Fantasy Football: 2022 IDP Linebacker Tiers

• Chicago Bears’ Roquan Smith and Indianapolis Colts’ Shaquille (Darius) Leonard stock is falling due to availability concerns, making E.J. Speed and Matthew Adams late-round dart throws.

• Why drafting Dallas Cowboys LB Micah Parsons among the top-12 may not be the best decision.

• Click here to view PFF’s full IDP rankings for the 2022 season and tiers for the defensive linemen and defensive backs.

For IDP fantasy football leagues, there is a ton of variance in preseason player rankings, but utilizing tiers can help us properly value each group of players in 2023 fantasy football drafts. 

The main contributors to a linebacker’s IDP success are the volume of defensive snaps combined with playing in zone-heavy defenses, which rack up tackles more efficiently.

The following tiers reflect which players are in the best situations to produce — they're ranked based on the likelihood of doing so every single week.

Updated: August 11, 2022

TIER 1: EVERY-DOWN ROLES & LB-FRIENDLY DEFENSES

The criteria for making the top tier of IDP linebackers is relatively simple: be an every-down linebacker and play in a linebacker-friendly defense that breeds above-average tackle efficiency for the position. This means zone-heavy coverages and, more specifically, a Cover-2 heavy scheme, which proves to be the most effective coverage at propping up linebacker tackle numbers (as illustrated below).

A quick thread on the most efficient coverage scheme for linebacker tackling since 2019, per @PFF:

Cover-2 has allowed for >15% tackle efficiency for LBs since 2019 (average being 11-13%) acting as a true edge for #FFIDP leagues!

2021: 16.33%
2020: 15.56%
2019: 15.43%

(1/8) 🧵

— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) March 25, 2022

The six players in the 1A tier figure to be the favorites to post the highest tackle numbers in the league based on their expected role in their defenses. Bobby Wagner may surprise some based on his age. Still, the Rams ranked fourth in the NFL last season in zone coverages (82.60%). Then there's the added bonus of playing behind Aaron Donald, who draws all the attention at the offensive line, opening up room for the linebackers for clean tackle opportunities.

The rest of 1A should surprise no one, with this group almost filling out the consensus top-five linebackers in ADP terms,. Their tackle efficiency and every-down roles make them the most coveted players at the position.

The 1B tier has just as much going for them, with zone-heavy defenses, expected positive tackle efficiency and an every-down roles.

Rounding out the top-tier of linebackers, Lavonte David is likely another surprise player based on where he tends to go in drafts, but don’t let the age fool you. He may be coming off one of his worst statistical seasons in recent memory, but he also missed five games with injury. Typically, David is the ideal linebacker for IDP. He rarely leaves the field, having never played less than 90% of defensive snaps when healthy in a season, and is a lock for triple-digit tackles as a result.

Rookie Devin Lloyd and sophomore Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah both project to be every-down linebackers on ideal defenses for expected production. Expect both young studs to push for 140-plus combined tackles, if healthy.

TIER 2: SLIGHTLY LESS THAN IDEAL SCHEMES + LB1s WITH QUESTION MARKS

The second linebacker tier features 17 linebackers on teams that are expected to be less zone-heavy than those in the tier above. Here's why that is important: