(Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire)
Week 13 Notes
- Chiefs S Eric Berry practiced for this week for the first time this season. I believe the Chiefs will ease him in and may even sit until week 14, just in time for the fantasy playoffs. If you are struggling at safety see if you have some room on your bench.
- DE Joey Bosa made owners proud this week, as he exploded for two sacks in limited snaps. He will only get better as the year closes and is again a Top 5 DL for owners.
- Arizona DT Robert Nkemdiche has enjoyed a solid, yet not up and down, season but last week he dominated with 2.5 sacks. He should be rostered in DT specific leagues and could be used for a fantasy owner in a pinch at DL. He does have a favorable fantasy playoffs schedule.
- Secondary players on awful defenses are often fantasy gold. Enter Bucs S Jordan Whitehead, who had 10 solos tackles last week and looks to be a sneaky play heading down the stretch. The Bucs have lost both starting linebackers for the season and that means more opportunity for players like Whitehead.
- If you are still rostering Jaguars LB Myles Jack you may want to look elsewhere for a player you can trust. Jack is averaging less than four tackles a game, and will likely finish with less than 60 on the year. Owners should not be starting Jack in our most critical time of the season and at this point, he is rostered on name value alone.
- Instead, take a look on your wire and see if Browns LB Joe Schobert is available. After returning to the lineup two weeks ago, he was back in his every-down role and highly productive. It’s possible he is unclaimed after missing time with injury.
- Also returning to the lineup is Falcons LB Deion Jones who is finally been cleared to play after missing 10-games with a foot injury. Jones is a star and could make an instant impact when he gets his sea legs. Stash him if you can but try and see what his playing time is this week before trusting him in your lineup.
- Bears rookie LB Roquon Smith had his third Top 10 week in four weeks. Smith has yet to play all of the snaps but it hardly seems to matter. He has an outside shot of finishing with triple-digit solo tackles and should be in your lineups each week as an LB1.
Positive / Negative Home Stat Crews
Here is this week’s list of positive and negative matchups. We break down the top and bottom three matchups where home stat crews either hand out tackles and assists or are stingy with them. This metric is Tackles Per Opportunity or TPO and we can use these games to break ties for our lineups.
Note: the matchups are not favorable for fantasy owners this week. Think about getting some big-play defensive players in your lineups to make a difference.
Top 3 TPO Games at Home this week = Bears @ Giants, Cardinals @ Packers, Panthers @ Buccaneers
Bottom 3 TPO Games at Home this week = Broncos @ Bengals, Vikings @ Patriots, 49ers @ Seahawks
Below are the full IDP rankings for Week 13 thanks to this widget from FantasyPros: