Fantasy Football: IDP takeaways from preseason Week 1 | Fantasy Football News, Rankings and Projections

Deciphering the Philadelphia Eagles linebacker situation: With Nakobe Dean inactive for this game, everyone else played at different times leaving more information to be desired.
What to make of the Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals’ safety situations: Early usage and deployment for both of these groups could give us a better idea of what to expect come Week 1.
First-round rookie linebacker shines: Detroit Lions’ rookie Jack Campbell didn’t get the start but posted impressive numbers to get dynasty managers feeling pretty excited.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

With one week’s worth of NFL preseason games in the books, there were a few IDP-related takeaways to make note of in order to get ready for this fantasy football season.

Houston Texans @ New England Patriots

The Texans seemingly played their defensive starters through the first two drives, including rookie third-overall pick Will Anderson, who played 82% of his team's defensive snaps through those two drives and recorded one tackle.
At linebacker for Houston, it seems that both Denzel Perryman and Christian Harris are set to start the year as the top two, as they each played an every-down role through two drives before their night was done. Perryman was especially efficient, posting four total tackles and a sack on his 11 snaps.
The Patriots did not play any of their first-team defense in this game.
Rookie defensive end Keion White popped on 27 defensive snaps, posting a team-leading 89.8 defensive grade thanks to three total pressures and three defensive stops.

#FFIDP – New England Patriots defensive lineman and rookie second-round pick Keion White last night, per @PFF:

27 defensive snaps
????89.8 overall grade

75.7 run defense grade
???? 2 defensive run stops

81.0 pass-rush grade
???? 3 total pressures
???? 23.1% prsh win-rate pic.twitter.com/v4810oxr3S

— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) August 11, 2023

Minnesota Vikings @ Seattle Seahawks

The Vikings did not play many of their expected starters in this game, including Harrison Smith, Jordan Hicks, Brian Asamoah, Marcus Davenport, and Danielle Hunter.
They did, however, start Ivan Pace Jr. at linebacker, who was wearing the green dot and playing an every-down role through the first five defensive drives.
It’s important to note that Brian Flores’ defensive tendencies did show a bit in this game with the other starting linebacker Troy Reeder coming off the field on third down and spending most of his time on the edge, playing 78% of the defensive snaps.
Troy Dye replaced Reeder and played next to Pace on the next three defensive drives, seeing just 60% of the defensive snaps.
Playing time is going to be a concern for whoever emerges as the Vikings' LB2 in 2023.

#FFIDP – The Vikings are without Jordan Hicks and Brian Asamoah tonight, so starting at linebacker…

????IVAN PACE JR‼️

He's played every down through 4 drives.

LB Troy Reeder played the first 2 drives – mostly on the edge (86%), and came off the field on 3rd down both drives. https://t.co/XaLcTbjQJQ

— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) August 11, 2023