Fantasy Football 2011: IDP Waiver Wire

We had a banner week here at IDP Waiver Wire. Our top three suggested adds for linebackers, Sean Lee, Pat Angerer and Sean Weatherspoon, all had very good games. Kam Chancellor, Morgan Burnett, Sean Jones, LarDarius Webb, and Jon McGraw also lived up to the billing. Most of those guys should already be owned. If they are sitting out there on your wire, then it might behoove you to use your waiver position since the cat is out of the bag a bit (especially on Angerer, Lee, Chancellor and Burnett).

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Defensive Backs
I would rather have most of the guys from last week’s column over any of these guys (Chancellor, Burnett, McGraw, Webb and Jones).

Jarrad Page- The Philly secondary gets a lot of press and justifiably so. Nobody talks about their team’s leading tackler though. That’s Jarrad Page. Page is starting to run away with the job and is likely to hold it for the season. Teams are likely to use the running back on the ground and on screens against the Eagles, which could translate to some nice value for the strong safety.

Jairus Byrd- Byrd has been the better fantasy play than one of my favorites in George Wilson.  Byrd tallied 10 tackles against Oakland with several coming deeper in the second level. I still like George Wilson to put it together, but Byrd might be a nice guy to count on for the games against pass-heavy offense. Oh yeah, they play New England on Sunday.

Eric Smith- Jets fan will often give Smith a hard time for his stone hands, but he was actually able to pick one off against turnover-prone Luke McCown. Rex Ryan’s complex schemes can cause some headaches for young quarterbacks and Smith would be a main beneficiary.

Linebackers

Mason Foster- I touched on Foster's inevitable breakout campaign last week following a disappointing Week 1. Week 2? 10 tackles and a sack. It does come with a grain of salt since he got a very friendly matchup with Minnesota. Nevertheless, he should be playing all the downs and has enormous upside as a 4-3 Mike. Just to be clear, I would rather have Angerer or Lee.

Nick Barnett- Barnett projected to be a nice add in the preseason stepping in as the middle linebacker for the Bills (he came in at 53 on my IDP 100). His predecessor, Paul Posluszny, was third in the league in tackles last year. Barnett made his presence felt with league-high 14 tackles (tied with Laurinaitis). Barnett’s biggest weakness is his age and propensity to get hurt. He does have a nice upside and is a top-20 linebacker most weeks.

James Anderson- The poor Panthers. They have lost Jon Beason to an Achilles injury and now Thomas Davis to an ACL. Dan Connor is going to be their Mike on first and second downs for his run-stuffing prowess, but it looks like Anderson will be in on every play. He looks to be the best bet for value and should lead the team in tackles at the Will.

NaVorro Bowman- There’s obviously another backer on San Fran that gets all the attention. Most people probably wouldn’t even own him if not for the persuasive powers of Kenny Powers and those K-Swiss commercials. Kidding. Bowman had 10 tackles on Sunday to improve upon his seven solo tackles from the opener. To this point, he is more of a thorn in the side of P-Dub and is just a top-40 LB.

Wesley Woodyard- Woodyard has filled in admirably for D.J. Williams at the weak side. He racked up 13 tackles and is doing a much better job than Joe Mays (Mike backer). D.J. Williams figures to make it back at some point in the near future which limits Woodyard from holding value on the season. He does have a nice matchup against the Titans on Sunday.

Kavell Conner- Conner is no Angerer, but he had a solid game against the Brownies. KC racked up 10 tackles and was fairly active on passing downs. He’s on the radar for now.

Thomas Howard- It looked like Rey Maualuga was all set to have a big season stepping in as the Mike on a weak 4-3 D. That has yet to happen with only 13 tackles. Howard plays the Will for Cincy and currently comes it at 16 tackles. I would still prefer Rey over Howard, but Howard is on the radar.

Defensive Linemen

As I stated last week, I’m a proponent of playing the matchups. Here are a handful of new guys.

Jabaal Sheard- Sheard has gained a nice chunk of value for leagues that have DT slots. He is going to play DE and will remain DT eligible. He had a very good game on Sunday with five tackles and a sack on Sunday and has a very high upside.

Muhammad Wilkerson- It’s the same story for Big Wilk. Wilkerson showed some nice improvement against the Jaguars and was setting up shop in their backfield most of the game. He’s expected to get the majority of the snaps at left end and could be a budding star.

Michael Johnson- He was an absolute freak coming out of Georgia Tech and the stars are starting to align for him. He’s 6’7" and is pretty quick off the ball. He’ll likely have some major ups and downs by having to face some elite left tackles through the course of the year, but he might be a decent plug-n-play guy against certain teams.

Thanks for reading! You can post your add-drop decisions below or hit me up on Twitter for some help. We'll see ya on Thursday with the IDP Rankings.