IDP Recap: Week 8
With Week 8 complete, let's get you up to speed with a recap of the biggest IDP headlines from each game.
Before we changed to the 17-game format, this would have been viewed as the halfway point of the season. Some of the names who popped up this week haven’t been relevant since 16-game seasons, Other names, including T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Kyle Hamilton, are well-known to IDP managers. This week, we got resurgences from guys like Neville Hewitt, Daron Payne, and Budda Baker. Let’s take a look.
Vikings 20, Rams 30
If you haven’t managed to acquire Jared Verse from your leaguemate who rosters him, you may have missed your shot. Verse picked up the first multi-sack game of his career, and his first sack since Week 1. That gives him back-to-back performances of 17 points or more (by Big 3 Scoring), and the fantasy production to match the underlying peripherals.
The age-old adage is “No one should lose their job just because they got injured” but selfishly, I really don’t want Blake Cashman to get that role back from Ivan Pace Jr. Yes, Pace got absolutely flambéed by Kyren on his touchdown, but all he does is produce IDP points when given the chance, as he’s averaging 22.9 PPG and 9 tackles per game (17.4% rate) since returning from an injury of his own.
Troy Reeder hit IR before Thursday’s game, which allowed us our first view of Omar Speights in regular-season play. Speights was a UDFA out of LSU this year and an offseason favorite of the show, especially Bobby. Speights only played 44% of snaps with the majority going to Christian Rozeboom, and he only posted 5 points in his debut. However, his PFF grades were good enough for the candle to still burn brightly for me as the season moves forward: 67.7 overall, 74.8 run defense, and 78.3 tackle grade.
After they finished as top 5 options at the safety position last season, Cam Bynum (S5), and Josh Metellus (S4) are currently sitting at S16 and S27 through the halfway point. Much of this has come from Harrison Smith rising from his S29 finish last year to chilling comfortably at S17. Bynum is only about 1 PPG behind his 2023 pace of 12.97 PPG, while Metellus’s points have dropped by nearly 3 PPG. Smith meanwhile is on pace to have his best scoring season since 2018 at just shy of 12 PPG.
Packers 30, Jaguars 27
Quay Walker missed the game with a concussion resulting in another 100% of snaps for Eric Wilson. Unfortunately, he was unable to replicate his Week 7 explosion, coming through with a solid enough if not flashy 12.25 points on 9 tackles (15.8% rate). It was the fantasy equivalent of thinking you’d caught lightning in a bottle, just to get a static shock from the lid instead.
Who was flashy though? Rookie Edgerrin Cooper, that’s who! Cooper has been hit-and-miss so far this season due to a slow start snaps-wise. But over the past four games, Cooper has played at least 30 snaps a game, averaging 16.14 PPG, while putting up no less than 9 points in any one performance. He’s also stuffing the stat sheet to do it, with 2 sacks, a forced fumble, 4 TFLs, 1 pass defended, and 3 QB hits to go with 23 tackles (16.1% rate) in that 4-game span.
Xavier McKinney had another strong game, and in related news, Xavier McKinney grabbed another interception. McKinney now has 6 INTs through eight games, and only one game under 13.5 PPG on the season. At the halfway marker, he’s currently S2 on the year behind only Brian Branch. I know this seems silly to say about the second-best scoring safety on the year, but just be aware the bottom may fall out: McKinney has a minimal tackle floor, and if he doesn’t get a pick or a sack, you’re looking at low single-digit points.
Foyesade Oluokun returned to the Jaguars lineup on Sunday, and so did the rotation shenanigans at linebacker. Oluokun played 91% of snaps; however, Devin Lloyd dropped to 55%, while Ventrell Miller played 60%, and even Yasir Abdullah got a 10% share. Play Foye, sit the others, and save yourself some pain.
Cardinals 28, Dolphins 27
Someone was going to have to step up in this Cardinals defense and make plays, and boy am I glad it’s Budda Baker. The former dynasty darling has had the sparkle wash off after a couple of subpar seasons. He’s back in early 2020 form, though; through eight games, he has 8 fewer tackles than he got in 12 games last year and is just 6 points shy of his 2023 point total. Budda is currently S6 on the season, as is the only one of the top 30 safeties without an interception, sack, forced fumble, or fumble recovery. Budda = tackling machine.
Dennis Gardeck is out for the season with a torn ACL and the Cardinals have a negligible pass rush with just 15 sacks through 8 games. One-fifth of those sacks have come from Sophomore edge rusher Dante Stills, who’s collected sacks in back-to-back games now. Stills only had 3.5 sacks in 12 games last season and is only playing 49% of snaps this season.
Jevon Holland returned from a hand injury this past week, only to depart after just 17 snaps with a knee injury. Head coach Mike McDaniel has said it won’t require knee surgery; however, the timetable for return is unclear. It’s been a rough season for Holland as he’s averaging just 6.8 PPG through his six games played so far.
Zach Sieler missed Sunday’s game as he broke his orbital bone in practice last week and is required to undergo more tests to determine if surgery is required. Since Phillips’ torn ACL, Sieler was the only Miami pass rusher I felt remotely good about playing, and even then he was streaky even for a DL. With Sieler out, I can’t in good faith trust any Miami pass rushers until they prove it to me for multiple weeks.
Ravens 24, Browns 29
There it is, the Kyle Hamilton boom game we all knew was coming. K-Ham finished just shy of a 40-burger thanks to 10 tackles (14.5% rate), 1 TLF, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 2 passes defended, and 2 QB hits. It could have been an even bigger day as he dropped a possible game-sealing interception the play before Jameis Winston hit Cedric Tillman for a deep touchdown.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah met Derrick Henry in the open field and suffered a scary neck injury resulting in him being carted off the field in a back-board and brace and taken to hospital. The specificity and severity of the injury are still unknown, as is the recovery timeframe.
Za'Darius Smith got his 5th sack in eight games as he continues his bounce-back season. Smith’s renaissance hasn’t gone unnoticed as Ian Rappoport has him listed as one of several team’s top trade targets with big names like Myles Garrett, Micah Parsons, and Maxx Crosby not being on the table.
Speaking of Myles Garrett, he had his second quiet game in a row, and his third game under 8 points. Some people are even saying it’s time to move on and sell him up. If you do, make sure you’re in a league with me, and sell him to me. I will gladly take a guy averaging 14.1 PPG on just 4 sacks who just had a 9(!) pressure game off your hands.
Pssst, Trenton Simpson played over 90% of snaps on Sunday afternoon, he also put up his second straight game of 11 points or more thanks to a fumble recovery this game. The thing is, the production and the snap counts can’t be relied on week over week. He played over 90% this week after playing just 62% of snaps in Week 7. I want Simpson on my roster because I think he has talent. I just don’t know when I can use him yet though.
Titans 14, Lions 52
Arden Key has now pieced together strong back-to-back games thanks to his 3 sacks in the past two weeks. Key was quiet to start the season, but has started to put things together. I will note that last season he had a 5-game stretch where he picked up 3.5 sacks. He had 46% of his season’s points in that 5-game run, and still only averaged 10.82 PPG. I’m not trusting it.
Alex Anzalone got concussed in Week 2 and only played 40 snaps, he then proceeded to miss Week 3. If we remove that concussion-shortened game, our long-haired Fabio look-a-like would be averaging 16.11 PPG, which would put him around LB5 on the season. Instead, he’s at LB30, as Detroit had the early bye week too. Don’t let the overall mid-season positional standings fool you. Anzalone has been ballin’.
The Titans traded Ernest Jones to the Seahawks for Jerome Baker and a 4th round pick in 2025. Baker was ruled out before the game citing“personal” as the reason, the theory is he still wasn’t up to speed with the defensive playbook. Baker should be out there for the Titans from Week 9 onwards, though based on his performance in Seattle before being traded (5.4 PPG) I’m not sure it will matter.
IDP managers of Kerby Joseph will celebrate as he collected another interception (his 5th on the season) on his way to his best performance of 2024 so far. Myself, an intellectual, will mourn the end of his touchdown banditry streak, as this one was his first this year to not take place in the endzone. Joseph, at just age 23, is on pace for a career year, as he’s a whole 4 PPG above where he was last season.
Colts 20, Texans 23
Can we please stop trying to make Devin White happen? White was picked up by Houston with both Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To’oTo’o still sidelined and Christian Harris not back from IR yet. He played 32 snaps, participated in 3 tackles, and missed 2 others. He kept with tradition though and was the worst-graded player per PFF on the Texans’ defense. In fact, his 29.3 overall grade was the second lowest grade given to a Texans defensive player this season.
It’s a 3-man rotation at edge rusher for the Colts. Laiatu Latu, Kwity Paye, and Dayo Odeyingbo all played between 41 (57%) and 48 (68%) snaps. Odeyingbo is getting the most playing time and has been the most productive on the season so far, creating the most pressures and converting them at a better rate. Also, neither Paye nor Latu has gotten close to sniffing Odeyingbo’s ceiling, which he demonstrated in his 32-point game against the Texans.
This game had IDP goodness galore at all positions: four guys had over 20 points, another seven had between 14.5-19 points, and another four had between 11-14.25 points. That’s 15 scorers over 11 PPG — phenomenal! Names of years gone by, too. Pitre had 18.5, Buckner returned from a 5-game absence to record a sack and 16 points, and Neville Hewitt proved what is dead can never die, backing up his 28.25-point outing last week with another 14.5 this week.
After slow starts, both Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson are starting to find their strides. Will Anderson is currently DL2 and has passed his career high in sacks of 7, as he’s up to 7.5 already, obviously buoyed by that 3-sack, 48-point performance in Week 6. Hunter has at least one sack in each of his past 3 games, and added another 2 to his total, to take him up to 5.5 on the season, and is DL17 at 13.19 PPG.
Jets 22, Patriots 25
Quinnen Williams sustained an ankle injury in the game, which he played through, though it did have him moving gingerly at points. He’s now listed as limited on the Monday practice report. New York has the Halloween game on Thursday night, so it might bear monitoring if you’re considering playing Williams after he got back into the sack column in this game.
C.J. Mosley underwent an MRI and is visiting with a neck and spine specialist on Monday suggesting this new injury could be serious/long-term. Jamien Sherwood has been a great replacement in terms of IDP, averaging 12.4 PPG in the past 5 games that Mosley has either missed or played sparingly in.
Since Ju’Whuan Bentley hit the injured reserve, New England has been looking for that solid performer in the middle, often supplementing their linebacker presence with Kyle Dugger or Marte Mapu. Well, they may have found their guy, in the shape of the third Elliss linebacking brother, Christian. Elliss played the most out of himself, Jahlani Tavai, and Raekwon McMillan at 84% of snaps, while bundling his 9 tackles (17.3% rate) and 1 sack into a 25-point game.
Kyle Dugger was a late scratch after practicing in full both Thursday and Friday before getting added to the injury report Saturday with the questionable tag. The severity of his ankle issue isn't clear, and it’s unknown if he’ll miss Week 9. If he’s healthy enough to play, you’re slotting him straight back into your lineups. He’s played 100% of snaps in 5 of 7 games and is averaging 13.68 PPG in those 5.
Josh Uche is now a Kansas City Chief, as they traded for him on Monday morning, sending away just a 6th-round pick in 2026. Uche is set to be a free agent at the end of this year, so these last nine games will act like an interview of sorts as KC will need to decide whether they wish to extend him.
Falcons 31, Buccaneers 26
Lavonte David left the game in the 3rd quarter and didn’t return. He did manage to have an acceptable day before he left, but you’ll have to keep an eye on practice reports to see if you’ll have him for your Week 9 matchup.
Jessie Bates had been quiet the past four weeks, only cresting 7 fantasy once in that period. He rewarded fantasy managers’ patience with a great 22-point game, achieved through an interception, forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.
Troy Andersen missed his fourth game in Week 8 and is still being seen as day-to-day coming into Week 9 according to coach Raheem Morris. If Andersen can’t go, Nate Landman is a good LB3 candidate with 20 tackles (12% rate) and 3 forced fumbles in his past 3 games.
Antoine Winfield is human after all, after putting up over 45 points in his two games back from injury, he only managed 6.75 points from 7 tackles. It could have been a bigger night as he knocked the ball out of Kyle Pitts’ hands right on the goal line and out the back of the endzone, but upon review, it was deemed there was not enough to overturn the on-field call of touchdown. Defensive back has more volatility than the other positions, so with a player like Winfield, you’ll take these down games in stride.
Eagles 37, Bengals 17
Nakobe Dean and Zach Baun both had strong games against the Bengals on Sunday, combining for 21 tackles, and 35 fantasy points, and were two of four Eagles defenders to obtain overall PFF grades of greater than 90.
Nolan Smith has a sack in three straight games (kind of). He only was awarded half a sack this game, to go with his full sacks in each of the past two games. He’s still only playing about 50% of snaps, but the Eagles play the Jaguars in Week 9, so it could very easily be a sack in four straight games when we revisit this time next week.
Logan Wilson has been consistent this season, but almost in a consistently underwhelming way. Wilson is currently LB15 on the season, which is fine. However, by this point last season Wilson had 118.85 points in 7 games, compared to his current total of 98 in 8 in 2024. This is a difference of over 4.5 PPG between seasons. In 2023, six of seven games were over 12 PPG, and three were over 22 PPG. So far this season, he has only four over 10 PPG, and he hasn’t reached 20+ points since Week 1.
Saints 8, Chargers 26
It’s time for a shameless Chase Young plug because I still want to believe. Young has 1.5 sacks through his last four games and has scored over 15 PPG in two of those four games. Young has 30 pressures on the year for an 11.9% pressure rate, New Orleans’ next 3 opponents? Carolina, Atlanta, and Cleveland.
Diamonds are the hardest known naturally occurring product on Earth. Joey Bosa’s muscles might be the closest thing we have to the direct opposite. Bosa logged his first-ever game with zero quarterback pressures and at least 10 pass-rushing snaps and was seen in the third quarter kneeling on the sideline receiving treatment from the Chargers training staff. Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh said he couldn't say for sure if Bosa reaggravated his hip injury, but at this point, no one’s IDP team is relying on Bosa.
As has been the case for the majority of the season with Bosa sidelined, sophomore edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu got the lion’s share of the snaps on the other side to Khalil Mack. Both Tuipulotu and Mack collected a sack a piece in the same game for the first time this year, giving Tuli his first for the year and Mack 3.5 on the season.
Bills 31, Seahawks 10
Nothing is more sure than a player booming after someone writes something about how they’re underwhelming. In this instance, after Week 6, I proceeded to say that maybe we’d crowned the Rousseau breakout too soon as he hadn’t done anything since his 3-sack game in Week 1. Now, he’s only recorded half a sack since that article, but he’s scored 40 points thanks to 7 QB hits, 2 passes defended, and 2 tackles for a loss in the past 2 games, and is the DL14 on the season.
Stop me if you’ve seen this movie before: Ernest Goes to Fantasy Camp and Gets Traded. As mentioned earlier on, the Titans moved Ernest Jones to the Seahawks, and unlike Baker, Jones got the start and picked up 15 tackles (19.8% rate) in his debut. Anyone worried that a change of scenery would ruin their Ernest shares is breathing a sigh of relief right now, again.
It was a rare quiet game for Dorian Williams on Sunday afternoon as he paired once again with Baylon Spector. Terrel Bernard missed the game with a trio of injury designations (ankle/pectoral/personal) and it’s unknown if he’ll play in Week 9. Whether he does or not, I’m still chucking Williams into my lineup with confidence as he’s currently LB12 on the season.
We’ll need to pay close attention to Tyrel Dodson with this Ernest acquisition. Dodson is currently LB11 on the season, though that’s due to his high volume scoring in Weeks 1-6. Dodson is only averaging 6.63 PPG the past 2 weeks on 13 tackles (8.9% rate). Compared to his Weeks 1-6 stats of 14.69 PPG on 49 tackles (12.9% rate), 2 sacks, and 1 forced fumble.
Panthers 14, Broncos 28
A'Shawn Robinson is a 320-pound nose tackle who’s never had more than 2 sacks in a single season. He’s been in the league since 2016, and this is only the third time he’s ever scored over 20 points. The other two times came in 2017 and 2018. You can chase this 27-point game if you want, but I don’t recommend it.
In a similar line of thinking, Shy Tuttle is a 300-pound defensive tackle who’s had 3 games over 15 PPG including this one.
Josey Jewell returned from injury and was straight back into a 100% snap-share role. He also collected 10 tackles (13.7% rate) and posted a respectable 13.5-point game. Trevin Wallace was still heavily utilized, playing 90% of snaps rather than 100%. Jewell’s return definitely caps Wallace’s ceiling though, so if you’ve been enjoying “Waiver Wire Wallace,” you might want to temper expectations.
Jonathan Cooper and Nik Bonitto are both currently top 24 in overall DL scoring at the halfway point of the season. Cooper has 5.5 sacks and Bonitto 6 through eight games of the season. Bonitto is also playing less than 60% of snaps on the season, so take care.
Justin Strnad is back to playing just 60% of snaps. He’s still getting the production and has averaged 14.61 PPG since getting a starting role due to Singleton’s ACL tear. There are just more reliable options out there than a sub-80% snap guy whose best performances have all required a sack.
Chiefs 27, Raiders 20
Nope, I’m not doing it. I’ve been playing IDP for too long to get “Spags’d.” What I mean by that is getting suckered in by a Steve Spagnuolo linebacker playing just 65% of snaps who explodes on the IDP score sheet. This week, that guy is Drue Tranquill. Tranquill was averaging 7.2 PPG before this 26-point explosion powered by 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 1 fumble recovery.
Tre'von Moehrig is currently the DB13/S8 on the season, averaging 12.66 PPG and has been on a mission since Week 4, scoring 16.91 PPG in the past five weeks. His PFF grades would say he’s struggling in coverage with his overall grade down at 56.6 due to a 46.0 coverage grade. But on the bright side, 57% of his snaps are coming from the sweet spot (box, slot, defensive line).
Tyree Wilson has his first sack of 2024! The 2023 7th overall pick has had a slow start to his career with just 4.5 career sacks, and 3.5 of them coming last year. Wilson has, however, received a steady snap share so far this season of around 40%. EDGE is notoriously a slow position to pick up, so in dynasty-only formats, maybe go check your waivers for an end-of-the-bench stash.
If you listen to the Fantasy Footballers, you know that NBA Jam rules are that two made shots mean you’re “heating up,” and three made shots mean you’re “on fire.” With that in mind, “Furious” George Karlaftis is heating up — that’s back-to-back games with a sack now for him. Does he reach “on fire?”
Bears 15, Commanders 18
Montez Sweat was in the middle of a great game with 4 tackles including 1 sack and 2 tackles for loss when he was forced to leave with a shin injury. It’s always bittersweet when your players get injured but put up points before they exit. If Sweat misses time, Austin Booker and Darrell Taylor would be the next guys up.
It was the big boys on the interior for Washington who highlighted the top of the IDP leaderboard. Daron Payne and Jer’Zhan Newton both finished with a sack and 16 points. For Newton, it’s the first of his NFL career as he’s seen more opportunities with Jonathan Allen hitting IR earlier in the year.
Jaquan Brisker has missed three weeks and two games in the concussion protocol. Brisker was concussed in Chicago’s Week 5 matchup where he essentially killed Tommy Tremble and did nearly as much damage to himself. He didn’t travel to London in Week 6, had the bye week in Week 7, and then still missed Week 8.
It was a quiet week for both Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu as they combined for just 16.25 points. Luvu will always be streaky as his boom games will require a sack as shown in Weeks 4, 5, and 7. However, I would expect Wagner to bounce back from his past two weeks’ scores of 6 and 9.75 points. This drop is mostly due to his tackle rate dropping to 12.6% from the 15.4% rate we saw in Weeks 1-6.
Cowboys 24, 49ers 30
Nick Bosa had 6 pressures on Sunday night and is the DL8 heading into his bye week. He’s just 10 points behind the DL5, Will Anderson.
DeMarvion Overshown is continuing to see over 90% of snaps and is starting to convert that snapshare into production. Overshown went from 77% in Week 3 to 87% in Week 4 and hasn’t dropped below that number since playing 100% in Week 5 and 8, and 93% in Week 6 due to it being a blowout. Since his role increase in Week 4, he’s averaged 13.3 PPG thanks to 27 tackles (10.9% rate), 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss, 1 pass defended, and 2 QB hits.
Dallas desperately needs Micah Parsons back. In the three games since losing DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons, the Cowboys DL has generated just 28 pressures, just over 9 per game from eight qualifying players. Parsons had 24 pressures on his own through Weeks 1-4 before injury and was sporting a PFF pass rush grade of 82.8 for the season. The sooner he’s back, the better.
This week it was Ji'Ayir Brown’s time to shine from the safety position after Malik Mustapha was spotlighted last week and has outscored Brown 11.8 PPG to 10.4 PPG in the past three weeks. Brown, however, might be the guy we want to be targeting looking at alignment data, as he’s played 48% of his snaps in the sweet spot, in comparison to Mustapha, who’s playing 77% from deep, so just 23% down in the box, slot or on the D-line.
Giants 18, Steelers 26
T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith wrecked shop on Monday Night Football. Watt finished with 7 tackles, 2 for a loss, 2 sacks, 2 QB hits, and 1 forced fumble that he recovered himself. Highsmith had 4 tackles, 2 for a loss, 2 sacks, and 6(!) QB hits. I haven’t got the pressure data at the time of print, but it wouldn’t surprise me if both guys had double digits.
For New York, it was another strong game for both Azeez Ojulari and Brian Burns, who collected 3 sacks between them. Kayvon Thibodeaux is set to miss one more game minimum with his wrist injury on IR, but when he does return, what do you do with Ojulari? Is he a trade target for one of these teams like Detroit or Atlanta that are in the market for pass rush help?
It took eight weeks, but we finally saw the Bobby Okereke who popped in 2023. Okereke finished with 14 tackles, 0.5 a sack, and forced a fumble that he covered on a scrambling Russell Wilson. It’s his first game of 8 tackles or more since Week 3 and the only double-digit tackle game of the season so far.
That’s five of eight games in which Patrick Queen has failed to record double-digit fantasy points. On the season, Queen has just one game with an overall grade over 65. Even with a pass rush grade of 73, Queen has 0 sacks so far.
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