Weekly Rankings: Ranking Each IDP Position For Week 16

Welcome to QB List’s weekly rankings! Each week, I’ll be taking a look at the upcoming match-ups and ranking each IDP position. Here are the ranks for Week 16 of the fantasy football season.

Week 16 Notes:

• For most owners, week 16 means the fantasy football finals. I know of some leagues where the final is next week or you even take the average of the next two to crown a champ. But for the vast majority of owners, this one is for all the marbles. We will focus on matchups this week, and again best of luck to you!

• Let’s take a look at the positive scoring matchups based on tackles per opportunity (TPO). This is a rough week, not a single team in the top 5 in TPO are hosting home games this week. You will want to stick to who got you here and sprinkle in a few positive matchups where you can find them.  Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars at San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants at Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots. 
• Minnesota at Green Bay leads our defensive line matchups of the week. Get both Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter into your line-ups. Terrell Suggs, T-Sizzle,  traveling to Indianapolis should also be a great matchup. T.J. Watt has slowed down as the long NFL season continues, but he won’t have a more positive matchup than this week at Houston. Olivier Vernon needs to be in the lineup this week. Arizona has allowed a player multiple sacks in three straight weeks and it doesn’t look to be any different this week. If you want to go for a long-shot, look at Anthony Lanier and Matt Ioannidis in Washington, going against an awful Denver line. Either may be a sneaky contributor to a fantasy championship.
• Next, we can look at the bad matchups for edge players. Philadephia hosts Oakland on MNF but the Raiders are giving up a league-low 12.5 fantasy points to DEs. Expect a low output from that incredible defensive line. The Los Angeles Chargers also have a negative match-up, the Titans are second lowest in the league in DEs fantasy scoring. While I would never recommend benching your studs, you should expect Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram to be held in check. Michael Bennett has been quiet for a few weeks and I expect that to continue going against the Dallas Cowboys. Even with Tyron Smith expect to sit, Bennett does his damage inside, where the Cowboys still have one of the best interior lines in the league.
• We have some big names at linebacker who are facing tough injury questions or are done for the year. This is the time of the year where surprising names get snaps and end up preforming well, often winning leagues. Here are a few names to pay attention to this week. Brock Coyle going against the Jaguars this week. The Jags are one of the leagues best LB matchups and Brock’s numbers have been solid for a few weeks now. In Indianapolis, Antonio Morrision takes over in the middle after Jon Bostic was placed on IR. Indy plays Baltimore this week, the second-best matchup for fantasy LBs this year. Pay attention to the linebacker injury situation in Cincinnati, facing Detroit. The Lions have allowed huge numbers and big plays to LBs.  Vincent Rey could be in for a huge game if the Bengals are short-handed due to injury.
• In the defensive back field I have huge concerns with one player in particular, Landon Collins. The worst scenario for a fantasy owner is starting your stud who’s injured, only to have him limited in the game or pulled after a few snaps, thus wasting a starting spot. Collins has come out and said “I shouldn’t play, but I’m going to”. It’s a tough call but the right thing to do is sit him, perhaps even looking at Darian Thompson, who had 9 tackles and a pass defended last week. Kenny Vaccaro is headed to the IR after playing 100% of the snaps last week. Vonn Bell gets a huge upgrade, the Falcons are giving up big numbers all year to safeties.  If you own Jordan Poyer or Micah Hyde get them both into your line-ups this weekend. The Patriots are among the best secondary matchups in the league. Likewise, Daniel Sorsenson and Marcus Peters go against Miami, the best fantasy matchup for secondary all year. FInally, for some shots in the dark we look at a couple of young players getting increased looks heading down the stretch. Quandre Diggs has been starting at SS for the Lions and balling these last two weeks. In Chicago, Eddie Jackson is a big play waiting to happen. Cleveland leads the league in giveaways, and it only makes sense for Jackson to get at least one this week.
• Finally, please feel free to ask any line-up questions about your big games this weekend. You can reach me @dingwog on Twitter.

Below are the full IDP rankings for Week 16 thanks to this widget from FantasyPros: