- Several full-time linebackers are going to be available late in drafts: New defensive signal-callers and full-time players greatly increase the value of our sleeper linebackers.
- Will Harris has an opportunity to play a box-heavy role in 2025: Dan Quinn’s defense calls for a significant amount of snaps in the box for his strong safety, and Harris should be the prime beneficiary of this deployment.
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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
There is often plenty of value in the later rounds of fantasy drafts, especially in IDP leagues where a lot of the lesser-known defensive players can get overlooked. This list will highlight some of the more enticing fantasy options to target going beyond the top-30 players at their positions, according to ADP collected by The IDP Show. Some of these players should be on the rise to those paying attention, so get in on them at a discount while you still can.
LB Jack Sanborn, Dallas Cowboys
- IDP Show ADP: LB53
With Eric Kendricks‘ departure, DeMarvion Overshown‘s injury and just the lack of other reliable linebacker options in this defense, Sanborn’s familiarity with new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has thrust him into an ideal IDP role. Sanborn is the current favorite to sport the green dot in Dallas, which should give him the opportunity to rack up tackles at a high rate, not unlike his last full-time starting opportunity back in 2022.
Sanborn getting the confidence of the coaching staff as the defensive signal-caller puts any concern of competing with Kenneth Murray or Marist Liufau at ease and gives us a clear IDP target in drafts until we see otherwise. It’s unclear how well Sanborn will perform across an entire season or whether he’ll be able to keep that role, but right now, he’s in a position to deliver well above his current LB53 expectations and should be considered as a potential LB2 at worst for IDP as long as he’s in this role.
LB Nate Landman, Los Angeles Rams
- IDP Show ADP: LB66
Coming out of free agency and the NFL draft, this Rams linebacker corps had a lot of question marks, as there were no established starters or clear young stars at the position that they’ve invested highly in that we can point to for IDP and say “that’s the guy.” Earlier in the offseason, I favored Troy Reeder to be the guy since he was the lone player on this roster who had experience being a full-time linebacker for this team in the past. However, as new information comes out of training camp and the preseason, we can pivot our expectations as a result.
#FFIDP – Most efficient coverage schemes for LB tackling in 2024:
— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) June 9, 2025
Cover-2: 15.8%
Cover-6: 15.7%
Cover-4: 14.9%
Cover-3: 14.5%
AVERAGE LB TKL EFFICIENCY: 13.1%
Cover-1: 10.4%
Cover-0: 7.9%
2-MAN: 7.5%
Reminder: Zone-heavy defenses are a cheat code for IDP while man-heavy ones… https://t.co/FXZdUm3Jdd
The Rams are looking to trust Landman as their green-dot defensive signal caller, which comes with the full-time role that we should be excited about for IDP purposes. Considering the Rams’ tendency to deploy a zone-heavy defense last season at a top-five rate in the league, that only adds to Landman’s tackle potential on top of a full-time role. Landman delivered as an above-average tackler in his limited usage last season, which also adds to the hope for his IDP potential in 2025, and considering his current ADP evaluation, there is a ton of value to be had by grabbing Landman near the end of drafts and him returning an LB2 floor with this projection.
LB Christian Rozeboom, Carolina Panthers
- IDP Show ADP: LB61
Josey Jewell getting cut a few weeks ago opened up a big opportunity for Rozeboom in 2025, as he goes from being a potential part-time player on this defense to now wearing the green dot for Carolina. That value boost is a significant one, as we can now get behind him for all league formats as a very cheap every-down player. Last season with the Rams, Rozeboom found ways to produce on just a 74% defensive snap share.
Rozeboom finished 98th percentile in tackles versus expected on fewer than 900 defensive snaps last year and finished the season as a top-20 IDP linebacker. Considering the inconsistent usage for Rozeboom last year, where there were weeks when he played nearly every snap, and then he’d dip back down to 65-75%, there was a lot more untapped potential with Rozeboom that we could have gotten last season, if only for a true full-time workload. And now, it really looks like he’ll get that full-time workload because he’s wearing the green dot and because of the lack of options at the position in Carolina, and considering where he’s being drafted, he is fully capable of delivering a strong IDP season.
LB Mack Wilson, Arizona Cardinals
- IDP Show ADP: LB62
Sticking with our trend of ascending IDPs thanks to a change in role bringing a much larger opportunity, it’s hard to ignore Wilson’s potential value increase as he goes from being a part-time linebacker last year to wearing the green dot this year. Wilson was not just a part-time player last year, but his role in Arizona’s defense had him playing mostly on the defensive line and rushing the passer, which only adds to his inconsistent IDP usage when not playing a full complement of available snaps.
With Kyzir White gone, Wilson is now the top choice to play the “Mike” linebacker role and call the defensive plays on the field for the first time since college, which most importantly keeps him on the field for 100% of snaps. Regardless of what Wilson has been for us in IDP in recent years, which wasn’t much, this new role completely resets expectations, and he should be a player we’re targeting in drafts with the potential that he’ll be able to start for us in non-shallow formats.
LB Dee Winters, San Francisco 49ers
- IDP Show ADP: LB80
Interestingly, Winters’ value has been the one on this list that hasn’t changed all that much following Dre Greenlaw‘s departure in free agency, yet he owns the lowest ADP of the bunch, as there appears to be hope that rookie third-round pick Nick Martin will be the guy to start next to Fred Warner. As we know, NFL coaches value experience so much more at the linebacker position and rarely trust rookies to come in and start right away, so even though Winters only has limited NFL experience himself, it’s still more than any rookie.
The 49ers defense has typically allowed for two full-time linebackers. Assuming that trend holds in 2025, Winters becomes a great option to deliver startable IDP production. When we’re loading up on offensive players, or perhaps more valuable defensive linemen in our fantasy drafts with IDP this year, linebackers like Winters and the names on this list are all great bets to make while other drafters spend up on the Roquan Smith‘s or Zaire Franklin‘s of the world, there are much cheaper full-time linebackers we can grab who can deliver similar numbers. When opportunity is the greatest contributing factor to IDP production for our linebackers, it’s best not to get too caught up in name value at the position.
LB Demetrius Knight Jr., Cincinnati Bengals
- IDP Show ADP: LB49
As expected, with Germaine Pratt‘s release, Knight is the next man up in this Bengals defense, and through the first preseason game, that’s exactly what we saw. Knight and Wilson played 100% of Cincinnati's defensive snaps with the starters, while Oren Burks played on base downs, before he and Barrett Carter took over as the second unit. As has been the theme throughout these sleeper linebackers, Knight’s full-time role can serve as the main catalyst for startable IDP production.
Whether it’s Knight, Winters, Sanborn, Rozeboom, Wilson, or Landman, IDP managers have a plethora of options to choose from as their sleeper(s) linebackers late in drafts. These are the types of values we should be honing in on to create a strong stable of linebackers while still being able to load up on more valuable positions in fantasy drafts this season.
S Will Harris, Washington Commanders
- IDP Show ADP: S43
Harris is in a good position to take over the box-heavy role in Dan Quinn’s defense – a role that allowed Jeremy Chinn to deliver a bounce-back IDP season last year, playing 41% of his defensive snaps in the box and finishing as a top-20 IDP safety. Harris’ size and experience playing closer to the line of scrimmage in the past make him the best bet among the Commanders’ current crop of safety options to absorb that role and become the top IDP target.
Harris played about 30% of his defensive snaps in the box last season with the New Orleans Saints and despite missing time, he still delivered 75 total tackles and came in well below average in terms of percentage of non-tackle fantasy points. For those wondering why that’s worth noting, it’s a number with potentially high variance and can easily bounce in a player’s favor on any given season. For a player who came out on the negative side of that variance in 2024 and is in a prime position for tackles this season, Harris has the winning lottery ticket potential for the position in 2025 should everything come to fruition, and he’ll come with a minimal cost to acquire this offseason.
ED Carl Granderson, New Orleans Saints
- IDP Show ADP: ED37
Granderson delivered a breakout season in 2023, delivering 8.5 sacks and finishing as a top-10 IDP at his position as a result. Heading into 2024, expectations were relatively high for Granderson to deliver similarly, though he unfortunately fell short in the sack column, which ultimately hurt his IDP production and has seemingly scared IDP drafters off from trusting him again. For IDP drafters who understand the fickle nature of year-to-year IDP production, this is where we can bet on positive variance favoring good players to create a bounce-back in value.
A lot is going in Granderson’s favor to outperform his current treatment in drafts, including a significant expected workload after ranking sixth at his position in pass-rush snaps and top 20 in run-defense snaps last season. He also owns a strong pass-rush profile, as he posted the best pass-rush grade (70.3) since 2020 and set a new career-high in pressures with 61, a top-20 mark for his position. Granderson ranked 90th percentile in expected sacks last season, and while he came up well short of his expected totals, that only fuels his potential for positive regression heading into 2025 and can help him crack the top 20 at his position in IDP production.
Granderson’s potential becomes even greater for IDP in 2025 on the back of his playing time and high-end tackling ability, as he also ranked 95th percentile in tackles versus expected after leading the position in that regard in 2023. The combination of Granderson’s playing time, tackling ability and positive expected regression in the sack column makes him an obvious unique bet to make in IDP drafts this offseason to target while other drafters miss out.
ED Josh Sweat, Arizona Cardinals
- IDP Show ADP: ED34
Sweat finds a new home in Arizona, where he reunites with former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, with whom Sweat had his best season, delivering a career-high overall grade (86.6), pass-rush grade (82.1) and sack total (11). Sweat also immediately becomes the top edge defender on the Cardinals roster, which puts him in play to be on the field for another high-end workload in 2025. Over the past four seasons, Sweat has averaged 41 defensive snaps per game, which should be considered his floor with the Cardinals in 2025.
On that heavy workload, Sweat’s IDP potential becomes much greater than his ED34 evaluation per ADP. Just last season, Sweat ranked 85th percentile in expected sacks, 83rd percentile in tackles versus expected, top 25 in pass-rush grade and ED26 in IDP. Any improvement in production at all from Sweat in 2025 would allow him to outperform that finish from last season, but even if just delivering more of the same, Sweat is more valuable than his current ADP and the perfect late-round value target in drafts.
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