Fantasy Football Redraft

Week 9 IDP Hits

By Matt Schauf 1:45pm EDT 11/5/22

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Christian Harris has become the Texans’ defensive version of Dameon Pierce.

He’s probably not playing as well. Pro Football Focus grades him worst among 148 qualifying LBs in run-defense and overall grade. But it doesn’t really matter for our purposes how well he’s playing in real life. It only matters that he’s showing enough to coaches to stay on the field.

HC Lovie Smith said after his 1st appearance that the rookie deserved more playing time. And he has gotten it. Harris played every snap in his next game, beating Christian Kirksey in that category.

Thursday night found him at 88%, but that matched Kirksey’s playing time. And only 2 Texans defenders played more: CBs Derek Stingley Jr. (100%) and Steven Nelson (94%). Next came the 2 LBs.

Harris has yet to put up big numbers. But even though Tennessee and Philly (his 2 starts) seem like they should be terrific tackle matchups for LBs – because of their running games – neither has been. They currently sit 28th and 27th in fantasy points allowed per game to the position.

The Giants (Week 10) sit in the same territory of points allowed. Then come the Commanders, who are allowing the 5th most points per game so far.

Harris isn’t a must-grab across IDP formats, but the playing time is there for him to make some fantasy impact going forward.

• Elsewhere in Thursday night’s game, Texans S Jonathan Owens rebounded statistically. He returned to the starting lineup after getting pulled for the 2nd half of the Week 8 loss to the Titans. Owens racked up 10 tackles (7 solo) against the Eagles, his 5th game this year with 10+ tackles. His playing time is worth noting, though. Owens played 77%, trailing S Jalen Pitre (86%), with M.J. Stewart (23%) and Eric Murray (14%) also involved. Barring some news to the contrary, it looks like we can use Owens in Week 10 lineups. We’ll see where this goes.
• On the other side of the Thursday night matchup: Eagles EDGE Robert Quinn interestingly saw his playing time drop from 26% (20 snaps) in his debut for the team to 12% (just 7 snaps) at Houston. Perhaps the short week contributed to that. Of course, even the higher of those snap shares isn’t going to make him usable in IDP lineups.
• EDGE Josh Sweat’s playing time has checked in a little lower in 2 games since Quinn arrived. He exceeded 60% in 5 of the first 6 games but came in at 55% and 58% the past 2 weeks.That might be good for a guy who had gone 3 games without a QB hit before the Quinn trade. EDGE Brandon Graham played more than 40% of the snaps in 5 of the 1st 6 games. He has played 17% and 38% in the past 2. The snap share in Houston isn’t out of line with his pre-trade rates. So we’ll see whether he’s going to stay in that range or fluctuate.

Notes Around the League:

• The Packers have ruled LB De’Vondre Campbell (knee) out for Sunday’s game in Detroit. DC Joe Barry says rookie LB Quay Walker will wear the green dot and take over play-calling duties. That should mean a solid playing-time boost from the past 2 games he didn’t get ejected from: 69% in Week 6 and 73% in Week 7. He has moved way up our Week 9 IDP rankings.
• Colts LB Shaquille Leonard returned to the lineup for just the 2nd time last week. Indy started him out slow, at just 39% snap share. They’ll continue to limit his playing time this week. It appears his time will continue coming at Bobby Okereke’s expense (61% vs. Washington) rather than Zaire Franklin’s (100%). DC Gus Bradley has said he believes Leonard fits best at MLB in his scheme. That has been Franklin’s spot, with Okereke playing the weak side. But Leonard – who missed all of training camp and the preseason while recovering from back surgery – is still learning the defense. So Bradley says it’s better to get him comfortable in the defense before throwing all of MLB at him. That’s why you’ll find Franklin high in this week’s LB rankings … and Okereke low.
• Second-year LB Jamin Davis got the expected playing-time boost last week, staying on the field for every snap in LB Cole Holcomb’s absence. Holcomb (foot) is out again this week, which makes Davis startable – though far from a must. That Washington defense has also seen S Darrick Forrest play more the past couple of games. He spent 3 weeks in the 44-50% range after S Kamren Curl returned in Week 3. Forrest then bumped to 56% in Week 6, then 72% and 67% the past 2 games. Holcomb didn’t miss a snap in the win over the Packers, so Forrest’s extra time came at the expense of Davis (57%). If you have Davis right now, be wary of that for when Holcomb returns. S Kamren Curl played almost as many snaps “in the box” as Davis in Week 7 (27 vs. 28).
• Jaylon Smith took the lead among Giants non-edge LBs last week at Seattle, playing 84%. We’ll see if that sticks coming out of the bye, but Tae Crowder (down to 34%) has never been the answer.
• Rams LB Ernest Jones played a season-high 91% of snaps in last week’s loss to the 49ers. Perhaps the team liked the way he performed against Christian McCaffrey when they faced him as a Panther. The 2nd meeting didn’t go well, and Jones committed a bad penalty late in the game. He has been under 80% playing time every other game. So we’ll need to see more before starting him in most cases. The tackle production has been pretty good relative to playing time.
• Titans DT Jeffery Simmons hasn’t practiced the past 2 weeks because of a sprained ankle. He played through it last week, though, for only a bit less than his normal playing time (70%, vs. 81%+ most weeks). Simmons is questionable again this week, but it sure sounds like he’ll be playing.
• Saints 2nd-year EDGE Payton Turner played more snaps (57%) than Marcus Davenport last week, in his return from a 3-game chest injury. Turner also delivered the 1st 2-sack game of his career. Don’t be surprised if he continues to work ahead of the disappointing Davenport.