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.

IDP Matchup Play: LB Darius Muasau, NY Giants (at Philadelphia)

The New York Giants opened the 2024 season with hopes, dreams, and a linebacker tandem of Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden. They will close the year with none of those things. But youngster Darius Muasau told reporters that he's trying to make the most of his opportunity to close his first season strong and make a case to start in 2025.

"It's easy, my part," Muasau said. "Just get to a ball carrier, wrap up, bring the guy down. That's what I love--the physicality of this sport. That's what I feel like I bring most to the table. I just love running and hitting. That's what I pride myself on doing. I'm not perfect. I'm striving to fix all my mistakes as far as the tackling game because that's what linebackers do: We tackle everything we see."

Muasau's stat line against the Colts last week was something of a letdown—three solos and five assists. But he'll wear the green dot helmet communicator again in Week 18 against an Eagles team that will likely just run the ball all day in a game that means nothing in the postseason race.

IDP Matchup Play: LB Jacoby Windmon, Carolina (at Atlanta)

Windmon is a microcosm of the Panthers' season at linebacker—an undrafted rookie plucked off the Steelers practice squad pressed into full-time duty for a team that has been ravaged by injuries at the position. As Carolina head coach Dave Canales told reporters, the Panthers aren't trying to do anything fancy defensively.

"We're just going to attack the fundamentals and the basics because that's what we got," he said. "If we can just make the story as simple as that, can we get better on our fundamentals, just the basics of what we're doing and how we fit in different type of run styles. And that's the challenge for us, just keep taking the next steps and improving our football." 

Carolina didn't play well defensively, even a little, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, but for the second straight game, Windmon cleaned up—he has 18 total tackles and 1.5 sacks over that span. Expect the Falcons to go right at the NFL's worst run defense in a game Atlanta has to win—Windmon will be busy this week.

IDP Matchup Play: S Cole Bishop, Buffalo (at New England)

Buffalo's second-round pick in the 2024 draft, Bishop has made starts the past two weeks in place of the injured Damar Hamlin. The rookie from Utah could potentially be an important piece of Buffalo's defense in the postseason, and veteran cornerback Taron Johnson told reporters he's confident the youngster is up to the task if needed.

"He's already, to me, a freak athlete. Just how big he is and how well he can move," Bills cornerback Taron Johnson said. "But what sets him apart, I think, is his mindset and how he's so coachable, always listening to the coaches and talking to the older guys, trying to see how they see things. And I feel like he's going to be a really good player."

The Bills are already locked into the No. 2 seed in the AFC bracket, but either the team needs a healthy Hamlin back for the postseason or the team needs to get its rookie starter more work before the level of opposition ramps way up. Either way, Bishop should see a full complement of snaps in Week 18 against a New England Patriots team giving up the fourth-most fantasy points to safeties.

IDP Matchup Play: S Xavier Woods, Carolina (at Atlanta)

That two Panthers are in the final edition of Living the Stream speaks to the disconnect that can sometimes exist between good NFL defenses and valuable IDP options. Woods has quietly been one this season—the eighth-year veteran has bounced on and off waiver wires all season long yet ranks 11th in fantasy points among safeties.

A few of Woods' plays have made more noise publicly than hundreds of others, and he hasn't been a "smash" IDP asset. The 29-year-old has been more floor than ceiling, which explains why he's not the first name most fantasy managers think of when setting their lineups for the last time this season.

But Woods is also coming off a season-high 12 total tackles (see the nightmare at linebacker ahead of him) and squares off against an Atlanta Falcons team, allowing the sixth-most fantasy points to safeties this year. Sometimes, sacrificing a little ceiling at such a volatile position for the sake of floor and a solid matchup makes sense.

Until 2025.

For now, Winter has frozen the Stream.

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 @IDPSharks.