IDP Rankings By Position: Sacks, Tackles, and Shackles

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In Part Three of this series (out of five) we will look at the linebacker position to determine the NFL players that will make the biggest impact on the upcoming season.

Again, we are ignoring specific scoring settings, as they vary widely in the IDP world, the focus here is on which players stand to be in the best position to maximize their talent to accumulate worthwhile stats.

Linebackers are the bread and butter of every fantasy team in an IDP league, the axle that the wheel spins around. But, is any one linebacker really that important? There is a debate on the value of the truly elite LB's in a fantasy draft, as compared to the elite defensive linemen, in particular. 

The replacement value for linebackers is fairly close, meaning you can replace a stud player with a waiver wire player and pretty much get 75-80% of the production in most league formats. 

A player like Dhani Jones (Cincinnati) will most likely not get drafted (unless there is a huge Bengals homer, or a fan of the Travel Channel in your league) and he had 116 tackles last season. There is very little chance that you can find that comparable production from defensive linemen in the free agent pool.

Without disparaging the LB position too much, it is still essential that you select impact players at the position that also provide consistency, which is one thing you won't get from your DL or DBs.  The reason this article is titled: Sacks, Tackles, and Shackles is that nearly all linebackers fit into these categories:

Sacks

Is an obviously named category, in that the player is basically a sack master. Think DeMarcus Ware or Joey Porter here. He basically is an extra defensive end on the field, and quite typically is an NFL team's weak-side linebacker. 

The best of them will get some tackles, lots of sacks, a few forced fumbles, and maybe even a fumble recovery or an interception for a TD once in a great while. 

As a group they are not as consistent of a source of IDP fantasy points, but the weeks that they do produce it is a watershed of points. 

In a 3-4 defense, WOLB's (like Ware) typically are going to be much more consistent year-to-year and game-to-game than their 4-3 WLB counterparts (such as Lance Briggs or Thomas Howard), and have a much higher ceiling.

Tackles 

This is another clearly worded category, as these players are the tackling machines.  Patrick Willis and Jon Beason are two of the current tackle kings. They are typically inside linebackers, MLB in a 4-3 and SILB in a 3-4. 

Their job is to put there bodies into the point of attack and make plays, a good MLB will require the opposing offense to scheme around him. The most consistent fantasy performers will be MLB in a 4-3 defense (like Beason) but the elite point scorers will be an ILB in a 3-4 defense (like Willis or Jerod Mayo) who has another ILB (Takeo Spikes or Tedy Bruschi) that plugs the hole and takes on the blocker freeing up our tackling machine to take on the ball carrier. 

The ILB in a 3-4 defense also has more opportunities in coverage to get interceptions and in disguised blitzes to get sacks.

Shackles

Ah, that one had you thinking, right? These types of linebackers are really good football players, but usually bad as fantasy prospects. They are the LB's that are forced to cover tight ends, blow up blockers, or man a zone in pass protection. 

They are "shackled" to their positional duties, they are the "fullbacks" of the defense, and strong-side linebackers in any scheme and sometimes ILB in a 3-4 defense.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, of course, but they are easily counted on one hand. Chad Greenway of the Vikings is easily the top SLB and a fantasy stud, LaMarr Woodley in Pittsburgh is a force to be reckoned with, and Julian Peterson is a great NFL player but is on the cusp of being fantasy relevant (in regular sized leagues).

But that is about it, three consistent fantasy-relevant players out of 32 starting strong-side linebackers, regardless of defensive scheme. Stay away from these guys no matter how "great" they look in preseason, or how good they are in real football terms, it doesn't equate to statistics that fantasy football currently measures. 

The only question you have to ask yourself: is Aaron Curry (or Brian Cushing) an "exception" or "the rule" for this position?

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