All About the Solo: Week Seven
One of the more frustrating things in IDP leagues is seeing your stud linebacker fly all over the field on game days only to see the home score keeper dilute his performance by divvying up his tackles as an assist. Not everybody knows this, but the NFL does not recognize a tackle as an official statistic. Tackles are scored by the home team’s official score keeper and those are the stats you see on news and stats sites. The league made an effort to standardize what is and isn’t a solo tackle back in 2007 when they sent a video to all NFL teams, but it still the discretion of the score keeper and there is a large disparity from team to team and week-to-week. I will be tracking this throughout the season to give you a better idea of what to expect when choosing your IDPs each week. The chart below shows the results through week seven.
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Last week, we saw the Miami Dolphins’ home score keeper award zero assists to the visiting Green Bay Packers. They were the first team of the season to be credited with all solos. This week, in an odd twist of fate, the Dolphins were on the road in Chicago and were credited with zero assists themselves. We went from extremely rare to seeing it in back-to-back weeks. The week’s leading tacklers are listed below.
This week’s leading tackler was Curtis Lofton with 13 solo tackles and three assists. It was by far his best game of the season. He has been up and down throughout 2014 but with the Saints playing with fewer leads this season, teams are able to run on them a lot more and as a result, Lofton is seeing more tackle opportunities. Vincent Rey nearly matched his entire 2014 stats in week seven and his numbers were helped by the early departure of Vontaze Burfict due to a neck injury. Don’t expect this to continue. Also inflating these numbers was the Bengals’ inability to get the Colts’ offense off the field. Joplo Bartu continued playing over Prince Shembo and this has been a weekly boom or bust situation for both of them. It’s difficult to predict who defensive coordinator Mike Nolan will play week-to-week.
Both Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower were solid IDP plays in Jarod Mayo’s absence. Both will maintain weekly starter status with Hightower being the better play in tackle heavy leagues and Collins being the guy in big play leagues.
Paul Posluszny tore his pectoral muscle and won’t play again this year. It’s unfortunate because he was having another solid IDP campaign and has no clear backup for us to pounce on. I hope Jacksonville takes this opportunity to feature their solid rookie linebacker, Telvin Smith. If he’s available on your waiver wire, he is the guy I want, not anyone listed as Posluszny’s backup.
Lawrence Timmons enjoyed another solid day at the office against Arian Foster and the Texans on Monday night with 11 solo tackles and an assist. He has been one of the few bright spots on a disappointing Steelers defense. Ryan Shazier is expected back this week and will have a negative effect on Timmons’ IDP value. He racked up 20 total tackles in just over two games. Timmons could be a solid sell high candidate this week.
This week kicks off with the Chargers and Broncos on Thursday night and I really like Brandon Marshall, Von Miller, T.J. Ward and DeMarcus Ware. It also wouldn’t shock me to see Sylvester Williams to have a solid game attacking the interior of the Chargers’ offensive line. On the other side, I don’t love anyone from the Chargers’ front seven but Donald Butler has the best opportunity to put up ok IDP stats. I would play any member of the secondary I have though. Eric Weddle and Marcus Gilchrist are going to be very busy.
This week could be a blood bath for the Atlanta Falcons’ makeshift offensive line with Ndamukong Suh and Ziggy Ansah coming to town. Every defensive lineman for the Lions has some varying degree of value this week. Beyond Suh and Hood, Jason Jones, George Johnson, Nick Fairley and C.J. Mosley are all plug and play options. I just hope Matt Ryan makes it out alive and healthy.
What in the world is up with Brian Cushing? Week six was rough with just two solo tackles and two assists, but this week was a killer. He played 78% of the defensive snaps and registered… one assist. One. Freaking. Assist. It’s fair to wonder if he’s having issues with his surgically repaired knees because he was getting tossed around Monday night by the barely average offensive line of the Steelers. He’s practically impossible to bench based on upside (he had 34 total tackles from weeks three through five), but pay attention to practice reports and word out of Houston this week. If something sounds fishy, don’t hesitate to bench him.
Early reports out of Philly are Mychal Kendricks has returned to practice and, barring setbacks, will start this week. Kendricks was playing great before injuring his calf in week two but is expected to finally be 100%. He’s an every down player and every week starter when healthy.
The collateral damage of Brian Orakpo’s season ending pectoral injury is the attention will now solely focus on Ryan Kerrigan without a pass rushing presence on the other side. He has 6.5 sacks on the season, but four of them came against Chad Henne and the Jacksonville Jaguars in week two. I’d try to sell Kerrigan right away, before this week’s game.
Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.
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- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Seven - October 24, 2018
- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Six - October 16, 2018
- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Five - October 10, 2018
