IDP WAIVER WIRE: Week 15

We’ve just about reached the end of the line. We started the 2017 season back in September with Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues of all shapes and sizes – from eight teams to 32.

But in the overwhelming majority of those leagues, only four teams remain.

The Fantastic Four, if you will.

OK, maybe we won’t. How about the Final Four? No one’s using that figure of speech, right?

Oh yeah. I forgot about that basketball nonsense.

The thing is, at this late juncture in the fantasy football season, most teams aren’t so much worried about the waiver wire. If you’ve made it this far, odds are either you haven’t had to pick through the bargain bin much or you were able to find a gem already who has become a fixture in the starting lineup.

However, sometimes you know what happens. A player gets hurt. Another decides that December would be a fine time to pull the old milk carton act.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out some potential targets for those hearty souls who are both still alive and looking for help.

And I never remiss.

WEEK 15 IDP PICKUP OF THE WEEK

Jarrad Davis, ILB, Detroit

Per Kyle Meinke of MLive.com, Detroit defensive coordinator Teryl Austin allowed that Davis’ struggles this year left Detroit little recourse but to pull the rookie from some subpackages.

“We want him to develop, but we can’t have him develop at the (expense of) a guy that could probably do that position better at this particular time,” Austin said. “Jarrad will get better because he’s working at it. He’s getting reps in practice. But right now, we think in some of those positions that Tahir (Whitehead) is going to be a better fit for us right now.”

Those same struggles (and a lack of production) likely got Davis the gate in some shallower IDP formats. But the reduction in snaps wasn’t all that substantial (Davis was on the field for 84 percent of Detroit’s snaps against Tampa Bay) and the rookie’s coming off his best game in ages – a nine-tackle effort with a sack and forced fumble in the win over Tampa Bay.

This late in the season you aren’t going to find a better option at linebacker on the scrap heap.

Ezekiel Ansah, DE, Detroit

As CBS Sports reported, there was finally – thankfully – something of an Ansah sighting last week against Tampa Bay.

“Ansah recorded seven tackles and one sack during Sunday’s 24-21 victory over (Tampa Bay),” they said. “This easily represents Ansah’s best performance since his six-tackle, three-sack day against the New York Giants in Week 2. While his floor is admittedly low – Ansah entered the week averaging just 2.5 tackles per game – there’s no questioning the upside the 2013 first-rounder possesses, as seen Sunday.”

This outburst didn’t exactly come out of the Honolulu blue – Ansah recorded five solos two weeks ago against Baltimore and had two stops and a sack the week before against Minnesota. It’s been a nightmare season (actually two) for Ansah, and with the former first-rounder about to hit free agency Ansah has millions of reasons to try to make a good impression over the last few weeks of the season.