NFL Draft Aftermath: IDP Winners and Losers from the AFC East

Doug Green

With the 2018 NFL Draft in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to start looking ahead to get an idea of what is going to happen in 2018 in terms of IDP leagues. The first step of that is analyzing the overall defensive makeup of every team in the league. Who’s moving up and who’s moving down?

Today I’m looking at the AFC East.

Buffalo Bills

[am4show have=’g1;’ guest_error=’sub_message’ user_error=’sub_message’ ]

Winner: Tremaine Edmunds

Buffalo has decided to go through an overhaul of its roster, making Edmunds the centerpiece. They stripped out any linebacker of worth, and a few linemen to boot. Edmunds will get every opportunity to be the face of the franchise and has the talent to do so. My only concern with the whole situation is there isn’t a veteran presence who knows how to win, which I believe only helps a young defense.

Loser: Tanner Vallejo

Vallejo was the heir apparent at middle linebacker in 2017. He had the range and quickness to cover the middle, but he’s been usurped by the first-rounder Edmunds. Odds are he won’t beat out Matt Milano for the weak-side so that leaves him with just sub duty, which isn’t all that great for IDP needs.

Miami Dolphins

Winner: Reshad Jones

Jones dodged a major bullet: Derwin James was still on the board when Miami selected Minkah Fitzpatrick. Even if you believe Fitzpatrick is a safety, and I don’t, his skill set is more suited for free safety playing further from the line of scrimmage. That keeps Jones locked in at the strong safety position and keeps his IDP value intact. If the Dolphins had taken James, Jones probably finds himself on the bench sooner rather than later.

Loser: Stephone Anthony

Poor Stephone Anthony. Everywhere he goes, he finds himself as the odd man out. In today’s day and age of the nickel defense being where most of the snaps lie, that means there will only be two linebackers on the field. For the Dolphins, they will want to run out their draft picks from the past two seasons, Raekwon McMillan (2017) and Jerome Baker (2018), because they both specialize in defending the pass. Anthony might have some value in mop-up duty as opponents will be running a lot at the end of the game to run out the clock, but that’s not a fun way to earn fantasy points.

New England Patriots

Winner: Kyle Van Noy

Van Noy must be living a charmed life. First, he got traded from Detroit, who had no idea what to do with him, to New England. Then, in this draft, the Patriots decided they were content with what they had at linebacker, only taking a couple of late-round fliers. Van Noy is good, but not great. He’s probably on a roster in your league, but nobody will give you anything of value for him. Still, he’ll see snaps and is a decent bye-week fill-in.

Loser: Jason McCourty

Yes, New England just picked him up from the purgatory known as Cleveland. But the the Patriots turned right around and selected Duke Dawson from Florida in the second round. Both are of similar size, but Dawson is a little faster. As we saw in the Super Bowl, Bill Belichick only cares about winning and will run anyone out there who he thinks will help him do just that.

New York Jets

Winner: Lorenzo Mauldin

Yeah, yeah. I know he’s not good, but that’s how he ended up on the winner’s pile of this article. The Jets did very little in the draft to address their defense, which means that Mauldin will continue to see snaps. New York took neither a linebacker nor a pass rusher, so for a guy on the roster bubble, that’s good news. He’s probably on your waiver wire, except in the deeper leagues.

Loser: Henry Anderson

Yes, he just came on board, but Nathan Shepard is really good and should secure the starting gig by the end of the season. Anderson is merely a place holder and rotational player. I doubt he is rostered in your league, but you can probably get him as a throw-in another deal. He is currently listed as a starter, so there is a small amount of value there.

[/am4show]

doug green
Latest posts by Doug Green (see all)