IDP Matchup Plays: Living the Stream: Week 18

Living the Stream has reached the end of the river. Soon, said river will go over the falls and the kayak that is the 2024 IDP season will be smashed to bits—just like the aquatic metaphors I have hammered away at in this column this year.

Gotta finish with a strong Stream.

In most fantasy leagues, the season is already over—it concluded in Week 17. However, some IDP degenerates extend the season out to Week 18. I participate in a couple of leagues that do so. The positive ain't hard to see—there's one more week of fun before the long, dark offseason descends to snuff out all joy.

The negative is that Week 18 can be a highly unpredictable one. Playoff teams locked into seeds sit starters. Players with injuries they would fight through in Week 8 are held out. There's more uncertainty with the player pool than in any other week of the season.

Of course, that also means that finding a viable streaming play can be more important than ever. In the Deathmatch IDP League final, I swapped out Buffalo Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard for Jacoby Windmon of the Carolina Panthers last week over concerns about the former's matchup.

It wasn't the reason I finally won that league. But Windmon was the higher scorer—by a fair amount. And this time of year, every point can be the difference between taking the kayak over the falls as a smiling champion or a sobbing fool.

Snuck one more in there because water.

It's my genuine hope that Living the Stream was equal parts fun read and valuable IDP resource—and rest assured, we'll be back in the boat come the Fall of 2025.

IDP Matchup Play: EDGE Rashan Gary, Green Bay (vs. Chicago)

Gary was a trendy pick in some circles as an IDP value entering the 2024 season. But over the season's first half, Gary was essentially invisible—over the season's first eight games, the 27-year-old had all of 1.5 sacks. However, as Paul Bretl wrote for ESPN 105.5, it has been a much different story over the season's second half.

"Since Week 11," Bretl wrote, "Green Bay's first game out of the bye week, the pendulum has begun to swing in the other direction for Gary. After creating 20 pressures in the first nine games of the season, he's already generated 22 over the last six games, which is tied for the 11th-most during that span. In that same pass-rush win rate metric, Gary ranks 11th, and he's tied for 10th in pass-rush productivity."

Since Week 11, Gary ranks among the top 15 defensive ends in The Godfather's Default IDP Scoring. Now, in a game the Packers badly want to win, Green Bay faces a Chicago Bears team that has surrendered a league-high 67 sacks and the fourth-most fantasy points to defensive ends this season.

IDP Matchup Play: EDGE Nolan Smith Jr., Philadelphia (vs. NY Giants)

It's hardly unprecedented for first-year edge-rushers to struggle, and Smith has been no exception—over the first half of the season, he was all but invisible. But injuries forced the former Georgia standout to play more snaps as the season wore on, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio told reporters that the youngster has stepped up in a big way.

"I think (he's) one of those guys that's been improving each and every week a little bit. And some of it's just from playing more, some of it's learning more experience. It's a process. That's learning football. And those are things you can't put a price on."

The Eagles don't have anything to play for in Week 18, but it makes sense for the team to get Smith more live game reps ahead of the postseason. Those reps will come against a New York Giants team that has allowed 48 sacks and the second-most fantasy points to defensive ends, and Smith has sacks in two of his last three games.