IDP Roundtable, Best Values

Photo: USA Today Sports

It's almost go time.

In less than a fortnight, the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs will open the 2023 NFL season at Arrowhead Stadium. And when they do, another frustrating, thrilling, maddening, exciting season of fantasy football will begin with it.

With the advent of the regular season just around the corner, fantasy draft season has kicked into overdrive—wise managers who wait as long as possible before drafting their teams are feverishly assembling rosters online, at local watering holes, and in sports caves.

As a service to the IDP managers who have yet to draft, the IDP staff here at Footballguys has gathered one final time this offseason to offer their takes on the season to come.

This time, it's the best IDP values for this season.

Related: Find the worst values here >>>

So, listen up.

What defensive lineman is the best value pick?

Kyle Bellefeuil: Danielle Hunter of the Minnesota Vikings is looking like an enticing value right now with his DL17 ADP via The IDP Show. After only playing in seven games in 2021, Hunter played in all 17 contests in 2022, producing a solid 65 tackles (46 solos), 10.5 sacks, and 22 quarterback hits. Also encouraging is Hunter and the Vikings were able to put the contract shenanigans behind them and get things settled. With only football to worry about now for Hunter, new defensive coordinator Brian Flores will be looking to unleash his best defensive player in his aggressive scheme. Still only 28 years old, Hunter has plenty left in the tank and a serious upside at a fair price.

Tripp Brebner: Reports of Chase Young's demise are greatly exaggerated. The second overall pick of the 2020 NFL draft made an impact right away, scoring 2.5 sacks in his first two games as a pro defensive end. He finished seventh among NFL pass rushers in pass-rush win rate.

Expectations that Year 2 would set him on a Hall-of-Fame trajectory were unreasonable, and the market has overcorrected to account for the knee injury he sustained in 2021 that cost him almost all of 2022. He plays on a stout Commanders' defense with a murderers' row of linemen. He hasn't forgotten how to rush the passer. The 24-year-old is a strong bet to finish as a DE1 at the cost of a DE3.

Gary Davenport: I can almost hear Norton rolling his eyes before I even answer this, but there's no reason for me to divert in August from a player I have been talking up all summer long. In each of the past two seasons, Matthew Judon of the New England Patriots has tallied 60 tackles, logged at least 12 sacks, and finished as a top-10 defensive lineman. And yet, largely because he was classified as a linebacker by some IDP providers prior to 2023, he's flying under the radar in more than a few drafts. Getting DL1 value for a low-end DL2 price tag means that IDP managers can attack the linebacker position early. And that's rarely a bad idea in IDP leagues.

Joseph Haggan: Dorrance Armstrong of the Cowboys is undervalued. He had 33 tackles and 8 sacks in 2022 on a 47% snap share. Demarcus Lawrence is getting older, and Sam Williams just got arrested. Armstrong may be the 2nd best pass rusher on a team that just ked the league in pressures.

Matt Montgomery: Miami Dolphins defensive end Jaelen Phillips. Last season, he was classified as a linebacker on most sites. This season, he will be a defensive end, the natural position he plays. The 24-year-old pass rusher would have finished in the same range as Sam Hubbard and Montez Sweat. He's relatively unknown and cheap!

John Norton: I would go with Josh Uche of the New England Patriots here, but he is more of a sleeper than a value. Carl Granderson of the New Orleans Saints is my favorite value. He is going late in all leagues and not at all in some. Over the first eight games of last year, he averaged less than 20 snaps per game and was 9-7-.5. Over the last eight games, he was 21-16-5. With Marcus Davenport gone, Granderson is set to be the starter. He played 479 snaps last year and went 30-23-5.5. This year, he should see north of 700 snaps.