If you're drafting IDPs in your playoff league, this is the ranking list for those players. The stat projections will be added to the Excel file for subscribers later today. As with the offensive players, rankings are heavily influenced by how we think teams will do in the playoffs, and it's a tough year for that.
Three of the four opening round playoff games have point spreads of less than 3 points. There's not a lot of agreement over who will win Colts-Texans, Chargers-Ravens or Seahawks-Cowboys. All three road teams could win and no one would be surprised. If you're certain the Seahawks, for example, are going to go into Dallas and win, you should move Bobby Wagner up these rankings. If you're sold on the Colts winning in Houston and maybe knocking off Kansas City, move Darius Leonard up a little.
For game projections, I'm using the same ones we used in the ReDrafter published yesterday. We have the favored top seeds, New Orleans and Kansas City, projected to play the most games, and consequently 5 of the top 10 IDPs are from those teams. But it's far from certain, which is why Roquan Smith, Aaron Donald and C.J. Mosley also appear high in the rankings.
These are based on a scoring system that awards 1.5 points for solo tackles and .75 for assists, with 4 points for sacks and takeaways. Defensive linemen get slightly extra for solos (2), assists (1) and sacks (5).
IDP RANKINGS (OVERALL) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Pos | Player |
1. | KC | ILB | Anthony Hitchens |
2. | NO | OLB | Demario Davis |
3. | NO | DE | Cameron Jordan |
4. | LAR | DE | Aaron Donald |
5. | IND | OLB | Darius Leonard |
6. | KC | DE | Chris Jones |
7. | CHI | ILB | Roquan Smith |
8. | HOU | DE | J.J. Watt |
9. | CHI | ILB | Danny Trevathan |
10. | NO | SS | Vonn Bell |
11. | LAR | ILB | Cory Littleton |
12. | KC | OLB | Dee Ford |
13. | CHI | OLB | Khalil Mack |
14. | DAL | OLB | Leighton Vander Esch |
15. | CHI | DE | Akiem Hicks |
16. | KC | DE | Allen Bailey |
17. | DAL | MLB | Jaylon Smith |
18. | KC | FS | Ron Parker |
19. | KC | OLB | Justin Houston |
20. | SEA | DE | Frank Clark |
21. | NO | DT | Sheldon Rankins |
22. | LAR | SS | John Johnson |
23. | DAL | DE | Demarcus Lawrence |
24. | SEA | MLB | Bobby Wagner |
25. | KC | CB | Kendall Fuller |
26. | NO | OLB | A.J. Klein |
27. | KC | ILB | Reggie Ragland |
28. | NO | FS | Marcus Williams |
29. | NO | CB | Marshon Lattimore |
30. | BAL | ILB | C.J. Mosley |
31. | NE | MLB | Kyle Van Noy |
32. | NE | DE | Trey Flowers |
33. | HOU | ILB | Zach Cunningham |
34. | KC | CB | Steven Nelson |
35. | NO | DE | Marcus Davenport |
36. | HOU | SS | Justin Reid |
37. | HOU | FS | Tyrann Mathieu |
38. | CHI | SS | Adrian Amos |
39. | IND | MLB | Anthony Walker |
40. | CHI | CB | Prince Amukamara |
IDP RANKINGS (DL) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Pos | Player |
1. | NO | DE | Cameron Jordan |
2. | LAR | DE | Aaron Donald |
3. | KC | DE | Chris Jones |
4. | HOU | DE | J.J. Watt |
5. | CHI | DE | Akiem Hicks |
6. | KC | DE | Allen Bailey |
7. | SEA | DE | Frank Clark |
8. | NO | DT | Sheldon Rankins |
9. | DAL | DE | Demarcus Lawrence |
10. | NE | DE | Trey Flowers |
11. | NO | DE | Marcus Davenport |
12. | SEA | DT | Jarran Reed |
13. | KC | NT | Xavier Williams |
14. | NO | DT | David Onyemata |
15. | NO | DE | Alex Okafor |
16. | LAR | NT | Ndamukong Suh |
17. | DAL | DE | Randy Gregory |
18. | IND | DT | Denico Autry |
19. | IND | DE | Jabaal Sheard |
20. | LAC | DE | Joey Bosa |
21. | CHI | NT | Eddie Goldman |
22. | PHI | DT | Fletcher Cox |
23. | LAC | DE | Melvin Ingram |
24. | PHI | DE | Brandon Graham |
25. | LAR | DE | Michael Brockers |
IDP RANKINGS (LB) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Pos | Player |
1. | KC | ILB | Anthony Hitchens |
2. | NO | OLB | Demario Davis |
3. | IND | OLB | Darius Leonard |
4. | CHI | ILB | Roquan Smith |
5. | CHI | ILB | Danny Trevathan |
6. | LAR | ILB | Cory Littleton |
7. | KC | OLB | Dee Ford |
8. | CHI | OLB | Khalil Mack |
9. | DAL | OLB | Leighton Vander Esch |
10. | DAL | MLB | Jaylon Smith |
11. | KC | OLB | Justin Houston |
12. | SEA | MLB | Bobby Wagner |
13. | NO | OLB | A.J. Klein |
14. | KC | ILB | Reggie Ragland |
15. | BAL | ILB | C.J. Mosley |
16. | NE | MLB | Kyle Van Noy |
17. | HOU | ILB | Zach Cunningham |
18. | IND | MLB | Anthony Walker |
19. | HOU | ILB | Benardrick McKinney |
20. | NO | MLB | Alex Anzalone |
21. | BAL | ILB | Patrick Onwuasor |
22. | HOU | OLB | Jadeveon Clowney |
23. | LAR | ILB | Mark Barron |
24. | CHI | OLB | Leonard Floyd |
25. | PHI | OLB | Nigel Bradham |
IDP RANKINGS (DB) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Pos | Player |
1. | NO | SS | Vonn Bell |
2. | KC | FS | Ron Parker |
3. | LAR | SS | John Johnson |
4. | KC | CB | Kendall Fuller |
5. | NO | FS | Marcus Williams |
6. | NO | CB | Marshon Lattimore |
7. | KC | CB | Steven Nelson |
8. | HOU | SS | Justin Reid |
9. | HOU | FS | Tyrann Mathieu |
10. | CHI | SS | Adrian Amos |
11. | CHI | CB | Prince Amukamara |
12. | HOU | SS | Kareem Jackson |
13. | NO | CB | P.J. Williams |
14. | CHI | FS | Eddie Jackson |
15. | NE | FS | Devin McCourty |
16. | SEA | SS | Bradley McDougald |
17. | LAC | FS | Derwin James |
18. | KC | SS | Eric Berry |
19. | CHI | CB | Kyle Fuller |
20. | NO | CB | Eli Apple |
21. | IND | CB | Kenny Moore |
22. | BAL | SS | Tony Jefferson |
23. | NE | SS | Patrick Chung |
24. | IND | CB | Pierre Desir |
25. | PHI | SS | Malcolm Jenkins |