All About the Solo: Week 16

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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For the majority of us, the season is over and we’re on to 2018. I know not everyone was able to win their leagues this year but I hope we were able to help you build a contender. After many years of getting very close, I finally brought home the title in the DLF IDP league. This league is full of some of the smartest dynasty minds around and it’s a tough league to contend.

Some people may not see the value of an article like this but it was compiling these tables each week and seeing usage trends which helped identify the breakout appeal of Blake Martinez and Joe Schobert, among others. I spent a ridiculous amount of blind bidding dollars on Schobert. At the time I thought I overdid it, but I can honestly say he was my best IDP free agent add of 2017.

It was also nice to see Mychal Kendricks have a rebirth of sorts. I’d still like to see him elsewhere in 2018, but it is what it is at this point. You should never ignore scheme changes when it comes to IDP stars.

As we approach “Black Monday” and the league continues its annual game of musical coaching chairs, IDPs will see their values significantly change, some for the good, some for the bad. A lot of times schemes outweigh the player.

Look at the inside linebacker spot in Washington. It didn’t matter who lined up there; they produced. NaVorro Bowman looked like he was circling the drain in San Francisco and played lights out once he got to Oakland. Pay attention to free agency and these coaching changes, and strike quick.

Since returning from his back injury, Ezekiel Ansah finished the year on a high note. His three sacks against the Bengals in week 16 was the kind of performance which undoubtedly brought home some IDP titles. Heck, it could’ve even been the equalizer for those teams going up against Todd Gurley. If you somehow played against a team with both Gurley and Ansah, well, you lost and sometimes life isn’t fair.

Marquis Flowers and Deatrich Wise look like cornerstone IDP pillars for New England and fantasy owners alike. If they can find a disruptive inside lineman in the off-season, these two could really explode going forward.

Solomon Thomas recorded his third sack of the season against Jacksonville and has the look of an IDP beast. As this 49ers team reloads on defense, both of their rookies from 2017 are going to be IDP mainstays. Get your hands on Thomas and Reuben Foster while you can.

2017 was also a great year for Julius Peppers in Carolina. His return to the Panthers in a pass rushing specialist role was exactly what both parties needed. With one week to go, Peppers has 11 sacks on the year and recorded at least 0.5 sacks in ten of 15 games on the year. Peppers won’t fetch you anything on the trade market as he’ll soon be 38 years old so you might as well ride him into the sunset.

Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.

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