IDP Green Dot Update: Week 17

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 17, and in most IDP leagues that means Championship Week. The end of the road. The final showdown. Two teams will enter this week's matchup. But just one team will emerge as champion.

Welcome to Thunderdome.

In this biggest of weeks, every fantasy point matters more than ever. Any edge IDP managers can gain can be the difference between victory and defeat, and knowing which linebackers will be on the field full-time is most assuredly an edge.

Let's win some championships.

Table time.

Notes

Baltimore Ravens

With Teddye Buchanan out for the season with a torn ACL, Trenton Simpson has assumed No. 2 linebacker duties last week against the New England Patriots. Simpson played just 72 percent of the snaps in the game, but he was productive--seven total tackles (six solo), two tackles for loss, and a sack. He's on the deeper league radar as an LB4 or flex play.

Buffalo Bills