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Week 7 IDP Hits: Who's Your LB Now?

Lots of Role Changes to Cover

This week’s focus: LB fragility. And I’m not even talking about injury.

The biggest LB news this week, of course, was the premature end of Fred Warner’s season. And we covered his replacement -- Tatum Bethune -- in Tuesday’s Week 7 IDP Waivers article.

Other LB changes I hit there:

• Rookie Barrett Carter taking the LB lead in Cincinnati. (That continued with 100% playing time in Thursday night’s win over Pittsburgh; Demetrius Knight followed at 84%.
• Germaine Pratt taking over the No. 2 LB spot for the Colts, with the potential to even overtake Zaire Franklin for the position’s scoring lead.

But there were more LB items from Week 6 that deserved attention. They just fell short of revealing a good waiver target for this week. And then, of course, Thursday night’s game delivered another turn to my own personal Payton Wilson journey.

So let’s start there as we spin around the league. And we’ll hit some non-LB situations as well.

Guess We Just Can’t Trust Payton Wilson’s Role

If you’re sick of hearing about the second-year Steelers LB in this space … sorry. I’m honestly sick of having to write about him here.

I’d love to just be able to quietly project him in mid-to-high LB2 range every week and enjoy the cross-category scoring ability. But Pittsburgh continues trying to figure out how to balance the physical ability with the lackluster performance.

Before the Week 5 bye, Wilson got an 87% snap share and delivered (along with strong fantasy numbers) and TD-saving tackle that excited coaches. But he came out of the bye to find just 66% playing time in the win over Cleveland. And then came a season-low 43% snap share in Thursday night’s loss to the Bengals.

Perhaps the clearest signal that you can’t trust Wilson going forward: Cole Holcomb has opened two straight games on the field ahead of Wilson, coming out of the bye. Wilson had started three of the first four contests.

Holcomb played a season-high 55% of the snaps vs. Cincinnati. He has fluctuated as well, though. Check out the weekly shares:

• 0%
• 20%
• 50%
• 13%
• 34%
• 55%

Barring some clear new trend, neither guy should be in your IDP plans.

Expect to see Wilson dip to LB4 range in our weekly rankings, and perhaps further if his playing time continues to decline. The displayed fantasy-scoring potential is the only thing keeping hiim from total obscurity.

Speaking of Unpredictable Steelers …

Thank goodness S DeShon Elliott made it back from his personal matter in time for Thursday’s game, because he’s the only Pittsburgh safety we can trust.

Elliott left Week 1 early with injury, but since returning he has played all but seven defensive snaps across the past three games. And that’s for a Pittsburgh defense that has topped 75 defensive snaps in each of those games. (NFL average is 61.0 per game this season.)

Elliott’s a reliable weekly IDP option. But Steelers safeties have otherwise been a patchwork quilt of blech.

Expect the shuffling to continue in a secondary that just allowed a 342-3-0 passing line to Joe Freakin’ Flacco.

And for IDP purposes, ignore all Pittsburgh safeties not named DeShon Elliott.

Upheaval in the Seattle LB Corps

Seahawks No. 2 LB Tyrice Knight has seen Drake Thomas cut into his snaps over the past three games. Last time out, Thomas took them away almost completely.

Knight officially started the first three games but not the last three. His playing time interestingly rebounded from 31% in Week 4 to 49% the following week. But then he played just two snaps in the win at Jacksonville.

Thomas jumped to a then-season-high 66% playing time in Week 4, his first start of the year. That dipped to 41% the following game -- but then jumped to 91% last week.

Thomas has also delivered a tackle for loss in each of the past three games, including a pair of sacks, and defensed a pass in two of those three contests.

Expect Thomas to keep that lineup spot. Though I’ll obviously be watching for further fluctuations.

One Reason for Caution on Thomas

I’d go ahead and bet on Thomas over Knight the rest of the way, but one factor keeps me hesitant about anointing Thomas a solid IDP asset: the secondary.

Seattle sports more talent in the secondary than at LB, but we haven’t been able to see that whole group healthy yet. Most notably, we haven’t seen a single game that included:

• a healthy Nick Emmanwori
• a healthy Devon Witherspoon
• and a healthy Julian Love

Why’s that most notable, and what does it have to do with the LBs?

Emmanwori -- the second-round rookie -- isn’t expected to displace either starting safety, Love or Coby Bryant. Since returning from his ankle injury, he has played mostly in Witherspoon’s vacated role. But he’s also not going to displace a healthy Witherspoon.

The best version of Seattle’s defense might include three safeties playing near-full time, with Emmanwori as the No. 3 there. And at 6’3, 220 (according to the Seahawks website), Emmanwori’s not all that different size-wise than the top two LBs:

• Ernest Jones: 6’2, 230
• Thomas: 5’11, 228

I’d assume Seahawks coaches are more excited about Emmanwori’s potential than Thomas’. So we’ll see how all this fits together now that everyone’s getting healthier.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pick up Thomas in leagues deep enough for that to make sense. Just a non-obvious potential factor to keep in mind.

Your Regular Akeem Davis-Gaither Update You Probably Didn’t Ask For

Like Payton Wilson, Davis-Gaither has made regular appearances here for his fluctuating playing time. The former Bengal hasn’t established anywhere near the upside that Wilson has displayed, but he’s a potentially usable IDP.

That’s why it’s worth continuing to track his weekly snap shares:

• 37%
• 62%
• 80%
• 79%
• 55%
• 85%

Sunday marked a season high, but it also marked just his fourth-largest snap total.

Combine that with a stat profile that includes two more assists (23, 3.8 per game) than solo tackles (21, 3.5) for the year, with no big plays to date, and we can probably just pay less attention to this guy than I have so far.

Chargers LBs Look Muddled Beyond Henley

Denzel Perryman returned to practice ahead of the Chargers’ Week 6 clash with the Dolphins but didn’t actually get activated from IR, despite a pair of full practices.

This week finds Perryman questionable again after three full practices. But the team activated him Saturday and might need Perryman to take over for Troy Dye. He’s questionable with a thumb injury that cost him the full practice week.

Of course, we’ll have to see about the actual game status for each player. And we’ll also need to see how they fit together when both healthy. Perryman led Dye in playing time when both were healthy last year. We have yet to see a healthy from Perryman this year, though. He suffered a high ankle sprain on his eighth snap of Week 1.

While we’re watching this situation play out, be wary of Troy Dye continuing his IDP relevance.

Elandon Roberts Probably Still Irrelevant for IDP

I wondered if we might get usable tackle numbers from Roberts in the wake of Germaine Pratt’s Las Vegas exit, but they don’t seem to be on the way.

Roberts followed a 94% snap share in Week 5 -- the game in which Pratt got dumped from the lineup -- with a 74% share in Week 6. And he has yet to tally more than 5 tackles in a game this year. Roberts also has just one outing with more than 2 solo tackles.

He entered this year with strong efficiency in his tackle collection (tackles vs. snaps played), but there’s nothing worth chasing about his profile right now.

49ers Safeties Get Big Shakeup

As I mentioned near the top, Fred Warner’s injury led the defensive news out of San Francisco last week. But the team’s safety spots got an overhaul in the same contest.

The Niners welcomed S Malik Mustapha back from the physically unable to perform list, where he had been working his way back from an ACL tear that occurred Week 18 of last season.

Mustapha didn’t start his first game back, but he did jump in for a 40% snap share. That cut directly into the playing time of S Marcus Sigle, who has been a top-20 fantasy scorer among DBs to date.

That playing time says Sigle’s IDP relevance might be done, barring another injury to someone. I’d bet Mustapha’s playing time continues to rise as he gets back closer to full strength.

Jason Pinnock Also Got the Boot

Sigle wasn’t the only Week 6 casualty at safety. The 49ers also dumped Pinnock from the starting lineup, in favor of Ji’Ayir Brown.

Brown, a third-round pick from 2023, hadn’t played more than 38% of the snaps in a game through Week 5 and had played 12 snaps or fewer in four of the first five games. But he played every down of the loss to Tampa Bay.

That’s an interesting move given that Brown opened this year as a clear reserve after logging 18 starts over his first two seasons, including 13 last year.

Mustapha’s the most interesting option at the position, but we’ll obviously need to see full playing time for him before trusting him in fantasy lineups.

The New Safety in Baltimore

Edge Odafe Oweh was the more prominent name in the recent Chargers-Ravens trade. But the deal’s ingredients indicated that Oweh was valued only slightly more than S Alohi Gilman.

Baltimore acquired Gilman and immediately tossed him into the starting lineup, alongside safeties Kyle Hamilton and Malaki Starks.

Gilman played 83% of the snaps in the loss to the Rams, ranking seventh among Baltimore defenders in that category.

According to Pro Football Focus, he spent the largest portion of that time “in the box” (25 of 44 snaps), while also seeing some action in deep coverage and the slot.

We’ll see about Gilman’s playing time after this week’s bye and with more healthy Ravens returning. But they likely acquired him to play a significant role going forward in a struggling D.

Tyson Campbell Starts Immediately

It wasn’t obvious from his 5 tackles, but CB Tyson Campbell took over a starting spot and played 90% of the defensive snaps in his first game after Jacksonville traded him to Cleveland.

Campbell also defensed two passes in that clash with Washington. He has gotten his hands on at least one in five of six games this year and delivered 2+ breakups twice.

Expect that playing time to pick up even further going forward and for Campbell to stay busy in coverage. That might not prove quite as true this week, though, with weather expected to be rainy and windy for the Browns-Dolphins clash.

Week 7 Injuries to Watch

Let’s close this one out with the “questionable” defenders I’ll be checking on for the remaining Week 7 games, relatively in order of fantasy relevance:

• Blake Cashman (hamstring)
• Harold Landry (ankle)
• Abdul Carter (hamstring)
• Dre Greenlaw (quad)
• Jalen Carter (heel)
• Jaylinn Hawkins (hamstring)
• Nate Hobbs (knee)
• T’Vondre Sweat (ankle)
• Dre’Mont Jones (knee)
• Mason Graham (knee)
• Isaac Yiadom (hamstring)

Cashman got activated Saturday from IR and should be ready to start.

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Week 7 IDP Waiver Wire: Who's That New Guy in Charge in Cincinnati?

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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.