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Mitchell's top IDP waiver wire adds and defensive streamers for Week 2 of the 2025 fantasy football season. Target these individual defensive players on waivers.
Welcome back to our fantasy football IDP waiver wire pickups and streamers for Week 2 of the 2025 season! Defensive players on new teams made big impacts in one of the most exciting Week 1 showcases of recent NFL seasons.
Micah Parsons crashed down on Jared Goff in the fourth quarter, creating a "Welcome to Green Bay” moment. Jalen Ramsey short-circuited the Jets’ attempt at a last-ditch scoring drive. In L.A., new Rams linebacker Nate Landman punched the ball loose from Texans RB Dare Ogunbowale to seal the win.
In Week 2, defensive players will be just as critical for deciding the results of games and your fantasy contests. Here are nine linebackers, defensive backs, and defensive linemen to add to help you win, and a couple to cut.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:- 2025 fantasy football rankings
- Running back (RB) fantasy football rankings
- Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
- Tight end (TE) fantasy football rankings
- Quarterback (QB) fantasy football rankings
- FLEX fantasy football rankings
- Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
- Kicker (K) fantasy football rankings
- Dynasty fantasy football rankings
Week 2 Waiver Wire Adds For Linebacker
Demetrius Knight Jr., WLB, Cincinnati Bengals - 34% Rostered
The rookie (second round, South Carolina) is already starting and appears to be playing most of the snaps for the Bengals alongside Logan Wilson. In Cincinnati’s 17-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns, Knight was second on the team with 10 total tackles, eight of which were solo.
Linebackers tend to struggle as rookies, but Knight is mature at 25 years old after completing a six-year collegiate career. After failing to make an impact in four years at Georgia Tech, he became a starter at Charlotte in the American Conference and then showed he could play against top-level competition at South Carolina, where he made 82 combined tackles and 2.0 sacks.
Carson Schwesinger, MLB, Cleveland Browns - 67% Rostered
Another second-round-drafted rookie (UCLA), Schwesinger quickly took the helm as Cleveland’s green dot-wearing every-down linebacker. Schwesinger led the aggressive Browns defense, which limited the Bengals to 141 yards and 17 points.
Individually, he made eight tackles, three of which were solo. The fact that the Browns often had three linebackers in the box might have caused the Browns defenders to cooperate on tackles.
Germaine Pratt, WLB, Las Vegas Raiders - 52% Rostered
In the past couple of years, Pratt has shown, while playing for the Bengals, that he can be productive as the second linebacker on a defense. In his first game as a Raider, the 29-year-old did it on a new team.
Pratt made eight tackles, a figure that puts him on pace to approach his career high of 143 tackles last season. Seven of his tackles, however, were assists, which typically score only half of what a solo tackle does. Pratt has a ratio of 1.36 solo tackles per assist in his career, and the poor ratio in Week 1 could be due to random bad luck.
Week 2 Waiver Wire Adds For Defensive Line
Rashan Gary, LB/DL, Green Bay Packers - 7% Rostered
Gary was part of a Green Bay defense that was wreaking havoc on the Detroit Lions in Week 1. The Packers made four sacks, and Gary made 1.5 of them, some of his seven total tackles on the day.
In his six years, all with the Packers, Gary has been a third-tier pass-rusher who makes between six and 10 sacks per year. He has never broken into double digits. Could this be his breakout year now that he has Micah Parsons to help on the other side?
Lukas Van Ness, EDGE, Green Bay Packers - 18% Rostered
In the same vein as Rashan Gary, Van Ness is a good addition to your fantasy teams now that he's rushing alongside Parsons.
#Packers unveiled new package today with Micah Parsons, Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness on field together. Parsons says the team calls it “Cheetah.” Van Ness got his sack in the package, lining up at DT.
Parsons had very high praise for Van Ness, comparing him to Julius Peppers. pic.twitter.com/k5tMn9xUyu
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) September 8, 2025
USA Today Packers beat reporter Ryan Wood points out the schematic flexibility Van Ness has when he's on the field with Gary and Parsons. He made an assisted sack while lined up at nose tackle. Van Ness's career has started slowly since he was the No. 13 overall draft pick in 2023, but he has the chance for a breakout.
Haason Reddick, EDGE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 5% Rostered
Reddick only made 14 tackles and a single sack last season after he lost a holdout against the New York Jets. Sometimes a new environment is just what is needed. In his first game as a Buccaneer, Reddick made about eight pressures. One of them led to a sack. In his career, Reddick has converted pressures to sacks at a 21% clip, so he could have some multi-sack games.
Week 2 Waiver Wire Adds For Cornerback and Safety
Jordan Battle, S, Cincinnati Bengals - 22% Rostered
The Bengals defense played terribly in their ugly win over the Cleveland Browns. The Browns offense outgained Burrow and Co. 327 yards to 141. They ran 22 more plays than the Bengals. They controlled the ball for almost 36 minutes. All of that is good for Bengals IDP production.
Battle made a whopping 12 tackles in the game and an interception (which bounced off the receiver’s hands). With games coming up against strong passing offenses like the Vikings (Week 3), the Lions (Week 5), the Packers (Week 6), and the Steelers (Week 7), the Bengals might be involved in more high-volume contests.
Chamarri Conner, NB, Kansas City Chiefs - 6% Rostered
Conner might not be listed as a starting safety; he’s the nickelback on the depth chart. But Conner played 64 of the Chiefs’ 65 snaps in their loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. He was deployed half of the time in the slot and half of the time lined up as a safety, either in the box or deep.
Conner is a playmaker. He forced a fumble when he made a big hit on Tyler Conklin and led the team with nine total tackles. Since being drafted in the fourth round in 2023, Conner hasn’t had a lot of playing time. After losing free agents in the offseason, Conner has a real opportunity to continue starting all season.
Roger McCreary, CB, Tennessee Titans - 0% Rostered
McCreary had a down year in 2024. After making over 80 tackles in each of his first two seasons, McCreary only made 50 tackles and no interceptions in 2024. His snap total has fallen from 1,165 as a rookie to 934 in 2023 and just 653 snaps last season.
If the losses of defensive backs like Chidobe Awuzie, who signed with the Baltimore Ravens after the Titans cut him, keep opportunities open for McCreary, he could return to his early career levels of production. In the Week 1 loss to the Denver Broncos, McCreary made five tackles, four of which were solo, one interception, and one pass defense.
IDP Players To Cut For Week 2
Jack Sanborn, LB, Dallas Cowboys
The stubborn fantasy of Sanborn returning to the form he briefly showed as a rookie should be put to rest. After joining a Cowboys team with no good linebackers, Sanborn still can’t win an every-down role. His 48 defensive snaps (out of 63) did outpace the Cowboys’ other lackluster linebackers, but that’s still only 76.2% of all snaps.
What did Sanborn do with those snaps? He made five total tackles, half as many as you should be hoping for in a top-tier IDP linebacker, only one of which prevented the running back from gaining his necessary yards.
Jaden Hicks, S, Kansas City Chiefs
Hicks was supposed to beat out Chamarri Conner for the Chiefs’ starting strong safety job. But in Week 1, Conner played 25 more snaps than Hicks, and Hicks’ poor play isn’t making a case for him to get more snaps. Hicks was graded at a lackluster 29.7 for his defensive efforts by PFF. In pass coverage, he gave up four receptions on six targets for 49 yards and two touchdowns.
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