In IDP leagues, no position is more important than linebacker—the reality is that in most leagues, if you don't have a strong group of linebackers, you're done. Roasted. All over but the crying. Linebackers are usually the highest-scoring and most consistent players in fantasy. By a wide margin.
The reason for that is tackles. Linebackers who rack up big-time tackle numbers have both a high fantasy ceiling and a high floor. And while talent is, of course, a factor in which linebackers pile up gaudy numbers of stops, there's another major consideration—opportunity.
The key to opportunity for most linebackers is simply being on the field. Snaps. It's hard to tackle a guy from the sideline—unless you are Mike Tomlin.
That joke stays in this column for eternity. Forever.
The problem is that in this day of nickel sets as the base defense, the age of three off-ball linebackers on the field most of the time is long since over. As a matter of fact, with many NFL teams playing either more dime or three-safety looks, there are quite a few situations in which just one off-ball linebacker is on the field for a team.
Often, that lone linebacker is wearing a sticker on his helmet—the green dot that signifies that the player is wearing the helmet communicator on defense and making the defensive play calls. That player very rarely leaves the field, and while teams sometimes use a safety in that capacity, the overwhelming majority of NFL teams give that assignment to a linebacker.
As the number of every-down linebackers decreases each year, identifying the green dot linebackers is valuable information for IDP managers. To provide those managers with that information, once again in 2025 at Footballguys, we'll be maintaining an updated list of both who is wearing the green dot for all 32 NFL teams and who the other three-down linebackers are.
There will also be notes to keep fantasy managers apprised as to why any changes to the list happened--whether due to injury or performance, the dot can (and will) change hands.
It took all of one game into the 2025 season for IDP managers to find that out--the hard way. We'll get into it in more detail in the notes below, but the three-down linebackers for the Dallas Cowboys did not turn out as expected--at all.
I'm...I just...I mean...what the what?
That's the thing early in the season, though. We can make assessments galore based on what we saw from teams in training camp and the preseason. Educated guesses that really are educated. But until games that count begin and tinker time ends, we don't know what some teams will do at linebacker. And even once the season starts, there will be curveballs.
So, apologies in advance for being wrong.
Although, to be fair, y'all should be used to that from me by now.
Table time.
Notes
Atlanta Falcons
Divine Deablo has locked down the role of Atlanta's No. 2 linebacker opposite Kaden Elliss. The question is how many snaps that will translate into in games that matter. For a good chunk of the preseason, the Falcons played a lot of nickel sets and little in the way of dime looks. But in the exhibition finale, Jeff Ulbrich's defense played quite a while with just a single linebacker on the field. It could mean nothing--but it adds a degree of risk to trusting Deablo in even deeper IDP leagues in Week 1.