IDP Update: League-Winning LB Bargains

Can you feel it? The excitement? The electricity? The Cleveland Browns doing stupid things?

Football season is almost here. In just over two weeks, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will play a rematch of Super Bowl LX (on a Wednesday, because that's where we are), and the 2026 NFL campaign will get underway.

Where the NFL goes, fantasy football follows—and the closer we get to Opening Night, the more the gas pedal gets pressed to the floor where IDP draft season is concerned.

It's a time of great excitement and enthusiasm. Arguably the best day on the fantasy calendar. It's a celebration in every sense.

Well, until the draft starts anyway.

While the draft always starts with smiles and butterflies, it can quickly turn to horror and dread. There is no worse feeling than coming out of the draft with the sickening realization that things didn't go well—that the old adage, "You can't win your league on draft day, but you can lose it," is about to bite you right in the butt.

And in IDP leagues, success or failure on defense is largely reliant on how things go at linebacker—on finding values at IDP's most important position.

So, with this final offseason edition of IDP Update here at Footballguys, that's the direction we're headed. To the second level of the defense. To Downtown Discount—with a handful of linebackers who are being drafted well after they should be this year.

League-Winning Linebacker Bargains

Nakobe Dean, Las Vegas

After four up-and-down seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, Dean signed a three-year, $36 million contract to head to Las Vegas, where he has been reunited with former Georgia teammate Quay Walker. While addressing the media, Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby said the prior relationship between the two young linebackers is evident on the practice field.

"They're dogs, literally Georgia Bulldogs," Crosby said. "They're awesome, bro. They bring the energy every single day. They bring a certain type of confidence that you feel when you're out there. Having two of those guys who have actual experience playing together and are both in the prime of their careers, I haven't had that my whole career."

Durability has admittedly been an issue for Dean, who missed seven games a season ago. But the 25-year-old is wearing the "green dot" helmet communicator, and two years ago Dean logged 128 total tackles and was eighth in fantasy points per game among linebackers in The Godfather's Default IDP Scoring. There's legit LB1 upside present with Dean—available well into LB2 territory.

Zaire Franklin, Green Bay

Franklin spent the first eight years of his career in Indianapolis, including the last four as a full-time starter and the "green dot" linebacker. Franklin was traded to the Packers for a bag of Beaver Nuggets in the offseason, but he told reporters he intends to show that he's still one of the best off-ball linebackers in the NFL.

"I feel like it's been challenging for me a little bit, because that's how I like to play," said Franklin. "When I'm on the field, I'm a completely different person. My mentality in between the white lines is ultra-competitor – like, ultimate alpha. I want to challenge the best, the biggest. I don't want no little guy. I want to go against the baddest (expletive) out there. That's how I feel. I feel like I'm the best. I'm the baddest (expletive) on the planet when I'm on the field. That's just my mentality."

OK then.

Over a three-year span from 2022 to 2024, Franklin topped 165 tackles each and every year—including leading the league with 173 stops and finishing as the highest-scoring linebacker in fantasy football two seasons ago. Franklin's numbers dipped in 2025, but a bounceback is coming as the "green dot" linebacker in Titletown.

Buy that bounceback.

Daiyan Henley, LA Chargers