All About the Solo: Week Eight
One of the more frustrating things in IDP leagues is seeing your stud linebacker fly all over the field on game days only to see the home score keeper dilute his performance by divvying up his tackles as an assist. On the flip side, if your league doesn’t score solos and assists too differently, you’ll have a better idea of what teams hand out assists like candy. Not everyone knows this, but the NFL does not recognize a tackle as an official statistic. Tackles are scored by the home team’s official score keeper and those are the stats you see on the news and websites. The league made an effort to standardize what is and isn’t a solo tackle back in 2007 when they sent a video to all NFL teams, but it still the discretion of the score keeper. There is a still a large discrepancy from team to team and week-to-week. I will be tracking this throughout the season to give you a better idea of what to expect when choosing your IDPs each week.
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The Carolina Panthers score keeper is one of just four score keepers to award over 40 percent of visiting team tackles as assists. For comparison, there are nine teams awarding fewer than 20 percent of visiting team tackles as assists. There are five teams awarding over 40 percent of total tackles to their home teams, only Seattle breaks the 50 percent mark. Seven teams are awarding fewer than 20 percent of tackles as assists to the home team.
I bring this up because D’Qwell Jackson and Jerrell Freeman both had double digit total tackles and neither had more solo tackles than assists. How often is a tackle really assisted? This liberal scoring keeps both of their weekly floors somewhat high but really caps their ceilings.
I’m always cautiously optimistic whenever I see Sean Lee and Brian Cushing near the top of the performance list. It’s been the most frustrating thing about both players throughout their careers. Whenever they’re on the field, they produce. Unfortunately, they’re made of glass and each snap could be their last. My advice with these two is to trade them while they’re healthy.
Two rookies made the list this week, Stephone Anthony and Kwon Alexander. Anthony hasn’t received the publicity of Alexander or my affection like Eric Kendricks, but he has quietly played over 95% of the defensive snaps for the Saints. The only other Saints linebacker to play over 75% of the snaps is fellow rookie Hau’oli Kikaha. His 11 total tackles are a season high and his fifth-straight game with 7+ total tackles. The Saints rookies appear to be young building blocks in the Big Easy.
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the heartbreaking story of Kwon Alexander losing his brother to gun violence last weekend before going out and playing the best game of his young career. He racked up 11 total tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception. He has been a real breakout player on his way to being a legitimate LB1.
Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.
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- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Seven - October 24, 2018
- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Six - October 16, 2018
- Dynasty IDP Waiver Wire: Week Five - October 10, 2018
