All About the Solo: Week 11

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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With Jamie Collins out for the season, James Burgess stepped in and put up the kind of numbers we were hoping for out of Collins. While playing 91% of the snaps next to Joe Schobert and Christian Kirksey, he totaled 16 tackles and a sack. The gaudy total number is eye-catching but the large number of assists throws up a red flag for me. He’s worth an add as a LB3 since the Browns spend a ton of time on the field each week. Kirksey was also productive for the Browns as he eight solos, five assists and a sack.

Landon Collins won the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award with ten solos, four assists and a Travis Kelce thrown interception. Teammate Calvin Munson showed he can be counted on in spot starts when given an opportunity. He started next to Jonathan Casillas and by far played the most snaps of any Giants linebacker.

Speaking of teammates, Deone Bucannon and Budda Baker both played every snap for the Cardinals and put up legit numbers. Bucannon has been fairly consistent since week five but has zero sacks and one interception on the year. He’s settled into mid-LB2 territory and that’s ok. Baker on the other hand is benefitting from the season ending injury to Tyvon Branch and should be started every week moving forward.

I think the biggest surprise on this list is the fact Derek Barnett was the only Eagles player to register more than a single sack against the Cowboys. Dallas did make some adjustments to use Jason Witten and their running backs to chip the Eagles pass rushers in order to get Dak Prescott out alive. With the probable return of left tackle Tyron Smith for the Thanksgiving day game, the mouthwatering outlook for Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram gets a slight downgrade but they’re to be fired up regardless.

Yannick Ngakoue registered another multi-sack game, it was his fourth of the year and he’s now up to nine on the season. He’s literally the definition of feast or famine. He either has 2+ sacks or zero and he’s not a player who collects tackles otherwise. You have to play him though based on the big upside and the lack of sure things on the defensive line.

Terrell Suggs. Willie Henry and Matt Judon ate the Packers offensive line alive on Sunday and harassed Brett Hundley to no end. The Ravens trio accounted for all of the team’s six sacks on the way to their third shutout of the season and the first at Lambeau in 11 years. The takeaway here is to fire up your pass rushers against the Packers.

Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.

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