IDP Wednesday: Week 8

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By: Justin Curry (10/28/2009)

IDP Wednesday is dedicated to the stepchildren of the Fantasy Football world - The Individual Defensive Players. It's broken up into the following six parts:

1. Go and Get 'Em - This section is dedicated to players you should think about for the rest of the way.
2. The Favorable & Formidable Fives - This section lists the five best and worst teams allowing points to the DL, LB and DB positions this year.
3. Bye-Week Fillers - This section is dedicated to the players who may not be great, but should have a solid, if not spectacular week because of the situation they're in this week.
4. IDP Opportunity - The average NFL game has 125 plays (average for one team is 62 offensive plays and 63 defensive plays). This section illustrates the top and bottom five teams that are above and below that average for both offense and defense showing you which IDP players are getting more opportunities to pad their stats.
5. Playoff Considerations - This section is devoted to what you need to be thinking about with the playoffs coming up.
6. IDP Injury Considerations - This section is devoted to who's out and who you should get as a replacement.

Hope you enjoy and please keep in mind that for the purposes of this article, I am excluding the top 20 linebackers, top 15 defensive backs and top 10 defensive linemen as I'm assuming that they are already on someone's team.

Go and Get 'Em

DL

Previous Recommendations I Still Like:

Andre Carter, Elvis Dumervil, James Hall (hurt), Jimmy Wilkerson

This Week:

1. Jason Taylor (Miami Dolphins - DE) - Well, it's kind of a slow week when it comes to the DL position, but I'm going to try. Jason Taylor is the first recommendation. Thus far this season, he's averaging 2 solo tackles, 1 assist and 1 sack. Last week, he had 3 solo tackles, 2 assists and 2 sacks. If you have Andre Carter or Jimmy Wilkerson and need a guy, he should fill in nicely as he gets the Jets this week who are the third most favorable team for him to play at his position. Hopefully this week Sanchez will be a little more worried about Mr. Taylor and little less worried about eating that hot dog for you if you decide to play him.

2. Anthony Hargrove (New Orleans Saints - DT) - When Sedrick Ellis found himself on the sidelines with a knee injury, Hargrove made the most of his opportunity and ended the day with 4 solo tackles and 2 sacks. In comes Atlanta. Though they are usually pretty good at protecting Matt Ryan, last week was a disaster for them in Dallas, so the tide might be turning. If Ellis misses some time, Hargrove could be a very nice play for a little while.

LB

Previous Recommendations I Still Like:

Eric Barton, Keith Brooking (downgrade as Bobby Carpenter replaces him on 3rd downs now), Keith Bulluck, Brian Cushing, Andra Davis, Keith Ellison, Larry Foote, David Hawthorne, LeRoy Hill, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Thomas Howard, Calvin Pace, Mike Peterson, Paul Posluszney, Stephen Tulloch, Will Witherspoon

This Week:

1. Calvin Pace (New York Jets - OLB) - This is someone I mentioned last week (IDP Wednesday - Week 7 ). If you took my advice, picked him up and put him in along with my Will Witherspoon recommendation ahead of him, you probably found yourself with the two highest producers in all of IDP last week. Let's keep this quick, you're welcome, now lets move on and keep this train rollin', freinds. Pace finished last week with 6 solo tackles, 1 assist, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 1 pass deflection. Bye-bye, Kris Jenkins. Hello, Pro-Bowl! Since returning from suspension, Pace is now averaging 6 solo tackles, 1 sack and a little less than 1 forced fumble a game. No matter what scoring format your IDP league has, you need to get this man until he starts to slow down.

2. Tim Dobbins (San Diego Chargers - ILB) - Filling in for Kevin Burnett who was injured and not having to compete with Stephen Cooper for tackles who was also on the sidelines, Dobbins found himself having a monster day. When it was finished, he had 11 solo tackles, 1 interception and 1 pass deflection. With Burnett more than likely out again this week, Dobbins should have another good one against Oakland. Don't expect him to have 11 solo tackles again this week, however, as Stephen Cooper should be back in action to take some of those tackles away from him.

3. Bye-Week Linebackers (Cincinnati, Kansas City, New England, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Washington) - By Week 7, many fantasy football teams who are struggling are just trying to win this week. When this happens, there judgement starts to get clouded and they will sometimes do things irrationally. If someone in y

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