All News & Analysis

Premium Content Sign Up

Week 17 IDP starts and sits

As always, make sure you’ve checked out Jeff Ratcliffe’s latest pieces if you want to stay on top of your IDP game. The work on tackles per opportunity (tPOP) helps identify the most favorable stat crews when it comes to awarding tackles, while the IDP Matchup Chart lets us key in on some of the best matchups on a positional basis. Jeff won his fourth straight title for his accuracy with his weekly IDP rankings this season, while I finished second (my fourth top three finish in five seasons). There is a reason PFF Fantasy is the home to the most accurate IDP rankers for the last four seasons according to FantasyPros, and data such as Jeff puts out is a large reason why.

Stop by the IDP section of the site and get the latest articles from both myself and Jeff.

Being Week 17, the final week of the season, the over-riding dynamic this week is the matchups (rather than form), so there will be some repetition of players mentioned in the Week 17 Waiver Wire piece, although I will focus on some of the better players with the top matchups as well.

Pass Rushers

It shouldn’t be a surprise to see some Vikings pass rushers mentioned immediately considering they’re playing the Packers, who allowed nine sacks last week, causing Aaron Rodgers to fumble three times. Everson Griffen hasn’t had the dominant season many expected, but has picked up his scoring in the second half of the season, recording 5.5 sacks since Week 7. He slid down rankings to be a mid DL2 at one stage this year but he'll be a low-end DL1 this week in such a great matchup. Don’t sleep on Brian Robison either. He took advantage of a good matchup in Week 13 against the Seahawks with two sacks, so with the Green Bay O-Line in utter disarray they’ll be looking to capitalize and help the team win the division. In fact Robison had notched up four sacks, two hits and nine hurries in the last four games, so he earns a low-end DL2 ranking this week, while rookie Danielle Hunter is much more of a boom-or-bust play due to his limited snap count, but has four sacks (and six hurries) of his own in the last three games.

Rams end William Hayes had a monster game last week against the porous Seattle line, scoring 29 points thanks to three sacks, four tackles for a loss and nine total tackles (seven solo). This week he gets the second best fantasy matchup for edge threats against the 49ers, who’s offensive line has allowed a league worst 15 sacks in the last four weeks, so will be looking for a similar performance on the field. The matchup doesn’t have quite the same rub for Aaron Donald, as the 49ers are actually the 11th worst matchup for defensive tackles, but Donald has to be considered matchup proof considering his 11 sacks, 22 hits and 39 hurries, not to mention +88.6 grade, which has the analysts at PFF suggesting he should be the Defensive Player of the Year.

DOMINATE FANTASY FOOTBALL & BETTING WITH AI-POWERED DATA & TOOLS TRUSTED BY ALL 32

Unlimited Fantasy League Sync
Fantasy Start/Sit Line-Up Optimizer & Waiver Wire
WR-CB & OL-DL Matchups, PFF Player Grades, & Premium Stats 2.0 Tools
Nathan Jahnkes Rankings - #1 Most Accurate Last 70 Weeks
PFF Best Bets, Player Props, & Power Ranking Tools
NFL Mock Draft Sim with Trades & Draft Grades

Already have a subscription? Log In

Ross Miles is a Lead Writer for Pro Football Focus Fantasy. Follow him on Twitter – @RossMilesNFL
Need more specific advice, start/sit help or expert opinions on trades? Let us know on Facebook by joining the conversation

All Featured Tools

Subscriptions

Unlock the 2023 Fantasy Draft Kit, with League Sync, Live Draft Assistant, PFF Grades & Data Platform that powers all 32 Pro Teams

$31 Draft Kit Fee + $8.99/mo
OR
$89.88/yr + FREE Draft Kit