Ten IDP Fantasy Football Stats You Need to Know after Week One
Welcome to the 2024 IDP season. Every week we’ll be flagging interesting stats to keep an eye on. Some will be about players who are especially efficient, some will be about players who are the opposite. The key to IDP remains volume (either in total snap count, or in certain actions like pass rushing), but there are plenty of wrinkles beyond that.
At the start of the season, it’s worth noting that this article uses Pro Football Focus data as a single source of truth. This means that the numbers here might not match up with those you use. Remember NFL data is fairly subjective, and the tackle is not even an official stat. Absolute truth is less important than standardized methodology in predicting the future.
1 The Chiefs’ Nick Bolton led all LBs in W1 with 80 snaps
His six total tackles (three solos and three assists) were just tied for 31st among LBs.
It’s easy to look at this and be down on Bolton, but that sort of variation is normal over a single-game span. For the same reason you shouldn’t have believed he was naturally an over-efficient tackler in the past, you shouldn’t believe he’s now gone the other way. Just keep trusting in volume.
2 Bears LB TJ Edwards recorded a tackle efficiency of over 20%
A very few players seem to buck the trend of volume efficiency metrics. LB tackle efficiency (the percentage of snaps upon which an LB records a solo or an assist) tends to hover at 13-14% for LBs, although it is rising over time.
Edwards in his career has twice recorded a season-long stat of 17% or over and he’s held up as an example of a guy who just “has a nose for the ball”. To see him record the highest figure among LBs in W1 is unsurprising.
However, in 2023 his figure was 14% (average) and it was 15.2% (slightly over average) in 2022. Another way of looking at it is that he had two high numbers in his first three seasons but has since flattened out.
3 Chris Jones, Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence led all interior linemen with six pressures each
By far the most consistent IDP position across seasons is DT where the same handful of elite players tend to finish that high year after year. So it’s no surprise that three of the best over the past half-decade were right at the top this week.
Sure, Jones and Lawrence ‘only’ had one sack each, while Williams had none, but pressures are reliable and predictive while sacks are not. Start the guys who are getting pressure.
4 Grady Jarrett and DeForest Buckner had two sacks each
Hang on, but why would you start guys with pressure but no sacks, and not go for the ones with multiple sacks?
Both Jarrett and Buckner had three pressures each, and therefore converted two thirds of them into sacks. That’s great for them but finishing evens out over time. It’s not reliable.
Jarrett rushed the passer 20 times, and Buckner 28. Chris Jones rushed 44 times, and Leonard Williams 31. Over time, guys who rush more often and have a higher pressure percentage outperform guys with less volume but ‘better’ finishing.
5 Lions edge Aidan Hutchinson led the position with 70 snaps
70! That’s more than the average length of a game in defensive snaps. As a comparison, the average for the rest of the top ten was just under 58. So Hutchinson (and Micah Parsons who was just behind him on 69) had a clear advantage over their peers in volume.
Over the last couple of seasons that advantage has belonged exclusively to Maxx Crosby. But Crosby played just 57 this week (albeit he did not miss a snap). For two years he’s had a huge IDP advantage over all other edges, but could that be evaporating in 2024?
6 Micah Parsons played six snaps at LB. Zaven Collins played four
For some reason, people tend to think that playing in multiple spots is a good thing for IDP scoring. It’s not. It’s normally bad. But we might as well be accurate and open about it. Because people don’t actually watch much defensive football (checking where players line up snap after snap for hours is kinda boring), myths hang around for years.
Neither of these players lines up in their ‘secondary’ position more than a handful of snaps per game unless there’s an injury issue.
7 Von Miller (five) managed more pressures than Gregory Rousseau (four)
But of course, the Bills edge everyone will want is Rousseau because he got to the QB three times compared to Miller’s one.
We know the Bills love to run a deep rotation of linemen, so all the guys in that unit will have good weeks, we just have very little idea when they’ll happen.
8 Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah played every Browns snap
In fact, his 63 snaps this week was a benchmark he’s only reached seven times in his NFL career before this game. In three seasons. He’s just never been trusted to be a full-time guy before. That might evaporate at any second, but right now, he’s the Browns LB you want.
9 Nick Cross led all safeties in week one with 13 total tackles
He recorded a very high (for a safety) tackle efficiency of 16.5% – just ahead of his team-mate Julian Blackmon who managed 11 total tackles.
Before you go rushing out to grab Cross though consider a few things:
- Blackmon had the better positioning. Blackmon played over 50% in the box/slot. While Cross was deep 80% of the time. Safety positioning is less important than you think, but as a tiebreaker, go for the guy in the box.
- Only Bryan Cook and Justin Reid of the Chiefs played more than Cross and that’s not going to be true every week. Avoid buying players at their very peak.
10 The Texans played just 45 defensive snaps. The Colts played 79
In similar news, the Ravens played just 54 snaps while the Chiefs played 80. Also, the Buccaneers (who played against Washington) played 59.
It’s no accident that teams playing against running QBs saw relatively few defensive snaps.
It’s not a hard and fast rule, and plenty of counterexamples occur (The Falcons up against Justin Fields and the Steelers played 69 def snaps). But small things like this add up to an edge over the season.
- Ten IDP Stats You Need to Know After Week 14 - December 13, 2024
- Ten IDP Stats You Need To Know After Week 13 - December 6, 2024
- Ten IDP Stats You Need To Know After Week 12 - November 29, 2024
