All About the Solo: Week 14

Eric Olinger

One of the most 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 assists. On the flip side, if your league doesn’t score solos and assists too differently, you’ll have a better idea of which 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 is still the discretion of the home score keeper. Even after this effort 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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A lot can be said for the play of Sean Lee this year. With him on the field, the Cowboys defense is a completely different unit. The only real difference in this unit from the craptastic 2015 version is the return of Lee and the removal of Greg Hardy. Lee has always been a great player when healthy but he’s basically the Tony Romo of the Cowboys defense. Jamie Collins put up some really awesome numbers in a home game versus the Bengals. This game was tailor fit to Collins’ strengths and he didn’t disappoint. I hope the guy sticks around in Cleveland and gives this unit a player to build around.

Johnathan Cyprien has drawn the ire of some film and metric analysts over the past couple of seasons but the guy fits the current defensive scheme and puts up solid numbers. With a coaching change on the horizon in Jacksonville, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with this unit. Bobby Wagner and Preston Brown are on this list like every week. Their battle for league-leading tackler is going to go down to the fourth quarter of week 17.

During San Francisco’s inexplicable loss to the Jets on Sunday four defensive backs played 100% of the defensive snaps and Jacquiski Tartt ended up being tied with DeForest Buckner for the team’s leading tackler. A defensive back and a defensive end with double digit tackles. That kind of absentee play from your linebackers is how you get your lunch fed to you. Tartt and Buckner looked awesome though. Buckner is going to be a truly great player in this league and a legitimate IDP asset. As a 49ers fan I’m excited, and as an IDP fan I’m ecstatic!

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Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.

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eric olinger
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