Fantasy Football's Week Seven's IDPs to Start/Sit

By Sean Haugh

I am going to change up the column until I really find my voice with this. My strength is in spotting IDP trends and rising players earlier than most, and working the waiver wire relentlessly until I have put together a dominating roster. That is the edge I want to share with you.

Trying to pick specific weekly starts and sits feels like throwing drunken darts at a moving board. Honestly, I have trouble looking at myself in the mirror when my so-called Start of the Week lays a big goose egg for me and anyone who followed my advice.

Not to fear, Start and Sit advice will still be featured prominently in this column. Instead of guessing about this week’s numbers, I want to tell you about opportunities that will allow you to fill out a solid roster top to bottom, as well as the ones that seem tempting but should be shunned. This way you can survive a disappointing outing or two and seize that winning edge long term.

IDP makes you a complete fantasy player

Studying the defensive side of the game from a fantasy perspective makes you better at the offensive side as well. For example, if you realize that Kansas City has zero linebackers worth a darn, that tells you Dr. X’s Start of the Week Chris Johnson, and probably LenDale White, too, are great calls for Week Seven.

Similarly, once you know that the Seattle secondary is, essentially, Marcus Trufant and several bags of sand, if you are scouring the waiver wire to replace Tony Romo this week then you’ll be drawn in the direction of Jeff Garcia as your smart waiver-wire pickup.

Even if you play in leagues that start DSTs instead of IDPs, taking a gander at the fantasy IDP rankings and roster changes will help you make those crucial lineup decisions for your offensive skill players.

Someone who paid attention to Baltimore’s defensive injury report could have been ahead of the curve and predicted that Indianapolis would find unexpected success against them last week.

One aspect of having to start defensive linemen in particular is you learn the importance of monitoring offensive line injuries and replacements. Let’s start a tour of the current IDP trends with this principle.

The shifting role of Defensive Tackles

Up until now, I’ve stuck to conventional wisdom, avoiding defensive tackles in favor of defensive ends. Last week, I was faced with a lineup choice that convinced me to shed this old-school thinking.

I’ve gone back and forth on Derrick Harvey all year. A couple weeks ago, I impetuously scooped him up from every waiver wire where I could find him. With my stud Kyle Vanden Bosch on bye, I decided to let Harvey keep sitting and began hunting for a fill in.

I settled upon the Minnesota-Detroit matchup, where I had a choice of Ray Edwards or Kevin Williams. Conventional wisdom suggested that the DE opposite Jared Allen, Edwards, would benefit from this chaos. But one correct bold decision later, I saw Kevin Williams explode for four sacks on his way to 40 fantasy points. 40 points!! I won that game by five.

You hear it all the time; the NFL is a copycat league. Lost in all the hype about the sudden proliferation of the Wildcat formation are all the defensive schemes, which are also spreading like a contagion across the league.

The first step is simply developing a whole lot of defensive schemes and changing them up rapidly. Ron Jaworski did a great job on Monday Night Football breaking down all the different looks Cleveland was showing to the Giants to befuddle them. I tell you what; defensive coordinators are busy studying that film as we speak.

This means IDPs keep shifting around, playing in all kinds of positions and being asked to do all kinds of different things. We’ve already touted the value of DE/OLB hybrids like Terrell Suggs and Justin Smith in this column. You have guys like St. Louis’ James Hall, who is scored as a DT but can play all four basic defensive line positions in a game or even on the same series.

Albert Haynesworth has revolutionized his position and created another phenomenon that teams around the league are furiously trying to replicate. No longer is a defensive tackle just expected to tie up as many offensive linemen as possible to clog running lanes and create opportunities for their ends.

More often, they are asked to bust on through the line and go for the sack, or shift over a bit to attack the gap and stop the run.

So are DTs such as Haynesworth, Kevin Williams, Dallas’ Jay Ratliff, Tennessee’s Tony Brown, and the Giants’ Fred Robbins in the top 30 or better of all your DL options for the rest of the season?

I say yes, absolutely. Especially if they are playing the Lions these next few weeks. They will be more boom and bust than the top DEs, but when they go off you will probably win that game.

If you’re looking for a waiver-wire gem in this mold, may I suggest Cincinnati’s Domata Peko? The time when DL studs start finding their game is in the middle of their second year, which is where this Michigan State product is now. He’s quietly turning into a bread-and-butter tackle guy, which is IDP gold at DL. When you get the tackle opportunities, the big plays will eventually follow.

Watch these situations because the number of tackle opportunities is finite. DTs rising means that some DEs will fall in production. Besides Edwards, other DEs who have lost some fantasy luster Mathias Kiwanuka with the Giants, Jevon Kearse in Tennessee and Cincinnati’s Antwan Odom.

The DeMarcus Ware Watch

Ask Magic Eight Ball, because the Magic Eight Ball shtick never gets old:

Will DeMarcus Ware tie the consecutive games sack record this week?

Answer: You may rely on it!

This is history we’re watching folks. Don’t take it for granted, for it is the stuff of football legend. All who sit DeMarcus Ware shall be forever shamed.

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