All About Solo: Week Eleven
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 11.
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View the entire spreadsheet.
For the first time this season, a team had over 100 total tackles in a game. Led by Joe Haden, the Browns had a total of 47 solo tackles and 54 assists for a total of 101 total stops. Rarely will a team have 54 rushing attempts on top of 30 passes, but this was the main reason for it happening. The Browns defense potentially took a big hit this week with the probable loss of Karlos Dansby to a sprained MCL and Jabaal Sheard to a foot injury. From an IDP perspective, the main benefactors will be Craig Robertson in tackle heavy leagues and Barkevious Mingo in sack heavy leagues. Both can be high impact fantasy adds for the rest of the season with Chris Kirksey also seeing an uptick in production.
Brandon Marshall continues to produce at a high level while filling in for the Broncos and Charles Woodson turned back the hands of time to surprisingly put up 14 total tackles against the Chargers.
It sure looks like the Rams have figured out their defensive woes, especially from a fantasy standpoint. Not only did they pull off an incredible upset of the Peyton Manning led Broncos, Alec Ogletree, James Laurinaitis and Aaron Donald all put up big time numbers. Even though Robert Quinn didn’t record a tackle, he was a disruptive force all day and put his teammates in a great position to make plays. He did defend three passes and hit Manning once. Bigger stat days are ahead for him without a doubt.
The continued breakout of San Francisco linebacker Chris Borland hit a new level this week. Not only did he lead the team in tackles with nine solo and four assists, but he also intercepted two Eli Manning passes. Over the last three games, he is averaging 16 total tackles per contest. If he keeps this up, it could spell the end of Patrick Willis in San Francisco.
In Tennessee, Avery Williamson continued his breakout with eight total tackles and two sacks against the Steelers on Monday night. He now has 38 total tackles over the last three games and has proven to be a future building block for the Titans. He definitely should be owned in all dynasty IDP leagues.
It’s difficult to get noticed as a defensive end when your name isn’t J.J. Watt, but Mario Williams is putting together a truly impressive season for the Bills this season. The Dolphins had no answer for him on Thursday night as he got to Ryan Tannehill 3.5 times, bringing his season sack total to an even ten. Playing on that same defensive line is defensive tackle Marcel Dareus who also has ten sacks on the season and that leads all defensive tackles in the NFL. Say what you will about Jim Schwartz, but that guy can flat out coach a defense.
Looking forward to this week’s matchups I really like Sio Moore (vs KC), Justin Houston (at OAK), Avery Williamson (at PHI), Mychal Kendricks and Connor Barwin (vs TEN). I expect New England to attack the edges of the Detroit front seven with Shane Vereen as opposed to the middle with Jonas Gray. Look for DeAndre Levy to be a busy person this weekend, whether it’s chasing Vereen or Rob Gronkowski. He’s in line for a big IDP day.
In tackle heavy leagues, I’m leery of any Packers player putting up big time numbers against a Minnesota team struggling to get anything going. In big play leagues, it’s all systems go, though. Teddy Bridgewater has become too content to check the ball down and the Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers will be flying around at 100 mph knowing their offense has been flawless and can bail them out of any mistakes.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Colts offense looks like without Ahmad Bradshaw and how teams defend them. If Trent Richardson can’t at least pretend to be a threat, teams will drop seven or eight into coverage to stop T.Y. Hilton and Reggie Wayne.
Ryan Mallett proved to be competent for the Texans last week. If Arian Foster is able to play in this game the Bengals could struggle big time to stop him, but Vincent Rey and Reggie Nelson would be the main beneficiaries. On the other side, Brian Cushing is returning to serviceability and looks to be moving a whole lot better. If you need to be talked into starting Watt, you don’t deserve to have him.
Like most weeks, Buffalo’s defensive front four should wreak havoc, especially for Mike Vick and the Jets. I’d be shocked if Vick has less than three turnovers in this game between the interceptions and fumbles. You can expect a similar situation with the Jets and their front seven against the suddenly struggling Kyle Orton. If Fred Jackson is less than 100%, it could be even worse.
The Chargers haven’t been as impressive of late and now they’ll host the up and down Rams. Robert Quinn should light up the stat sheet and bring down Philip Rivers at least once. Aaron Donald is also a strong bet to perform well, as are Ogletree and Laurinaitis.
Even though they aren’t great weekly options, Keenan Robinson and Perry Riley have a good matchup with the 49ers and should be decent LB3 spot starts. With Robert Griffin III struggling mightily, you can expect the 49ers to be aggressive. Look for them to get Aldon Smith involved this week and be in RG3’s back pocket.
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
