereke was going off the board as the LB3 in best ball drafts. So far through 6 weeks, he’s the LB24. In fact, outside of Fred Warner, none of the other top 5 LBs are in the top 10 currently.
Trey Hendrickson bounced back from two down weeks with a multi-sack performance and his second 25+ point performance of the season. DL/EDGE is a volatile position outside of Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, and Maxx Crosby, so with guys like Hendrickson, you take the bad with the good because the good is usually great.
Bills 23, Jets 20
A.J. Epenesa had 2 sacks of Aaron Rodgers and a controversial roughing the passer penalty on Monday night, taking his season total to 3 sacks. His career high in a year is 6.5, and he hasn’t shown anything that would indicate he’s going far above that total this year either. Greg Rousseau was sackless again, that now makes 5 straight weeks. Buffalo does get Tennessee next week, and Rousseau is playing more than he has historically, I’m just not sure it matters anymore.
With Aidan Hutchinson out for the year, Will McDonald is tied for the NFL lead in sacks among active players with 7. After a quiet and underutilized rookie season, McDonald is living up to the hype from when he was taken in the middle of the first round in the NFL draft in 2023.
It was a down game for Quincy Williams as he posted his first single-digit performance of 2024, and while he hasn’t been bad, the highs of last season seem a distant memory, resulting in him languishing at the LB22 after being drafted as the LB10. Williams had 3 games over 30 points last season, and 6 of 19 points or above. So far this season he’s only got 1 game of 12 points or above, and no games over 18 points.
Taron Johnson returned to the Bills lineup after getting injured 7 snaps into Week 1. If you had balls of steel and slotted him straight back into your lineups you were rewarded. He posted 18 points in his return with 8 tackles and an interception. Johnson has been a must-start in cornerback-required leagues since 2020, and based on his Week 6 output that’s not changing anytime soon.
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