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Week 2 IDP Hits

Is a Breakout Beginning?

I warned you earlier this week that DeMarvion Overshown’s strong Week 1 numbers came on limited playing time. Now it’s time to address why his NFL debut should still excite you …

Dallas drafted the LB in Round 3 last year after a sneaky-good college run. Overshown transitioned from safety to LB and racked up these big-play stats over his final three seasons at Texas:

• 22.5 tackles for loss
• 7 sacks
• 14 passes defensed

He backed that up at the Combine with an 85th-percentile 40 time and 85th-percentile broad jump (i.e. explosiveness).

But then an August ACL tear eliminated his rookie season.

When 58% Playing Time is a Good Thing

Dallas threw a muddled LB situation at us in Week 1, the beginning of Mike Zimmer’s second stint as DC. Playing time among non-edge LBs looked like this:

• Eric Kendricks 67%
• Overshown 58%
• Damone Clark 34%
• Nick Vigil 33%
• Marist Liufau 12%

For most redraft IDP leagues, the takeaway is that this situation looks more likely to frustrate you than help you.

Kendricks and Overshown both delivered helpful fantasy lines in Week 1. But doing so consistently on those amounts of playing time will be tough. And here’s where context matters …

Week 1 an Overshown Preview?

Let’s look further into the players above:

So what about the 2023 rookie who finally got a chance to play?

Overshown Impresses Right Away

The second-year LB earned the highest Pro Football Focus grade among all Cowboys defenders in Week 1 – and the third-highest among all NFL LBs (trailing only Fred Warner and Logan Wilson).

In his tape review of the Dallas defense, Patrik Walker of the team website said the LB group “was/is headlined by the return of former third-round pick DeMarvion Overshown. He didn’t play like a rookie in his NFL debut, period.”

Walker specifically lauded Overshown’s coverage play and open-field tackling – a pretty key combo of skills for keeping an LB on the field.

Here’s what teammate Micah Parsons had to say:

[Fire emoji … maybe three of them]

What to Do with Overshown

If you play in an average IDP redraft league that starts five defenders or fewer, then this situation probably isn’t worth your attention or patience. It’s entirely possible that Zimmer just keeps operating his LB corps the same way, limiting snaps while fitting guys into ideal roles within his scheme.

But …

It’s also possible that Zimmer and the 'Boys are easing Overshown in as a first-time NFL starter coming off an ACL tear.

It’s entirely possible Overshown impressed so much in his first game that Zimmer quickly starts looking to incorporate him even more.

The Cleveland game might have been the start of a breakout season.

Grab the LB Where It Makes Sense

Overshown should certainly be rostered in any IDP dynasty league of at least modest depth. And he’ll make plenty of sense in a number of redraft formats.

I dropped one of my preseason favorites, Atlanta LB Troy Andersen (more on him below), for Overshown in an industry IDP league this week.

Consider the second-year Cowboy in any league that has room for patience, in case his snap count stays down.

Now let’s look into more IDP situations from around the league … 

Atlanta Falcons

As I pointed out in the IDP waiver wire article earlier this week – and hinted at above in this article – I’m not staying patient with LB Troy Andersen.

You might look at his 46% playing time in the opener and wonder how different the situation is than Overshown’s. Well, Andersen split time with LB Nate Landman (54%), and both trailed LB Kaden Elliss (100%). That all backs up the limited reporting we got out of Atlanta: that coaches viewed it as three starters at ILB.

Andersen and Landman both ranked among the top 9 LBs in PFF grade for the week. So it’s tough to see a reason we should expect any change in deployment here.

All that said: If Landman goes down, you can bet Andersen will be in the ensuing waiver article. The upside remains if he gets a path to more playing time. (Ditto Landman in case of an Andersen injury.)

Detroit Lions

LB Jack Campbell drew a lot of buzz from coaches heading into his second training camp. But he opened 2024 with the same issue that plagued his fantasy potential last year.

The former first-round pick played only 56% of the defensive snaps in Sunday night’s win over the Rams – trailing not only LB Alex Anzalone (100%), but also LB Derrick Barnes (82%).

Barnes’ playing time was all over the place last season, but he finished the year playing more snaps than Campbell. Looks like we should expect that to continue this year at least until the Lions indicate otherwise with their usage.

Campbell looks fine to drop in most redraft IDP leagues.

Los Angeles Rams

The first game since the Ernest Jones trade found Troy Reeder leading Rams LBs by playing 100% of snaps. He also wore the green dot on his helmet, meaning he relayed play calls from DC Chris Shula to the defensive huddle.

That only increases Reeder’s chances of keeping his full-time role going forward. He trailed LB Christian Rozeboom 9-8 in tackles for the game, but Rozeboom played just 74% of the snaps. So don’t expect that to continue.

S Quentin Lake led the team with 10 tackles and was one of four Rams defenders to play every snap. Lake’s time at slot CB (38 of 68 snaps, per PFF) and snaps “in the box” (10) will continue to present fantasy-scoring opportunity.

I left him out of the waiver article, but Lake certainly looks worth a pickup and is climbing our DB rankings.

Minnesota Vikings

LB Ivan Pace Jr. told us all in July that the Vikings would have him wear the green helmet dot (i.e. calling plays in the defensive huddle).

Well, Week 1 found the second-year player staying on the field for just 55% of snaps. That’s nowhere near the playing-time rate of your typical huddle leader. And Pace wasn’t.

LB Blake Cashman took the dot and played 89% of the game. That rate likely would have been higher if the Giants had made it competitive. (Cashman’s final tackle came in the third quarter.)

There’s obviously room for Pace to improve that role. But it’s not a good sign that he opened there after closing his rookie year playing 100% of snaps in five of the final seven contests.

Pace looks droppable in plenty of IDP leagues. Treat Cashman as the clear corps leader going forward.

New York Giants

LB Micah McFadden looked promising last year. His 12 tackles for loss tied Edge Kayvon Thibodeaux for the team lead, despite McFadden playing just 65.3% of the snaps (243 total snaps fewer than Thibodeaux).

Now … he’s just a backup.

McFadden played zero snaps in the opener. He showed up limited on the injury report earlier in the week with a groin issue but carried no injury designation into the game.

Instead, he just got shoved aside by sixth-round rookie Darius Muasau.

Rookie Produces

Muasau grabbed an INT to go with 6 tackles (4 solo, 1 TFL) in the loss to Minnesota. So coaches probably aren’t second-guessing the starting decision. His 82% playing time represented a share McFadden reached just once last season.

The rookie brings an interesting production profile from a five-year college career that started at Hawaii (three seasons) and finished at UCLA.

He racked up 440 tackles, 16.5 sacks, and 40 tackles for loss across 63 games. Muasau added 5 INTs, 14 passes defensed, and 6 forced fumbles. But he also didn’t test particularly well. A 4.70-second 40 time at just 225 pounds produced a 31st-percentile speed score.

Of course, basically nothing went right for the Giants in the opener. So we’ll be watching for any type of Week 2 changes.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs expect S Antoine Winfield Jr. to miss at least two games for his Week 1 ankle injury – and maybe more. That leaves Christian Izien as his fill-in.

Izien probably doesn’t register on your IDP radar. He managed just 2 solo tackles in the opener, but he also spent about half his time filling in at outside CB – a position he said he hadn’t played since high school.

As a 2023 rookie, Izien spent about 84% of his time at slot CB. The versatility to play all those roles shows why the team is looking to him to fill in for the versatile Winfield.

We’ll see exactly how Izien’s playing time gets divvied among specific spots, and we certainly can’t expect him to play up to Winfield’s level. But Week 2 opponent Detroit also surely isn’t expecting that.

Don’t be surprised if the Lions go after a secondary that figures to be even softer than usual. That could mean lots of opportunities right away for Izien.

There’s risk to chasing such a player in his first fill-in start. But there’s also upside if your league’s deep enough to support the gamble.

Tennessee Titans

LB Ernest Jones played just 46% of the defensive snaps in his Titans debut Sunday against the Bears. That trailed both Kenneth Murray (100%) and Jack Gibbens (54%).

I’d bet on that increasing, but Jones isn’t a lock to take over the lead here. 

Sure, he last served as L.A.’s lead off-ball LB. But the Titans spent only a fifth-round 2026 pick to get him (plus a conditional 2026 sixth). By comparison, they paid Murray $15.5 million on a two-year contract in free agency.

I’ll admit: I hit the season just assuming that Jones would take the Tennessee lead. But I’ve already adjusted projections for Week 2 and beyond to remove that assumption.

Washington Commanders

It’s not yet clear whether we should care about S Jeremy Chinn in Washington.

His 3 total tackles in the opener obviously didn’t help anyone. His mere 80% playing time trailed fellow safety starter Quan Martin (92%) but also ranked a decent sixth on the team. 

More importantly, Chinn spent 29 of his 50 snaps (58%) in the box and another four at slot corner. Both positions tend to generate more fantasy production than a deep-safety spot, so that breakdown looks good.

But he’ll need to increase his total playing time to be usable in most IDP leagues.

Positive view: Washington’s D stunk in a 37-20 loss. Some changes are bound to come.

Negative view: Chinn’s never been very good in the NFL. That’s why he’s on a one-year contract at age 26. And that factor will always chip away at his fantasy reliability.

Verdict: We’ll see.

Who Belongs in Your IDP Lineup?

Have trouble figuring out which IDPs to get into your lineup each week? The Team Intel page combines our 3D Projections with the specifics of your situation to give you a clear picture every week.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.