IDP Green Dot Update: Week 11

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 defensive 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's Week 11. The final month of the fantasy regular season is here. The stretch run to the playoffs has begun--and for many IDP managers that means one thing. No more losing. They just can't afford to withstand any more setbacks if they want to move on to the postseason.

One more loss, and the entire damn season is an epic fail.

Dear God there are so many of those videos. 

The last thing those managers need is for a linebacker to lay an egg because he's not, you know, on the field. It's vital they know which guys are getting the snaps--because snaps mean opportunities to make stops.

So yet again, it's table time.

Note: Here at Footballguys, we set the benchmark for three-down linebackers at a 75 percent snap share. Linebackers listed with an asterisk (*) may not hit that benchmark on a weekly basis this season.

Notes

Arizona Cardinals

With Mack Wilson Sr. sidelined last week by a rib injury, rookie Cody Simon assumed green dot duties for the Cardinals, tying for the team lead in tackles with six. The former Ohio State star fared well in his first NFL start, playing all 62 snaps, and with Wilson already ruled out for Week 11 as well, Simon was one of the more popular waiver adds at the linebacker position this week.

Carolina Panthers