Week 12 IDP Free Agent Focus

By Matt Schauf 9:11pm EST 11/22/20

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Carlos Dunlap, DE, Seahawks

One more call for Dunlap, in case he didn’t get picked up 2 weeks ago or got dropped after an empty stat line in Week 11. Dunlap delivered 2 sacks among a season-high 3 QB hits in Thursday night’s win over the Cardinals. That gives him 3 sacks and 6 total QB hits over 3 games with Seattle. Next comes a Monday night matchup with the sack-bleeding Eagles. Dunlap already faced Philly this year before leaving the Bengals and racked up 9 solo tackles (1 for loss), 1 QB hit and a pass deflection. After exceeding 70% playing time just twice through 7 games with Cincinnati, Dunlap has done so each of the past 2 weeks.

Alex Singleton, LB, Eagles

This marks Singleton’s 2nd straight inclusion in this space, so don’t expect to see him here again. He’s the lead LB in Philly right now, sporting the green dot and leading the playing time. Singleton also delivered his 2nd straight game of double-digit tackles Sunday, leading the Eagles with 11 (8 solos) in the loss at Cleveland. Singleton also registered a sack and recovered a fumble. He’s a weekly IDP starter at the moment. We’ll see what happens with Nathan Gerry eligible to come off IR for Week 12.

Leighton Vander Esch, LB, Cowboys

Vander Esch saw his playing time dip to just 55% in the Week 9 loss to Pittsburgh. But he rebounded in Sunday’s win over the Vikings. LVE made just 4 solo stops but led the team with 12 total tackles. A Thanksgiving Day matchup with the mostly short-range Washington offense should find Vander Esch heavily involved once again.

Eric Rowe, S, Dolphins

Rowe made some noise with 7 tackles, 5 passes defensed and an INT in the Week 8 win over the Rams that found Jared Goff attempting 61 passes. He followed that with a pair of quiet games. But Rowe led the Dolphins Sunday with 10 tackles (7 solo). Next comes a rematch with the Jets, who supplied 9 tackles (7 solo) and a pass breakup in their 1st meeting.

Ronald Darby, CB, Washington

Darby entered Sunday with 3 passes defensed on the season. He broke up 4 more in the victory over Cincinnati. That doesn’t make him a high-end option for Thursday’s rematch with Dallas. But Darby posted a decent 5 tackles (4 solo) and 1 pass breakup in the 1st meeting. There’s upside against a Dallas defense that rebounded some with QB Andy Dalton back at Minnesota in Week 11.

Stephon Gilmore, CB, Patriots

Gilmore returned from his knee injury to make 6 tackles (4 solo) in Sunday’s loss to the Texans. Next comes a matchup with Arizona, which hit Week 11 allowing the 12th most DB fantasy points per game. Three of the Cardinals’ past 4 opponents had a 9+ tackle CB. Gilmore figures to spend as much of Sunday’s game shadowing DeAndre Hopkins as New England can force.