Our IDP streamers last week had plenty of opportunities to fill the stat sheet, but not all of them could cash in. For example, Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson played 73 snaps but managed just two tackles and a pass defended. Meanwhile, Bears linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski was in on 49 snaps and even rushed the quarterback seven times but came up with just one tackle. Our non-secondary recommendations were even more frustrating. Steelers lineman Stephon Tuitt played the second-most snaps of any Pittsburgh lineman and managed two quarterback pressures but just two tackles. But perhaps the most frustrating recommendation of the season was Titans lineman Jurrell Casey. As a team, Tennessee hit Colts QB Jacoby Brissett 12 times, sacking him on eight of those. Casey himself created seven (!) quarterback pressures but couldn’t finish them off and finished with just two tackles and no sacks. At least Chiefs linebacker Reggie Ragland picked up the slack with nine tackles with three of those for a loss.
So we move on to Week 13 and the last regular-season game for many. Let’s see who we have streaming this week.
Defensive linemen
Yannick Ngakoue, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars have assembled quite the defensive line. From former top-three pick Dante Fowler to free agent pickups Calais Campbell and Malik Jackson and now the recently acquired Marcell Dareus, it should be hard for a former third-rounder to carve out any space. But that’s exactly what Ngakoue has done. He’s currently second on the Jaguars with 10 sacks on the season, including four games with multiple, and leads the league in forced fumbles with six. It would be helpful if he were more consistent, as he’s also had six games of two or fewer tackles with no sacks or forced fumbles.
This week should not be one of those weeks. The Jaguars play the Colts, who gave up eight sacks last week and give up a league-high 4.2 sacks per game. And according to our PFF graders, they have the seventh-worst pass-blocking unit and give up the fourth-most fantasy points to edge rushers in the league. Ngakoue should feast on that as he’s currently sixth in pass-rush productivity and has created 47 pressures on 321 pass rushing snaps. It wouldn’t be surprising if he turned in another double-digit sack effort.
Linebackers
Tahir Whitehead, Detroit Lions
Despite racking up 128 tackles last year, Whitehead was not a popular IDP pick going into this season. He was, literally, the worst-graded inside linebacker last year and was slated to move outside when the Lions took Florida LB Jarrad Davis in the first round. But Davis has had an inconsistent rookie season, missing a few weeks early on thanks to a concussion and receiving poor PFF grades, currently ranking 51st out of 53 eligible players at the position.
For Whitehead, he’s playing considerably better than last year and has earned the bump up in playing time. While still classified as an outside linebacker, he currently has the eighth-highest PFF overall grade at the position. He’s performed well rushing the passer, albeit on a limited basis, creating seven quarterback pressures on just 45 pass-rush snaps, a percentage good for 10th-best among outside linebackers. He’s performed even better against the run, forcing 25 stops against 278 run snaps, or 9 percent of such snaps, good for fifth among linebackers. The higher level of play is a big part of why Whitehead has now seen more snaps than Davis over the last two weeks, weeks that Whitehead recorded nine and 13 tackles. That trend should continue this week as the Lions opponent, the Ravens, give up the second-most fantasy points to linebackers.
Matthew Judon, Baltimore Ravens
While Terrell Suggs is the more productive Baltimore edge rusher, there’s another that has been performing well in IDP leagues. Judon was a fifth-round pick last year but has been able to do more after seeing a lot more of the field than he did in his rookie season. After playing just 30 percent of defensive snaps last year, he’s playing nearly 70 percent of snaps this year, good for sixth among all Ravens defenders, and has already set career highs in tackles (47) and sacks (6).
Judon has shown to be proficient against both the run and pass. For example, Judon is second on the team this season with five sacks and could easily tally more this week against a Lions team that gives up 3.3 sacks per game, tied for third-worst in the league, including three sacks in each game over the last three weeks. Judon also does well against the run, currently ranked 10th in PFF’s run-stop percentage with 15 stops on 208 run snaps. However, Detroit rushes the fourth-fewest amount of times per game at 23 so don’t look for a lot of opportunity there. Judon’s best chances of filling the stat sheet will be in the pass game where the Lions are 11th in pass attempts-per-game with 36.
Jon Bostic, Indianapolis Colts
Bostic is a player we’ve streamed before but is streamable again this week with his combination of opportunity and opponent. We’ll start with the opportunity where Bostic is fifth among linebackers with 66.7 snaps per game. Seeing the field that often has allowed Bostic to total 82 tackles so far, good for 14th in the league, despite being PFF’s 24th-best linebacker. In fairness, Bostic has been very good at tackling this season, currently ranking third in tackling efficiency out of 36 qualifying inside linebackers. He’s also only allowed one missed tackle out of 402 passing snaps.
But the reason Bostic is such an appealing play this week is the team he’ll be playing. Jacksonville gives up literally the most fantasy points to linebackers in the league and is one of the few teams to give up double-digit tackles to three linebackers in a game this season. Part of the reason is because Jacksonville just runs so many plays. They currently rank second with 67 plays per game, which is music to the three-down-linebacker owners’ ears. Another factor is the run game. Jacksonville leads the league with 371 rush attempts on the season but will be running into Bostic who’s got the ninth-highest run grade against the run out of 53 inside linebackers.
Defensive back
After a fairly non-descript IDP season, Bell has really turned it on the last two games. He has double-digit tackles over his last two games despite playing teams that don’t necessarily pass it a lot. For example, he had 11 tackles against the Rams, despite them averaging just 33 pass attempts per game, and 13 tackles against Washington, themselves just passing 34 times per game. So streamers shouldn’t be deterred by Bell’s opponent this week in Carolina who pass it just 33 times per game themselves. In fact, the Panthers are in the top-10 of fantasy points given up to safeties this season so it’s very possible Bell continues his double-digit tackle streak. It’s likely because of how well Bell has been at tackling in general, ranking 13th out of 70 safeties with a 11.8 percent tackling efficiency percentage. Furthermore, Bell has done extremely well in the pass rush, especially for a safety. His total of seven quarterback pressures is good for fourth at the position and he leads all defensive backs with 3.5 sacks.
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