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Mitchell's top Week 11 IDP waiver wire pickups, adds, fantasy football defensive streamers for 2025. Target these individual defensive players on Week 11 waivers.
Welcome back to our fantasy football IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 11. With the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints going on bye this week, I have scoured the league for your best replacement options.
Injuries are piling up, and for some of these picks, you will have to follow the injury reports. For example, the Seattle Seahawks have a productive scheme for linebackers, and Ernest Jones IV or Tyrice Knight will both be productive if they start.
With that said, take a look at these 12 linebackers, defensive linemen, cornerbacks, and safeties who would make good additions for Week 11 and in the future.
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Week 11 Waiver Wire Adds for Linebacker
Demario Davis, MLB, New Orleans Saints - Rostered in 27% of Leagues
Davis remains under rostered despite having one of his best tackling seasons. He was sixth in total tackles heading into the weekend. He’s making a solo tackle on 10.1% of snaps, which is the highest of his career and higher than his career total of 8.1%.
He also forced two fumbles, which ties him as one of the leaders. The only downside with Davis’s production is that he has yet to make a sack, which he usually excels at. It’s not for lack of blitzing the passer. He has rushed on 13.9% of passing snaps, nor is he not getting to the quarterback. His pressure rate is 23.7%, higher than his career average. Sooner or later, his sack production will catch up.
Tyrice Knight, LB, Seattle Seahawks - Rostered in 15% of Leagues
Knight, a 2024 fourth-round pick from UTEP, got a boost in snaps with a knee injury to Ernest Jones IV. Knight stepped up after Jones left Seattle’s Week 9 game against Washington and made 10 tackles. When he started this week against the Arizona Cardinals, Knight made eight tackles and two strip sacks.
Knight was a strong, instinctual run defender in college, and that has translated into the NFL. His PFF run defense grade is 67.7, and he has made 17 run stops.
Jones was listed as “doubtful” on the final Week 10 injury report, and he missed the game. If Jones misses Week 11, too, Knight could be another good play against the Los Angeles Rams.
Ernest Jones IV, LB, Seattle Seahawks - Rostered in 42% of Leagues
Jones has been a triple-digit tackle-maker for each of the past three years. In his best season, 2023, he finished No. 11 in the league with 145 combined tackles. His production was disrupted and took a slight downturn last season after he was traded twice in two months.
This year, he is back on track, firmly established as Seattle’s green-dot linebacker. He has already made three interceptions and was on pace for 143 tackles before his knee injury. When he gets back onto the field, he’ll be a strong LB2. If you have the chance, roster both Tyrice Knight and Ernest Jones and play it based on the injury report.
Logan Wilson, LB, Dallas Cowboys - Rostered in 14% of Leagues
Wilson has been a strong tackle producer in recent years, and now he gets a new start in Dallas. The Cowboys' fellow linebackers have been playing poorly. Wilson is expected to start as the weak-side linebacker while rookie Shemar James remains the middle linebacker for the time being.
Wilson made over 120 tackles in his first two seasons as the Bengals’ full-time starter, but he was faced with injury and decline in the past two seasons. The Bengals' defense has been so bad this season that they decided to move on from an aging veteran and prioritize the development of rookie Barrett Carter.
Week 11 Waiver Wire Adds for Defensive Line
George Karlaftis, DL, Kansas City Chiefs - Rostered in 18% of Leagues
Karlaftis has been quite a consistent sack-producing pass rusher. He has five sacks and one forced fumble in nine games this season.
While that's only tied for No. 18 overall, he has spread his sacks out evenly. He has made half a sack or a single sack in six games and only has three games without a sack. Compared to a player like Will McDonald, who will suddenly show up with two multi-sack games but get blanked in six games, Karlaftis is easier to stick in the starting lineup and know that you will get production.
Jonathon Cooper, DL/LB, Denver Broncos - Rostered in 28% of Leagues
Similar to Karlaftis, Cooper has made at least half a sack in 70% of his games. With 7.5 sacks on the season, he’s part of the defense that keeps the Denver Broncos winning low-scoring games. In Week 11, Karlaftis and Cooper square off.
Uchenna Nwosu, LB/DL, Seattle Seahawks - Rostered in 2% of Leagues
Nwosu is a good pick-up in leagues with big play scoring formats that heavily reward sacks. He has been a strong pass rusher but has been slowed by injuries. In both 2023 and 2024, he only played six games. The previous year, he set a career high with 9.5 sacks.
Now that he has been healthy, Nwosu has made 5.5 sacks in seven games. It’s already his second-best season of his career, and if he hits double-digit sacks, he’ll set a new career high.
However, if you start him, you should know he has a low tackle floor. In four games this season, he has made three or fewer tackles. This week against the Cardinals was one of them, and he did not have a sack to show for it after five straight weeks with half a sack or more. That’s just the nature of the DL position in IDP fantasy football. It is boom-bust.
Zach Harrison, DT/DE, Atlanta Falcons - Rostered in 0% of Leagues
Zach Harrison is having his best season yet, having made 4.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. A 2023 third-round pick, Harrison is getting more total volume and better opportunities. He is on the field for 56% of snaps, up from less than 33% in his first two seasons. Even better, Harrison is lining up more on the edge, as a defensive end or outside linebacker, than he has before.
Last season, he was only lined up as a defensive end 49% of the time, but this season, he gets to rush from the edge 66.5% of the time. Pass rushers are much more likely to get to the quarterback from the edge than they are from the interior.
Week 11 Waiver Wire Adds for Cornerback and Safety
Nahshon Wright, CB, Chicago Bears - Rostered in 18% of Leagues
Wright is a player you will just have to ride the momentum with. He’s not a great talent, and he isn’t likely to have a future in dynasty, but now that he has a high-volume starting job on a below-average Bears defense, he’s making IDP plays.
He has made three interceptions and two fumble recoveries this season, including four takeaways in the past five games. Wright, in his first season in Chicago, got the opportunity to start after Jaylon Johnson had to undergo groin surgery. Johnson remains on the IR, and there has been no timetable for his return.
In his wake, Wright has played 466 snaps in eight games, eclipsing his previous career-high of 128 snaps in the entirety of 2022. But with a dismal PFF grade of 48.4 and having allowed five touchdown passes, Wright is unlikely to stay on the field when Johnson returns.
Jaylon Johnson, CB, Chicago Bears - Rostered in 6% of Leagues
Johnson is expected to return in the second half of the season. So far, there have been scant updates on his availability, but he is worth stashing on your IR, especially if you have been streaming Wright.
In the past two seasons, Johnson has been graded by PFF at over 75.0 when healthy. In each of his first four seasons, he allowed a completion percentage less than 60%. While you won’t get credit for a defensive player locking down in coverage, that does assure Johnson of playing time when healthy.
The fantasy points will come from his tackles and picks. He made 53 tackles last season and has made multiple interceptions in two straight seasons.
Isaiah Pola-Mao, S, Las Vegas Raiders - Rostered in 26% of Leagues
Pola-Mao went under the radar, as he was undrafted in 2022 and did not see much playing time until last season, when he emerged as one of the top ten IDP safeties with 85 tackles, one sack, and two forced fumbles.
He has built on that momentum, making 51 tackles and two interceptions through nine games this season. His breakout came after Marcus Epps got injured in Week 3 last season, then departed in free agency.
Jamel Dean, CB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Rostered in 13% of Leagues
Dean is liable to fill the stat sheet on any given week. He has one sack, two forced fumbles, and three interceptions, including one that he returned for a touchdown. Tampa Bay will be relying on him to make plays against strong passing teams, with road games coming up against the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Rams.
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