All About the Solo: Week Six

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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Thursday night’s Eagles-Panthers game was bitter sweet. Luke Kuechly left the game with another concussion (allegedly), and Jordan Hicks left the game with an ankle injury and neither returned. Nigel Bradham missed a few series in the second half of the game and it allowed Mychal Kendricks to play every snap in the second half and he didn’t disappoint. Kendricks stepped in and recorded a season high 15 tackles. With Jordan Hicks expected to return to practice and not miss any games, Kendricks won’t get the opportunity to follow up his performance with an every down role in week seven but he should see an increase in playing time nonetheless.

Matt Judon went out and had himself a game on Sunday. Not only did he rack up 12 tackles, all solo, but he also registered two sacks, coming from an outside linebacker that is spectacular. Judon is getting plenty of opportunities in a fairly high volume role. He has seen at least 40+ snaps in five of six games and 50+ in three of them including this week’s 70 snap contest. As an outside pass rusher opposite Terrell Suggs he’ll always have a fairly high ceiling but if he can continue to rack up the tackles he could be a high floor / high ceiling player and an IDP difference maker. He needs to be owned in all formats until the dust settles.

Justin Simmons flashed some of that potential the Broncos have been waiting on since they released TJ Ward earlier this year. Simmons hasn’t lit up the stat sheet prior to this week but he finally put it all together with 11 solo tackles. I like the safety duo of Darian Stewart and Simmons.

Blake Martinez has really dug his heels in as the key Packer linebacker to own. He leads the team in tackles with 48 and has registered double digit tackles in three of the last four games. With Aaron Rodgers out for the remaining of the season teams shouldn’t have to go toe to toe in a high scoring shootout each week which should grant Martinez more tackle opportunities. Throughout the bye weeks he has firmly entrenched himself into LB2 territory. Finally.

The Broncos had no answer whatsoever for Jason Pierre-Paul on Sunday night. He rung them up to the tune of seven solo tackles, an assist and three sacks, one for each finger on his hand. All kidding aside, JPP is not human and seems to have regained that game changing pre-accident form.

Calais Campbell continues his march towards NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He now has eight sacks through six games and at least half a sack in every game but one. This week they head to Indianapolis and their makeshift line where he’ll look to continue the hot streak. After a week eight bye he’ll face the Bengals, Chargers, Browns, Cardinals, Colts again and Seattle before finishing off with Houston, San Francisco and Tennessee. He has a realistic shot at 20 sacks on the season. Buckle up.

Kyle Van Noy continues to be an IDP bright spot on a very bad Patriots defense. He has become Belicheck’s Swiss army knife and brings a ton of scheme versatility to a team looking to find an identity. I have no idea if he’ll even be on the team in 2018 but he has to be locked into lineups for the rest of 2017.

Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.

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Eric Olinger

Honorary Contributor at Dynasty League Football

A 12 year old trapped in a man's body, Eric has been playing IDP dynasty leagues for almost 20 years. He enjoys Star Wars, Batman, red meat and an ice cold Diet Coke, sometimes all at once. He hopes to one day own his own Batmobile but his wife is a relentless dream crusher so the odds are slim.

Latest posts by Eric Olinger (see all)

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