2026 Fantasy Football IDP Sleepers: Linebacker
Identifying the top linebackers who can outperform their ADP and become fantasy football values in 2026.
There is often plenty of value in the later rounds of fantasy drafts, especially in IDP leagues where many lesser-known defensive players can get overlooked. This list will highlight some of the more enticing fantasy options to target going beyond the top-36 players at their positions, according to our ADP. The cost is relatively cheap and worth the upside swing, so be sure to utilize those late-round picks for the best value for your fantasy football rosters.
Starting at the linebacker position, last year, most of my sleeper picks were linebackers, so just to highlight them here, they included:
Nate Landman: Drafted as LB66, finished as LB7
Christian Rozeboom: Drafted as LB61, finished as LB34
Mack Wilson: Drafted as LB62, finished as LB22 in PPG (LB61 overall)
Dee Winters: Drafted as LB80, finished as LB27
Demetrius Knight Jr: Drafted as LB49, finished as LB39
Jack Sanborn: We were lied to about his role, so let’s not talk about that one.
Last year’s picks came following the first week of the NFL preseason, but for this year’s list, we’re going to try and identify some sleeper candidates before the preseason kicks off, and we can always update our information once more information comes to light.
Ventrell Miller, Jacksonville Jaguars
Current ADP: LB65
The Jaguars entered the NFL Draft and free agency as a team with real potential to address the linebacker position following the departure of Devin Lloyd, who had provided over 3,600 defensive snaps for the team since 2022. With unproven starters Ventrell Miller and Jack Kiser the lone worthy successors, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see the team add more insurance or a proven veteran to the linebacker room to help bolster a competitive roster. Instead, the team brought in no new names, which signaled strong confidence that the 2023 fourth-round pick could fill a significant void in the defense.
Miller enters Year 3 with a prime opportunity in front of him, and IDP managers have a similar opportunity to capitalize on a free upside pick in deeper leagues. Miller is the clear front-runner to start alongside Foyesade Oluokun this season, and while that may not be an every-down role, there’s an easy path for him to outproduce his current ADP if he can hold that role for the entire season. The one competitor for Miller’s LB2 role in this defense at the moment is second-year UDFA Branson Combs, according to a report from Sports Illustrated, stating that Combs has impressed in his opportunities through the first three days of camp. Jack Kiser is currently away from camp with an injury and is likely slated to back up Oluokun anyway. In very deep leagues, Combs could be a speculative add just in case Miller can’t hold the role, though he still remains the favorite for that spot.
Miller has outperformed his expected tackle production in each of his first two seasons, even delivering 71 total tackles as a rookie in a part-time role. If Miller can maintain that level of efficiency, he could potentially close the gap between him and other LB3-4 types created by his less-than-full-time snap share. Either way, deeper formats should absolutely have Miller on radars, and well ahead of his current LB65 ADP. He is currently ranked as my LB44, and being projected as the LB36 on just a 76% snap share, making him a worthy dart-throw in non-shallow formats.
Divine Deablo, Atlanta Falcons
Current ADP: LB40
Deablo has yet to truly live up to the potential of his elite name, having finished outside the top-40 IDP scorers at his position every year since he’s been in the league. So naturally, IDP managers aren’t going to have much faith in him to deliver much more, hence his LB40 ADP. However, with Kaden Elliss departing, and the Falcons staying lean at the linebacker position this offseason, Deablo had real potential to emerge as a true every-down player, which, if healthy, would almost certainly allow him to comfortably clear his current ADP value.
News out of Atlanta is that Deablo is set to wear the green dot this year, which would keep him on the field for an every-down role for the first time in his career across an entire season. As IDP managers are likely fully aware, playing time is the greatest contributor to a linebacker’s IDP production, and with that requirement now fully optimized for Deablo, we should be looking at him as a potential every-week starter for most IDP formats.
The one hangup for Deablo that keeps him more as an LB3 in my rankings is that he hasn’t been the most efficient tackler over the past three seasons, finishing in the bottom 50th percentile in Tackles versus Expected each year. For Deablo to be much more than just an LB3 for IDP, he’ll need to be efficient with his opportunities. According to our IDP projections, there’s a lot of belief that he will, ranking him as more of an LB2 this season. If Deablo is able to return even average efficiency with his significantly larger role, then LB40 is well below his floor as an IDP and a clear value for IDP managers to target this offseason.
Malcolm Rodriguez, Detroit Lions
Current ADP: LB94
Let’s get a little deeper with our sleepers for a minute, because Rodriguez, while a long-time IDP hopeful, is only being drafted as the LB94 at the moment as he’s coming off a torn ACL suffered early in 2025. However, all accounts seem to confirm that Rodriguez should be good to go heading into 2026, which couldn’t come at a better time for the Lions, following the departure of Alex Anzalone this offseason, and leaving a substantial role up for grabs in this defense.
Now, IDP managers might be asking, “What about Derrick Barnes? He played over 900 defensive snaps last year.” And that is a very fair question, but based on this defense and their deployments last season, Barnes plays a very different role than what we should be expecting Rodriguez to play/take over for Anzalone. The terminology used by the Lions is that Anzalone was the team’s weak-side linebacker, where Barnes was their strong-side linebacker, which essentially means that Barnes’ role was very unique as he spent nearly half of his defensive snaps lined up on the edge, and rushed the passer on a third of his passing down snaps. This was a very different role from the more orthodox off-ball role vacated by Anzalone, which Rodriguez is in line to take over, while Barnes maintains his role from last season.
If Rodriguez is indeed healthy and able to lock down that weak-side linebacker role alongside Jack Campbell and Derrick Barnes, in the league’s most three-LB-heavy defense from last season, there’s an IDP-friendly role that costs absolutely nothing to acquire in IDP drafts right now. Keeping in mind as well that Anzalone has been one of the most ineffective tacklers at the position in recent years, though he’s often finished as an LB3 for IDP, which should be a similar value to expect Rodriguez to return if all goes well this season. The team added Devin White on Saturday, but given his body of work at this point in his career, he’ll be hard-pressed to earn a relevant role, and may not even make the roster come Week 1, though IDP managers are welcome to monitor the situation.
Mack Wilson, Arizona Cardinals
Current ADP: LB48
Mack Wilson made my sleeper list last year, and while he suffered an injury that kept him out for the entire second half of the season, he was producing as the LB22 in points per game up to that point. This was a result of being the Cardinals’ lone every-down linebacker and delivering just average to below-average tackle production, with a few big plays to help. Heading into 2026, now that Wilson is back healthy, his role isn’t expected to change as the Cardinals’ LB1, which puts him in position to once again greatly outperform his current offseason value as most IDP managers seem ready to move on to Cody Simon, who is being drafted right alongside Wilson at the moment (LB49).
Based on current reporting, Simon will be in a competition with free-agent acquisition Jack Gibbens for the LB2 role, leaving Wilson as the clear lone full-time starter once again and likely sinking Simon’s value if he’s unable to emerge as the LB2. For IDP managers paying attention in leagues where others are basing their drafting on last season’s results, this is the perfect opportunity to scoop up easy value by taking a locked-in every-down starter while non-full-time players like Simon, Demetrius Knight Jr., and Drake Thomas come off the board.
Wilson proved last season, when healthy, that we don’t need an overly efficient tackler to return LB2 value, or at the very least greatly outperform their ADP, which is what makes all the linebackers on this list enticing. For Wilson, average tackling and regular big-play production in a healthy every-down role is well worth the cost of his draft price right now, and a perfect late-round target for IDP managers loading up on defensive linemen early with their IDP picks.
Josiah Trotter, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Current ADP: LB53
With Lavonte David retired, the Buccaneers’ linebacker room is set to look dramatically different in 2026. The team brought in Alex Anzalone to seemingly lead the way, then added veteran Christian Rozeboom in free agency for added depth. Heading into the NFL Draft, it appeared like Rozeboom would be the favorite to start over SirVocea Dennis, who was a major disappointment in 2025. However, the Bucs were not done adding to their linebacker room, as they spent a second-round pick on Missouri’s Trotter, who now appears to be in line for LB2 duties in Todd Bowles’ defense.
That second-round investment in Trotter is the key to unlocking real playing time right out the gate as a rookie, though it’s not a guarantee that he’ll be able to win the job, or even hold the job for the entire year if he’s not picking up the game fast enough. There are significant concerns with Trotter’s coverage ability, evidenced by his career 42.2 PFF coverage grade coming out of college, though his role may be able to shelter him from playing too much on passing downs, which would be ideal for his first season.
As the LB53 according to our ADP, Trotter isn’t a significant discount compared to his projection of LB49, but if he’s able to hit the ground running in Year 1 and expand on a potential early-down role to start, there’s certainly more upside worth gambling on here late in drafts. Trotter was an excellent run defender in college, which allowed for very efficient tackling, and if that translates to the next level, he should be in weekly starting consideration for non-shallow IDP formats this season.
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Great article as always Jon. How is it you're not overly concerned about White's impact on Rodriguez? He's just come off a monster season at LV and he's only a year or so older. Do you envision White being more of a backup to Campbell, rather than a positional threat to Rodriguez? Thanks.