Week 9 IDP Waiver Wire: 10 Tackles Just Waiting for You
Week 9 IDP Waiver Wire Targets
This list of IDP waiver wire pickups is sorted by position, and then by priorty.
Of course, IDP leagues vary widely by depth, scoring rules, and lineup settings. So to get the best measure of who to pick up in your league, check your Free Agent Finder.
Quinnen Williams, DT, Dallas Cowboys
Quinnen Williams has delivered sacks in three straight games, including 2 in the loss to Arizona. He has 7 total tackles for loss over that same span. And now comes a Colts team that just traded away its best offensive lineman.
Williams sits surprisingly available on Sleeper, rostered in just 16% of IDP leagues. I’m sure he’s already rostered in DT-required leagues, but the vet’s also usable in general DL slots.
Lukas Van Ness, Edge, Green Bay Packers
Lukas Van Ness notched his second sack in three games in Thursday’s win over the Panthers. That marked his fourth straight outing with at least 1 QB hit and seventh game with at least 1 hit among eight this season.
Van Ness also racked up 6 total pressures in two of his past three games. And he looks like a good bet for more pressure numbers the next two weeks against the Patriots and Vikings.
Drake Maye took 3 sacks for the fourth time this season in Sunday’s narrow victory over the Dolphins. Kyler Murray has averaged 3 sacks taken per game in the five weeks since returning from his concussion.
Josh Sweat, Edge, Arizona Cardinals
Josh Sweat started the season slowly after an injury-riddled summer. That included no QB hits across his first three games and depressed snap shares.
But the playing time and production have since picked up. Sweat has sacks in three of his past five outings and 5 total QB hits over that stretch. His playing time has also continued to rise, including snap shares of 79% and 65% within his past three games.
The Cardinals could be trying to showcase him for a potential trade or simply increasing the opportunities for one of their top defensive players. Doesn’t really matter for our purposes which of those is true.
Next up for Sweat is a matchup with Sam Darnold, who has taken 3+ sacks in four of his past five games.
Micah McFadden, LB, New York Giants
I advocated picking up Micah McFadden upon learning that Tremaine Edmunds would miss the rest of the season. I included McFadden in last week’s waiver article in spite of the Giants’ bye. Now it’s time for (at least) one more inclusion.
McFadden’s first start in Edmunds’ place delivered 10 solo tackles, including a pair of tackles for loss, and a QB hit. That was one of 3 pressures on his seven pass rushes against Houston.
McFadden previously tallied 11+ tackles in four of the six career games in which he played at least 80% of the snaps -- plus another three games of 11+ tackles even when he didn’t. He’s been an efficient tackler, with TFL and pressure numbers that indicate he plays well coming forward.
Now the Giants come off their bye to face a broken Eagles offense and then a Commanders unit that has supplied the fifth-most points per game to LBs this season.
McFadden’s not just usable. He has difference-making upside for certain formats.
Patrick Queen, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers
Patrick Queen has flipped a modest start to the season -- including just one particularly strong outing in Week 3 -- with two straight huge stat lines.
That started with 10 tackles (7 solo) and a sack in the Week 7 win over New Orleans and continued with 12 tackles (3 solo), 1.5 sacks, and a pass defensed in Sunday’s blowout of the Browns. The modest start found him available in 82% of Sleeper IDP leagues for that Cleveland game.
Pittsburgh gets a Week 9 bye, which means grabbing Queen won’t offer quick help. But he’s worth stashing if you have the room.
CJ Allen, LB, Indianapolis Colts
Allen’s not a pickup for all leagues, but his 10-tackle outing Sunday could signal that the rebuilding Colts are ready to see what they’ve got.
The second-round rookie appeared in just four of the team’s six games before the Week 8 loss to Jacksonville and peaked at a 40% snap share in Week 5.
Indy started him for the first time Sunday and played Allen for 83.3% of the defensive snaps. His 10 tackles included a sack even though he blitzed only once.
The rebuilding Colts should be motivated to stick with Allen the rest of the way in what looks like a lost season. And the 8.1 total tackles that a limited Akeem Davis-Gaither has averaged per game highlights Allen’s path to fantasy relevance.
Amani Hooker, S, Tennessee Titans
I don’t get it, you guys.
Every time we get a big scoring week from Hooker, I check his rostered rate on Sleeper and expect to see a big jump from the last time I looked. But as of Tuesday morning, he’s still available in 87% of Sleeper IDP leagues.
Is there something wrong with this guy that I don’t know about? Does he smell? Is it just an oddity connected to not enough people playing the IDP game appropriately?
Whatever the case, Hooker’s more than twice as available as the third DB I have listed here even though he’s sitting on the third-most total fantasy points and second-most points per game at the position this season (depending on your format).
If you play in one of the leagues that finds Hooker available and can afford to stash a DB on his bye week, pick him up. At some point I’m gonna stop including him in this article.
Carlton Davis, CB, New England Patriots
Carlton Davis finally made it back from a three-week neck injury for Sunday’s win at Miami and racked up 9 tackles (7 solo). That marked his second game of 7 solos among his past three appearances.
More importantly, though, it showed us Davis is ready ahead of a pair of favorable scoring matchups.
New England hosts the Packers in Week 9 and visits the Lions in Week 10. Those squads rank ninth and 13th in fantasy points per game provided to DBs, as well as third and 10th in pass attempts per game.
Playing across from CB Christian Gonzalez makes Davis the preferred corner to pick on and thus a solid weekly bet for tackle opportunities.
Nick Cross, S, Washington Commanders
This entry’s more speculative than the others.
We don’t really know what Nick Cross is as a Commander yet. We got just two games before his odd injury that led to a hospitalization, a surgery, and a quick discharge but no details from the team.
Cross has now been back for two games. He has tallied 8+ tackles (including 5 solos) in half of his four Washington appearances. His 4 tackles for loss among just 15 total solos show Cross continues to play close to the line, as he did with the Colts. And his extreme tackle production with his old team is half the reason the safety’s worth a claim this week.
The other half: his upcoming schedule.
The next four weeks hold the Rams, Giants, Bengals, and Cardinals, all of whom rank among the top 11 in fantasy points per game provided to DBs.
That stretch will certainly reveal just how usable this version of Cross is for our IDP lineups.
Find Out Who Makes Sense for Your Team
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Want some offensive waiver options? Check out this week's video below.
