2026 IDP Breakout Candidates: Defensive Backs
Identify the defensive backs poised for a fantasy football breakout, with advanced IDP analysis and key metrics.
Each season, players take their game to new levels and significantly improve their fantasy production along the way.
The defensive back position for IDP often relies heavily on playing time, and that is going to factor in quite a bit for this year’s breakout candidates. To make things a bit more interesting, we’ll highlight some early-career safeties who should take a massive leap in 2026, assuming they can lock down these bigger projected roles.
Notes:
A significant jump in overall fantasy finish or fantasy points per game is expected, not just an incremental improvement.
We’re looking for over 9.0 points per game in 2026.
No rookies.
Referenced Big-3 Scoring can be found here.
Kevin Winston Jr., Tennessee Titans
Winston Jr. is not just one of the potential breakout safeties I’m most optimistic about heading into 2026, but already a personal favorite at the entire position heading into his second season. We only saw flashes of Winston’s IDP potential last season, but now, his role should change dramatically to allow for a more favorable IDP production across an entire season.
With Gus Bradley taking over as defensive coordinator for the Titans this season, Winston should be the favorite to step into the IDP-friendly strong safety role within that defensive scheme. For those unfamiliar, Bradley has typically deployed a very high rate of Cover-3 and single-high safety coverages, which allows one safety to spend the majority of snaps in the box and around the line of scrimmage. This was the case for Nick Cross (2024), Julian Blackmon (2023), Rodney McLeod (2022), and Johnathan Abram (2021); those are just the most recent examples. All four of those players finished no worse than top-20 IDPs at their position, with the latest example being Cross finishing as the overall S3 (2024).
That box-heavy role breeds high-end tackle efficiency, which is exactly the type of baseline we should be targeting for any safety in IDP. For Winston, specifically, if he’s able to lock down that role and deliver above expected as a tackler, which he did as a rookie playing more of a slot-heavy part-time role, then he has real top-12 IDP safety potential this season. Winston showcased above-average tackle efficiency as a rookie, and during his college career, which should only heighten expectations that he’d be able to smash in this spot, assuming he can stay healthy, which was part of the issue last year and why he played fewer than 350 snaps.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Arizona Cardinals
Taylor-Demerson isn’t a lock to start just yet in Jalen Thompson’s vacated safety role for the Cardinals, as he’ll likely have to battle with free agent signing Andrew Wingard for that spot. However, despite more NFL experience, Wingard has typically been more of a special-teams player, aside from a couple of seasons, not usually one to play a starting role. Taylor-Demerson is currently the front-runner for this starting role in 2026, and if he can lock it down, he’ll have real IDP potential in Year 3.
While Taylor-Demerson only started two full-time games in 2025, they were promising, on top of his part-time snaps throughout the season. Taylor-Demerson posted a 94th percentile mark in Tackles versus Expected for his position, building on his 91st percentile finish in that regard as a rookie; also on limited snaps. Given Taylor-Demerson’s history of efficiency already in his career, he could be primed for a massive IDP season if he’s given a full-time role.
Taylor-Demerson will have to compete with Budda Baker for prime IDP territory within the Cardinals’ safety deployments, but Nick Ralliss’ coverage scheme has allowed both of his safeties to get work in the box, so it shouldn’t be a major concern. Last year, Jalen Thompson averaged one-third of his defensive snaps in the box, though Baker spent half of his snaps in the box, which is the real prime real estate. That being said, Taylor-Demerson’s Tackles versus Expected data suggests that he can overcome unideal deployments to still deliver high-end tackle totals. Considering he’s only being drafted as the S30 right now, he’s one of the safer bets to make for IDP managers targeting breakout candidates at the position.
Jonas Sanker, New Orleans Saints
Sanker played more in his rookie season than any other safety on this list, taking over for the injured Julian Blackmon in Brandon Staley’s defense. Unfortunately, Sanker’s usage filling in for Blackmon meant that the large majority of his snaps were spent deep (66.5%). This is a role that didn’t suit Sanker’s style of play, considering he spent only 25% of his college snaps in a deep safety role, mostly lining up in the box (41%) and in the slot (32%). This made him much more productive and enticing as an IDP, even scoring in the 93rd percentile in my prospect model.
Heading into Year 2, Sanker’s usage is expected to shift dramatically as he’s the front-runner to play the “star” role in the defense. This essentially means that Sanker will take over the vacated Alontae Taylor nickel corner role, which allowed him to finish as the overall CB6 in IDP last season. It’s worth noting that Taylor averaged 96% of the team’s defensive snaps in that role last season, as he was able to move to outside corner in non-nickel personnel. It’s hard to know whether Sanker will be able to stay on the field in similar situations, as it’s unlikely he’ll play outside corner, but perhaps he can backfill at safety if Blackmon still isn’t fully recovered from his torn Achilles, or if the team feels he’s the better option.
Either way, Sanker’s outlook certainly has strong IDP potential this season, especially if he’s playing a near full-time role in the defense, given his more ideal deployments. With that usage, we’ll ideally see his tackle rates go up, his IDP production be more consistent, and have a great shot to outperform his current S54 ADP for a breakout season.
Lathan Ransom, Carolina Panthers
Ransom’s breakout potential hinges on him winning one of the tougher position battles among the other options on this list, as he’ll have to contend with Nick Scott, who started every game last season and averaged 98% of the team’s defensive snaps. Scott was a solid IDP performer in his own right, but he’s also older (31), hasn’t exactly been a standout as an NFL safety, and he’s lost his starting job before (Cincinnati, 2023). If Ransom can take a step forward this offseason, building on his top-10 run-defense grade and strong overall rookie showing, the team might feel invested enough to make a shift there.
Should Ransom take on a full-time role, his underlying metrics indicate a safety who can be very productive for IDP, including a 94th-percentile mark in Tackles versus Expected. This will be crucial for him to maintain, considering that Tre’Von Moehrig has the box-heavy role locked down in Ejiro Evero’s defense, so it’s likely that Ransom will be forced to play the majority of his snaps from a deep safety deployment. This isn’t ideal, but knowing he can deliver above expectations as a tackler should help mitigate the deployment's drawbacks.
Ransom’s Year 2 breakout potential comes with more caveats than the rest of the names on this list, considering he’ll likely play more deep and might not even win the starting job, but for deeper leagues, he’s worth a shot with his S65/DB115 ADP at the moment. If his ADP was much higher, then he wouldn’t be worth the risk, but taking into account that he’s essentially free in drafts, there’s very little risk in taking a swing on him.
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