Photo: USA Today Sports

With the NFL draft behind us, rookie drafts are now kicking off or soon approaching. Joey Haggan and I have collaborated to form a Top-40 IDP rookie big board to help you navigate the waters of your rookie drafts. Below is our consensus top 40 IDP rookies, with a quick writeup on each player. You can also see the individual rank of each player, and we each provided some insight into our thought process when approaching our ranks and drafts.

Insight into how we approached our rookie IDP rankings:

Joey Haggan: When going through IDP rookie rankings,  I focus heavily on positional scarcity and individual talent in my top 20-25. After that, I'm drafting players who are more certain to produce; that would be cornerbacks. Rookie cornerbacks see the field much more often than a 5th round linebacker or edge. Take a later round chance on more guaranteed production.

Kyle Bellefeuil: I’m a big fan of targeting the top three edge rushers (Latu, Turner, and Verse) in IDP drafts. From there, it’s onto everybody’s favorite position, linebacker, and the hot names of Edgerrin Cooper, Junior Colson, and Payton Wilson—I’m still betting on talent with Wilson, as you’ll see below. Then Byron Murphy II and Jer'Zhan Newton enter the mix, as they play a scarce position where impact players can give you an edge in true-position formats. As the IDP ranks and drafts get deeper, I typically look to target value at edge-rusher, linebacker, and defensive tackle—even if patience is required. Grabbing an impact safety is always on the table if you can get the likes of Cole Bishop, Tyler Nubin, or Javon Bullard where the value fits. At cornerback, I’ll target the productive slot guys later, Cooper DeJean or Mike Sainristil for example, but mostly fade the position as it’s streamable for IDP purposes.

IDP Rookie Top 40 Big Board

IDP Rookie Tier 1

IDP Rookie Tier 2

IDP Rookie Tier 3

IDP Rookie Tier 4

IDP Rookie Tier 5

IDP Rookie Tier 6

IDP Rookie Top 40 Player Summaries

1. EDGE Laiatu Latu, Indianapolis  

Joey’s Rank (2), Kyle’s Rank (1)

Haggan: Latu is incredibly agile for a man with a broad frame. His incredible lateral agility makes it difficult for offensive linemen to cleanly engage him at the point of attack. His snap timing is terrific, matched with an eye-popping initial burst, and showcasing an already NFL-ready technique of using his hands to swipe, grip-and-rip, pull, swim...he has them all. Latu has a red-hot motor with quick back-end pursuit that causes mismatches all over the line of scrimmage.

2. EDGE Jared Verse, LA Rams

Joey’s Rank (1), Kyle’s Rank (3)

Haggan: Verse has speed. He has an explosive first step, almost always winning at the initial point of contact. His hips are like rubber bands, bending underneath offensive linemen just to snap back with a tremendous burst to get to the quarterback. Verse has a polished pass-rushing repertoire and showcases an innate ability to counter his opponents, constantly keeping them off balance. With Verse's ideal landing spot, he has intriguing IDP potential as a rookie.