Week two has come to a close and there were some players who have shown consistency in their game in what some saw as week one flukes. Lets take a look at who the top IDP waiver adds are after week two.
Waivers after week one have gotten quite thin in IDP leagues. That does not mean that there are not any players worthy of waiver adds. There were a couple of guys playing new roles who most needed to see a second week out of to add them to their teams. Well some of these guys proved that they are worthy of roster spots. Here I will tell you who the top IDP waiver adds are after week two.
Defensive Tackle
Johnathan Hankins - Oakland Raiders
2019 Stats: Seven tackles (4 solo), one tackle for a loss and a pass defensed.
Johnathan Hankins looked poised to be an IDP mainstay after his second season in the NFL with the Giants. During that season he produced 51 total tackles, eight tackles for a loss and seven sacks. That was in 2014 and he has only produced five sacks since, though the tackle numbers have still been there. When looking for waiver adds at the DT position you are more or less looking for consistency.
Hankins is the big man in the middle and can provide you some stable tackle production. He is a heavy snap guy and is solid in run defense. Watch here as he uses a nice punch move to get into the backfield:
6 inch step, Post Hand, Escape hand, Half a man, Seperation, Violence = Clinic #Repost @dlinevids1
Knockback: Johnathan Hankins strikes with violence & gets the desired knockback on the goal line for the huge TFL.
Knock those blockers back & re-establish the line of scrimmage! pic.twitter.com/qgPRGCWkut— Julius Williams (@JuliusTrenches) May 10, 2019
Hankins finished with five tackles in week two and face the now run heavy Vikings in week three and could put up some serviceable numbers again.
Defensive End
Trey Hendrickson - New Orleans Saints
2019 Stats: five tackles, two tackles for a loss, three sacks and a forced fumble.
Trey Hendrickson came out of nowhere in week one with three tackles, two tackles for a loss and two sacks. Most of us were still skeptical considering in Hendrickson's first two seasons he played in 17 games with zero starts tallying just 21 tackles, two for a loss and two sacks. He has already set a career high in sacks and we are finished with week two. In the past two weeks Hendrickson has averaged 54.5% of the teams snaps and has been a pass rushing menace. Watch here in week one where he beats former first round pick Laremy Tunsil for the sack:
Saints' Trey Hendrickson beats two first-round picks AND a second-round pick on his way to a sack.
what a playpic.twitter.com/A9OqSXUn7k
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) September 10, 2019
Hendrickson has seemed to have cemented himself into the edge rotation with the New Orleans Saints and has three sacks in two weeks. The Saints square off with the Seahawks in week three which bodes well for another good Hendrickson performance. The Seahawks have a historically bad offensive line and are right there again for 2019. Expect the Saints defensive line to eat again.
Al-Quadin Muhammad - Indianapolis Colts
2019 Stats: six tackles, two tackles for a loss, one sack and a forced fumble.
Last week I had Al-Quadin Muhammad pegged as one of my top sleepers. He showed up with four tackles, one for a loss and a forced fumble. He has been very productive for the Colts but has been standing in for the injured Jabaal Sheard. Sheard has yet been able to practice after his knee procedure which does not bode well for his week three status. This leaves the door open for Muhammad to make his third consecutive start.
Muhammad led all defensive lineman for the Colts in snaps in week two playing on 80% of them. The fact he out snapped Justin Houston shows the team has great faith in Muhammad's play. Sheard can be released with zero cap hit if need be. With how Muhammad and Kemoko Turay have played so far this season makes the aging veteran expendable. Even if Sheard comes back Muhammad will still steal snaps, he is worth an end of bench stash for DE needy teams.
Linebacker
Ryan Connelly - New York Giants
2019 Stats: eight tackles (5 solo) and one tackle for a loss.
Ryan Connelly is my must add of the week. Watching him in preseason as well as week one we all knew he had more talent than his running mate Tae Davis. The Giants took all of one week of regular season action to notice themselves. Week one Connelly only played on 38% of the teams defensive snaps. Week two that jumped to Connelly playing on 84% and his production was ample. He came up with six total tackles with three of them being solo. Watch this play he made in run defense this week:
https://twitter.com/EmperorMara/status/1173041923378094080?s=20
It is plays like these that can help change the look of the Giants defense. Ogletree no longer will need to be the only linebacker that can produce for this team. The Giants travel to Tampa Bay to face the Buccaneers who have allowed solid fantasy numbers to linebackers so far this year. After Peyton Barber just rushed 23 times against the Panthers, Connelly has the opportunity to make some plays week three.
Whitney Mercilus - Houston Texans
2019 Stats: seven tackles (six solo), one tackle for a loss, three sacks, one pass defensed, one interception and two forced fumbles.
Whitney Mercilus was a capable fantasy asset from 2013 through 2016. During that time he averaged 50 tackles, 10.5 for a loss and 7.87 sacks per season. Then came the emergence of Jadeveon Clowney and Mercilus took a back seat. Clowney was just recently traded to the Seahawks and Mercilus looks like his old disruptive self. Watch this beautiful spin move he put on the lineman to come up with the strip sack:
Whitney Mercilus put em in the spin cycle. pic.twitter.com/VlvppXqtVT
— Rippy & Jerry's Sports Talk (@RippyJerry) September 15, 2019
Mercilus has been very good at setting the edge this season and has been terrific in pass rush. They get the Chargers this coming week whose offensive line has been surprisingly a bit suspect. Look for Mercilus to continue to out up serviceable numbers.
Shaquil Barrett - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2019 Stats: eight tackles (six solo), four tackles for a loss and four sacks.
Shaquil Barrett seemed like a very nice signing for the Buccaneers this offseason. Now he seems like a prized acquisition. The Buccaneers are completely void of any pass rush outside of Barrett with Jason Pierre-Paul on the shelf. Luckily for them Barrett has been terrific. His four sacks so far this season leads the NFL. Watch here as Barrett does the superman celebration after taking down Cam Newton:
Shaquil Barrett had three sacks in less than SEVEN minutes last night. 😱
And wait until you see that celebration. 😂 @MOOCHIE048@Buccaneers | #GoBucs pic.twitter.com/ZYLBgJPZzJ
— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2019
Barrett gets to face the feeble New york Giants in week three. There should be no problem with Barrett getting behind the line of scrimmage yet again.
Safety
Montae Nicholson - Washington Redskins
2019 Stats: 14 tackles (11 solo), two passes defensed and an interception.
Montae Nicholson won the starting safety job next to Landon Collins after Ha Ha Clinton Dix left in free agency. In his first two games this season he has played exceptional averaging seven tackles a game. LAst week against Dallas he even intercepted Dak Prescott as you see here:
Half a dozen Cowboys missed tackles on INT before Randall Cobb-who tipped the catch initially-tackled Montae Nicholson. 23 yards on returnpic.twitter.com/UfLqet7LFY
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) September 15, 2019
The Redskins defense has not been all that bad this season and they see the field quite a bit. Nicholson gets the Bears in week three who are top five in giving up points to opposing safeties. Nicholson and Collins should both be fantasy starters in week three.
Rodney McLeod - Philadelphia Eagles
2019 Stats: 10 tackles (five solo) and a pass defensed.
Rodney Mcleod look like a shadow of his former self in week one which was his first game action since his season ending injury from 2018. Week two was a completely different story though. Against the Falcons he came up with seven tackles (five solo) and a pass defensed. McLeod was making tackles all of the field. He looked a lot like the player who has averaged 72.5 tackles, 6.2 passes defensed and 2.2 interceptions per season for his career.
McLeod looks to be an important part of the Eagles secondary with fellow veteran Malcolm Jenkins. He is set to play the Lions in week three and should have another productive game. Most of the high power safeties are already rostered but finding a safety who has averaged almost 75 tackles a season, that is now fully healthy, on waivers is hard to do. If you need a safety grab him now before he has another big game.
Cornerback
Charvarius Ward - Kansas City Chiefs
2019 Stats: 11 tackles (eight solo), two passes defended, one interception and one forced fumble.
Charvarius Ward is tied with fellow cornerback Bashaud Breeland for the most defensive snaps played on the entire defense, having played every snap. Ward though has been the more consistently productive of the two. Ward has been productive in many ways filling the stat line. He is also a very capable blitzer and you can almost add a sack to his stat line as he almost got the QB here:
Here is a look at Charvarius Ward coming off the CB Blitz.
More on this play and more in the RGR Film Room here 👇🏻https://t.co/EC1l0uFrxG #Chiefs #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/csotqAEUlW
— Ryan Tracy- Performance Consulting, Craft Industry (@RyanTracyNFL) September 11, 2019
Ward steps into week three going up against the surprisingly pass heavy Ravens squad and will look to cool off Lamar Jackson. This game has real shootout potential and Ward is almost a must start for the game.
Levi Wallace - Buffalo Bills
2019 Stats: 13 tackles (12 solo) and three passes defended.
Before the season started I pegged Levi Wallace as one of my cornerback second year breakouts. Wallace has not disappointed given a starting role with the team. He is averaging almost seven tackles a game and 1.5 passes defensed as well. Playing across from Tre'Davius White is always good for your IDP production and it helps actually being a good cover guy. Watch here as Wallace makes a great recovery on the ball to make the pass break up to force 4th down:
https://twitter.com/ftbeard_17/status/1170789420145840128?s=20
Levi Wallace gets the Bengals next week and will be matched up with either John Ross or Tyler Boyd who have combined for 41 targets in the first two games. I expect a big day out of Wallace for week three.
Conclusion
Those are your top IDP waiver adds after week two. There are not many DT options out there worth grabbing so you need to find the few with consistent tackle numbers at this point. There are a few DE's still worthy of a pick up that could be weekly starters. Linebacker has a few highly productive OLB's and one new starting ILB. As for DB's there are a couple of talented corners out there worthy of a week three start and some safeties who are worthy of a roster spot after producing in week two.
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