2025 IDP Waiver Wire for Week 6
Welcome to the 2025 IDP Waiver Wire For Week 6!
After five weeks, we’re into the thick of the fantasy football season. For some, things are rolling right along. Perhaps they are fortunate enough to be sitting undefeated or at least at 4-1. Players are performing as expected. Injuries have been (for the most part at least) avoided. All is well and good with the universe.
We hate those people. Because if you’re reading this, that’s not how things have worked out in 2025.
Some IDP managers have been beset by injuries. They were already short on the likes of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith and Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love in Week 5. Now the highest-scoring linebacker over the season’s first month (Tyrel Dodson of the Miami Dolphins) and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jack Sanborn are also on the shelf.
With those injuries punching holes in starting lineups, more than a few haggard fantasy managers are sitting at 2-3 or 1-4 and trying desperately to keep the season from coming completely off the rails—and that’s without taking into consideration guys like Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin, who have disappointed to date. Or the fact that the bye weeks have started.
For quite a few folks, finding startable fill-ins (even for a single week) isn’t just about smoothing rough edges. It’s about keeping the season from falling completely apart.
If only there were a knowledgeable IDP expert who had a list of players who could step up for fantasy managers in Week 6.
Unfortunately, all you poor schmucks have is this guy.
IDP PICKUP OF THE WEEK
LB Payton Wilson, Pittsburgh
Wilson’s 2025 season has been all over the place—early struggles by the second-year pro led to a reduced role in Week 3. In Week 4 in Ireland, though, Wilson posted a team-high 13 total tackles against the Minnesota Vikings. While addressing the media, inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley explained why Wilson’s playing time dropped in Week 3.
“He’s a competitor and he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want to come off the field at all,” McCurley said. “But for us and for him, at that time point and having Cole available, that was the decision we came to. The way [Wilson] attacked practice — the way he attacked everything — was business as usual for him. That’s gonna allow him to grow, just taking that mindset, making sure the next day he went out to practice, it wasn’t hanging on him. He just went to work.”
Wilson’s ping-ponging playing time is legitimately cause for at least some concern. But Wilson has seen a snap share north of 85 percent in three of four games this season, and we’re already at the point in the season where finding linebackers who could be more than just a one-week fix is easier said than done.
WEEK 6 IDP WAIVER WIRE TARGETS
EDGE James Houston, Dallas
As you may or may not have heard, the Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers just before the season. Since then, the team has been trying to find someone to step up and be a consistent pass-rusher for the team, and head coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters that he’s been impressed by what Houston has done since joining the team.
“James Houston is a guy that’s come out of nowhere,” he said. “It just shows you that he’s got those kinds of skills. We know that he needs to work on the run. Guess what? We had a pass rusher around here [Parsons], the way to box him in was to run at him, but he could really rush the passer. This guy really is rushing the passer beyond my expectation.”
Houston had 1.5 sacks in Sunday’s win over the Jets, giving him 3.5 for the season—one more than Parsons at this point in the season. Houston hasn’t logged more than three total tackles in a game this year, but he now has at least one full sack in three of five games. His low snap share makes Houston more of a deep-league start throw, but production is production.
EDGE Bryce Huff, San Francisco
After logging 10 sacks with the New York Jets in 2023, Huff earned a three-year free-agent deal from the Philadelphia Eagles. However, Huff’s lone year with the Eagles was a 2.5-sack mess, and after being traded to the San Francisco 49ers in the offseason, Huff told reporters that he knew early on he wasn’t a good fit in the City of Brotherly Love.
“If I’m being 100% honest with you, I wanted a trade like fairly early on,” he said. “And just ’cause of how things went in Philly, I knew pretty early on it wasn’t a fit. There’s a plethora of things that went down. I don’t wanna get into specifics. Being in the league for five years, I kinda knew what it felt like to be in a good situation. I kind of knew where it was headed fairly early on into the season, probably even training camp if I’m being honest.”
Huff appears to be fitting right in in San Francisco—his sack of Matthew Stafford in last week’s win over the Los Angeles Rams gives the 27-year-old more in 2025 than he had all of last season. He’s also coming off a season-high in snap share as the Niners try to weather the storm that is Nick Bosa’s torn ACL.
LB Shemar James, Dallas
When Sanborn went down last week, that caused a shakeup in the Dallas linebacker corps—fifth-round rookie Shemar James played a season-high 73 percent of the snaps in Sunday’s lopsided win over the New York Jets. As Randy Gurzi wrote for Sports Illustrated, the former Florida standout has made the most of his increased playing time.
“A fifth-round pick out of Florida, James has been active the past two games and had five tackles in Week 4 and 15 in Week 5,” he said. “More importantly, he has just one missed tackle, giving him a 95.2 percent tackle efficiency. That’s huge for a defense that’s had troubles getting players to the ground. Missed tackles have been a killer, allowing opposing teams to extend drives and wear down the defense.”
Those 15 stops placed James among the top-10 fantasy linebackers for Week 5 in The Godfather’s Default IDP Scoring. Most players who land in the concussion protocol sit out at least one game, but frankly, given how Sanborn has played this season, the argument can be made that James should be starting ahead of him.
LB Trenton Simpson, Baltimore
Simpson has long been a player who has been touted as a breakout waiting to happen—including this past summer. It wasn’t that long ago that Simpson was being talked up as a starter this year, with star linebacker Roquan Smith talking up both Simpson and Teddye Buchanan.
“Yes, I think Trenton has taken a big step mentally [and] physically,” Smith told reporters. “The dude looks like a Greek God. Him and 40 [Teddye Buchanan] both, those boys are yoked up. I was like, ‘I never looked like that.’ Whatever plan they’re on, I probably need to look into it, but I leave that to them. At the end of the day, yes, he looks really good. He’s matured a lot. I know he’s going to take that big step, and I’m excited to see him prove to himself, play-in and play-out, game-in and game-out.”
Simpson has spent much of this season watching Smith and Buchanan play, but with Smith on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, Simpson played a 94 percent snap share in Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans, logging 10 total stops and a sack. So long as Smith is sidelined, Simpson should have value for IDP managers.
S Jonas Sanker, New Orleans
A third-round pick of the Saints out of the University of Virginia, Sanker had worked his way into the starting lineup in New Orleans by Week 2 when Justin Blackmon got hurt. While speaking to the media, Sanker credited his coaches and teammates with helping him acclimate quickly to the pros.
“It’s just kind of a next man up mentality,” Sanker said. “And, y’know, being lucky enough to have a guy like Justin (Reid) beside you. He’s a very vocal leader who’s done this for a long time. He was really helpful for me. A lot of it just speaks on the coaching. They’ve done a really good job with me.”
Sanker’s 12 tackles over the past two weeks are a number that is neither terrible nor wonderful, but he’s been banging the big-play column—a fumble recovery last week against the New York Giants and an interception the week before. He’s on the IDP radar—especially in deeper formats.
S Marques Sigle, San Francisco
Sigle didn’t take long to make an impression in the Bay Area—the former Kansas State standout has gone from fifth-round rookie to playing all 325 defensive snaps for the Niners this year. While addressing the media, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said Sigle’s maturity and communications skills have impressed as much as his athleticism and 4.3-speed.
“Just being on your job, being able to communicate on the sideline when something happens, to have the recall to have those conversations. Shoot, at practice today, we were talking about a route—on how to play a certain route concept. And he basically cut me off to talk about what his technique was, to what he could have done better, where he was in the play. And you come back in, and you watch play real quick, and it’s like, ‘All right.’ He’s recalling it, he’s understanding it, he understands where his body’s at.”
Hopefully, you listened to this analyst’s recommendation to pick up Sigle a week ago—he racked up 13 total tackles in last week’s win over the Rams. But if you didn’t, it’s not too late—Sigle remains available in quite a few leagues ahead of this week’s trip to face the 4-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Thanks for checking out our recommendations for your league’s 2025 IDP Waiver Wire for Week 6. You can find all of our IDP Waiver Wire articles for 2025 by clicking here!
Gary Davenport (“The Godfather of IDP”) is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Follow him on Twitter (Can’t make him call it X) at @IDPGodfather.