Week 17 Fantasy football waiver wire pickups: IDP

As we enter Week 17 of the fantasy football season, it’s that time of the week again when we scour the waiver wire for the top IDP prospects.

Okay. We do need an address the elephant in the room, and it’s the fact you’re playing in a Week 17 championship game. This is a huge oversight on the part of your league commissioner.

Week 17 is the week coaches bench players to get them as healthy as possible for the real-life playoffs. Fantasy studs you’ve ridden all year to this very championship game are bit players Sunday and freak results are all too commonplace. This opens the door for backups and backups to backups to become top Week 17 starts, and you’re suddenly forced into nightmarish decisions when you’re almost forced to make the illogical choice because it’s Week 17.

This whole scenario doesn’t sit well with me. If you’ve worked hard all year, drafted well, managed your roster with savvy pickups and excellent spot starts, then to have to deal with the chaos of Week 17… nah. Not cool. Pull your commissioner to the side and make them see sense. Stop this nonsense.

On to the recommendations this week.

Defensive linemen

Takkarist McKinley, Atlanta Falcons

McKinkley has not been a fantasy asset to start over the past month, failing to score over 10 points in his last four games combined. That said, his underlying pass-rush statistics have been pretty impressive. He ranks seventh among defensive linemen (min. 50% snaps) in pass-rush productivity since Week 12 with 21 total pressures, but tellingly only one was a sack (a half sack at that). Clearly with such a poor fantasy output he’s going to be available in your league, but don’t doubt that McKinley does have it in his arsenal to rack up the splash plays (see a three-sack haul in Week 4). Atlanta’s Week 17 opponent, Tampa Bay, has allowed 12 sacks in the last four games, and I like McKinley’s chances to add to that this week.