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IDP Matchup Sheet: User Guide and Week 5 Read
What this file is
The whole point of this file is to show you which defenses are set up to score IDP points in a given week and which ones aren't.
Every number comes out of the official NFL gamebooks. I enter the stats each week, and the sheet automatically summarizes them into an easy-to-read format.
One thing to know going in: there are no players in this file. It won't tell you to start Fred Warner, but it will tell you if the offense he's facing has been handing out tackle chances more often than every other team in the league. The rest is up to you. That's by design, since you know your roster better than my spreadsheet does, and the matchup context is the part that's most difficult to put together yourself. I'm trying to give you all the matchup information you need to inform your IDP lineup decisions each week. There's lots of information out there for offense matchups, but not nearly as much from the opposite side of the ball.
There have been some major enhancements this year as well, so let me walk you through the new spreadsheet.
What's on each tab
| Tab | What it tells you | When I'd open it |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | This week only: how good each defense's matchup is, overall and by position group | Setting a lineup. Start here. |
| Rankings | Season-long: which offenses have given up the most IDP points | If you want to see how each offense ranks compared to the rest of the league. |
| Tackle Ops | Where tackle chances come from. Rush attempts faced, completions allowed, snaps | Look under the hood to see how and where tackle opportunities are being created. Most important for IDPs. |
| Sack Ops | Pressure, sacks, QB hits, picks, passes defensed, both applied and allowed | Sizing up pass rushers and ball-hawk DBs |
| Offense | What each offense actually does. Rush attempts, completions, drop backs, snaps, run rate | You want the cause behind a matchup instead of the result |
| Stat Crew Grades | How generously tackles get recorded, by stadium and week | If you're interested in evaluating tendencies by stat crews in each stadium. |
| Contents | Every abbreviation in the workbook, with links that take you to a specific stat or section. | You hit a column header you don't recognize |
SCHEDULE
On the Schedule tab, each row is a defense and the offense it's facing this week. The left side provides rankings, where 1 is considered the best matchup for overall, DL, LB, and DB, then tackle opportunities, sacks, PD, and INTs. The middle section is the same thing but in projected fantasy points. The two columns on the right are the expected run/pass split, which is usually what tells you whether the matchup is more favorable to linebackers or defensive backs, for example.
RANKINGS
On the Rankings tab, you will see one row per offense, sorted by the total IDP points they have allowed per game. RK always ranks on TOTAL points no matter which column you've sorted by. The tier is just shorthand to evaluate the matchups quickly: ATTACK is roughly the top quarter, then LEAN, NEUTRAL, and AVOID.
Notes for 2026
The Rankings tab is new this year and replaced a little-used section called Matchup Charts from past versions. All 32 offenses on one sheet, ranked by the IDP points they give up per game, broken into tackle points, sack points, and takeaway points so you can see where the damage is coming from. An offense can be generous because it runs the ball constantly and keeps drives alive OR because its quarterback is constantly under attack and gives up sacks and turnovers in bunches. Those are two very different matchups, and now you can more easily tell them apart.
There's a SEASON / LAST 4 toggle. The dropdown at the top of the Rankings section can flip the whole board between season-to-date and just the last four games. Recency starts to matter once injuries or scheme/coaching changes start to pile up later in the year. The window also skips byes, so it will report based on the last four games a team actually played rather than just the last four weeks on the calendar. That ensures a consistent sample size is used across all teams.
The rankings board and all three Ops tabs have filter arrows on the header row that can be used to easily sort however you prefer. Sort by sacks if you need a pass-rusher, by tackle opportunities if you want a high floor, etc.
There are working links to each stat/section on the Contents tab. Every abbreviation is defined there, and each provides a link that takes you straight to the section referenced. Helpful if you are looking for a specific stat and don't want to scroll through hundreds of rows across multiple sheets to find it.
How I'd use it each week
- Open the Schedule tab and find the matchups for the week. The overall rank gives you the shape of the week in one number. Top eight is a green light. 24 and higher, and you may want to start looking elsewhere for better options.
- Check the position column you actually care about. This is a step many managers skip but could provide you with an added edge. A defense may rank 15th overall but still rank 4th for defensive linemen. That's great for an edge rusher but maybe useless for a safety.
- Look at the run/pass mix. Anything over 55% run will favor players that primarily line up inside the box (inside linebackers, strong safeties, defensive tackles). 48% or lower run should mean favor DBs and pass rushers more.
- Use the Rankings tab to help break a tie. If your IDPs look even, consider starting the one facing an offense in the ATTACK tier. Flip the toggle to LAST 4 to see whether that tier is recent or perhaps leftover from earlier in the season.
- If you still want to dig deeper, you can scroll through the Ops tabs to see how teams are doing and where they rank in relation to the rest of the league on a large number of metrics.
Some helpful advice
Four games is still a small sample. Every rate in here right now is relying on just 4 games played so far this year, so some of this is just noise at this point. The interception column is a clear example of that, given how variable those can be, and some teams are projected for the same exact stats, so the ranks between them may be arbitrary at times. For stats like interceptions or even sacks, you may need to wait a few more weeks for them to become useful. Tackle opportunities settle down the fastest, though, and are likely the column you can trust the most right now. Also be careful looking at any home/away splits early in the season given the same concerns with sample size.
These are opportunity projections. A top-ranked matchup says a defense should see a lot of chances. It doesn't know your linebacker may leave with an injury in the first quarter or that the game is going to turn into a blowout by halftime. Use it to set your odds and make informed decisions.
Stat Crew grades are context, nothing more. This sheet tracks how generously tackles have been awarded at each stadium, week by week. After a thorough review this offseason, I found that the spread between the most and least generous crews is real, but it's small. Smaller than the gap between a good matchup and a bad one, and smaller than the league-wide change in how tackles have been scored over the past few years. We are seeing a clear and consistent trend with more assists and fewer solos awarded across all stadiums (Solos Vs Opportunities have dropped from 78% to 74% to 68%). The details here are still interesting and worth monitoring, particularly if you have a game being played in a stadium that tends to hand out very few assists. It may not be worth benching or starting any players based on these numbers, though.
WEEK 5: Matchups to Target
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