Darkhorse IDP Candidates to Finish as the LINEBACKER1 in 2026
These under-the-radar defensive stars could outperform their ADP and emerge as league-winning LB1s during the 2026 fantasy football season.
Each year, some players come out of nowhere to deliver huge fantasy seasons, especially in IDP leagues, given the relative instability of NFL defenses, as proven by players like Zack Baun (2024) and Jayron Kearse (2021), and by IDPs like Andrew Van Ginkel (2024) and Quincy Williams (2023), who came very close to finishing as IDP1s in previous years.
Opportunities and tackles are king for fantasy linebacker production, with nearly 85% of fantasy points coming from tackles – more than any other IDP position. This is important information for fantasy managers because, while not easy, predicting tackle rates is still much more stable than predicting non-tackle box-score stats (sacks, fumbles, interceptions, etc.).
After Foyesade Oluokun reigned supreme for three straight seasons, Zack Baun emerged out of nowhere in 2024 to snatch his LB1 crown and prove that the darkhorse IDP1 finishers are more than possible to emerge every year, and 2026 is no different. Even with Jordyn Brooks, a consistently elite tackler who posted a massive tackle total and finished as LB1 in 2025, there are several contenders who can do the same this season.
These darkhorse options are all going outside the top 12 at their positions, according to our ADP IDP-only best-ball drafts, which have been running regularly throughout this offseason. Big-3 Scoring referenced throughout this piece can be found here.
With so many full-time linebackers, the goal will be to find one that checks every box comfortably, while also still going outside the top-10 at the position in ADP.
Oluokun delivered three straight LB1 seasons, doing so on two different teams, while leading the league in total tackles in 2021 and 2022 and in solo tackles in 2023.
Baun made his mark in 2024, ranking among the league's top five in solo tackles while adding big plays, including 3.5 sacks and five forced fumbles.
Adding those big plays can push our linebackers over the top, especially when combined with the league-leading tackle numbers, and it will often be the difference between finishing as LB1 on the year and LB12 for those thousand-snap players.
For the most part, to reach that 17.0-plus points-per-game mark, our future LB1 should be able to deliver at least 80% of that as a tackler, with room for positive variance on big plays to help boost his ceiling just enough.
There are several ways to maximize tackle production, but nothing is more important than overall playing time. Being an every-down linebacker and staying healthy for a full season will give anyone who fills those requirements a chance to lead the league in tackles.
The team the player is on, and the defensive schemes they run, also play a part in generating more tackle-efficient opportunities for the linebacker position.
Typically, the more zone-heavy a team is, the higher tackle efficiency those plays will yield for linebackers. Oluokun’s 2023 Jacksonville Jaguars and Baun’s 2024 Philadelphia Eagles used more zone coverage, which helps yield more efficient tackle numbers for the position, as noted here.
Lastly, the player needs to be above average in tackle efficiency, as indicated by all past LB1s performing no worse than the 96th percentile in tackles-versus-expected over the past five seasons.
Devin Lloyd, Carolina Panthers
Lloyd has long been in the shadow of the three-time LB1 himself, Foyesade Oluokun, but now with a new contract and opportunity with the Panthers, Lloyd is finally set to take on that true LB1 role for the first time in his career. Opportunity has been a massive barrier for Lloyd during his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and now that that major hurdle has been cleared, he truly has a chance to shine on his own and deliver the elite IDP production that we’ve long awaited.
A lack of opportunity hasn’t been the only concern for Lloyd during his NFL run thus far, but his underwhelming production as a tackler has also hindered his IDP potential. Lloyd hasn’t finished with a positive mark in Tackles versus Expected in any of his previous four seasons. Considering we need elite performers in that regard, Lloyd becomes one of the riskier picks for our darkhorse LB1, but there’s room to bet on improvement as well. A big part of that potentially improved tackle production comes from Lloyd now moving to the most zone-coverage-heavy scheme in the league from last season, which should greatly boost his expected tackle rate in 2026.
If Lloyd isn’t the league leader in tackles, he still has room to finish as the overall LB1 with his big-play potential. Over the past four seasons, Lloyd has averaged a blitz rate of around 12%, though that number was significantly higher in 2025 (21.4%). While blitzing linebackers isn’t a huge part of Ejiro Evero’s defensive scheme, it's reasonable to expect Lloyd to rush the passer on about 10% of his snaps, and even with that dip in usage from last year, he still comes in with around 3 sacks in our projections. That dip in pass-rush usage would also help bump up his tackle numbers, on top of the new preferred zone-heavy coverage scheme.
Lloyd is currently being drafted as the LB17 in our best-ball tournaments, which is a perfectly reasonable price to pay given his past IDP finishes. However, projections have him as the LB7, and I’m currently ranking him as the overall LB8, to put my money where my mouth is for this one. If he can return even top-12 production for the first time in his career, then he’s still a player well worth targeting in drafts this year.
Alex Singleton, Denver Broncos
A personal favorite, and the man known worldwide as “Kingleton”, he earned that moniker thanks to true dominance as a tackler for most of his NFL career. Singleton’s 2024 season was cut short by an ACL injury, but he returned to the field in time for the start of 2025, playing 16 games but not quite producing at the same level IDP managers have come to expect. Singleton finished as the LB33 in points per game and “just” 80th percentile in Tackles versus Expected. Coming off a major injury, it’s understandable that he wasn’t producing quite like his former self, but another year removed from that injury with no competition for playing time or tackles among the Denver linebacker corps, he should deliver closer to that elite production we’ve come to expect.
While an 80th percentile mark in Tackles versus Expected can be considered a great mark for most IDPs, it’s not “Kingleton” levels of efficiency like years past, where he’s finished 99th percentile (2021), 100th percentile (2022 & 2023), and 100th percentile in Tackles versus Expected per game in 2024. A return to that level of efficiency is still within his realm of possibility, which would be a big boost to his overall LB1 potential. The concern for Singleton in 2026 mostly stems from the Broncos’ defensive scheme, which was among the league’s most man-coverage-heavy in 2025 and likely will be again this season. However, for a player typically so effective at overcoming his situations, which is why he’s scored so well in Tackles versus Expected in the past, it shouldn’t be as big of a detriment to him as it would be to other less-effective linebackers.
While Singleton’s primary function is tackling, like every full-time linebacker, big plays are bound to happen, though he was wildly unlucky in that regard this past season. Singleton made up 92% of his fantasy production from tackles alone, which was just a 14th percentile mark for the position, and a number that should positively regress to the mean in 2026, creating another significant boost to his IDP production. Improving the situation for IDP managers buying into Singleton, like myself, his ADP makes him a much easier target to go after this year, since he’s being drafted as the LB32 at the moment. A return to form as a tackler and positive regression in the big-play department should easily have us praising Kingleton again as a top-notch IDP.
Kaden Elliss, New Orleans Saints
Elliss was an elite IDP performer in 2024, finishing as the overall LB3 in Big-3 Scoring, but for the majority of his career, he’s been more of just a solid weekly starter. And while there’s nothing wrong with being a weekly fantasy starter, we’re ideally looking for true league winners with pieces like this, and Elliss certainly has the potential to return that value in 2026 now that he’s back with the Saints.
The primary area of improvement for Elliss as an IDP will come from his tackle production, which, outside of that elite 2024 season when he finished in the 98th percentile in Tackles versus Expected, he’s typically finished well below average in that category. Much like the previously highlighted Devin Lloyd, Elliss’ ability to buck that trend will come from a friendlier defensive scheme that should lead to a better tackle rate. Brandon Staley’s Saints defense last year ranked among the top 10 in zone coverage rates and blitzed linebackers far less often, which reduced tackle opportunities. For example, Demario Davis rushed the passer on 12% of his passing-down snaps in 2025, while Elliss did so on 26% of his passing-down snaps. The difference resulted in Davis having an expected tackle rate of 14% for the year, while Elliss’ was just 12%, which is below average (13%) for the position.
As we expected Elliss’ tackle rate to improve due to a better scheme, it also means his sack opportunities are bound to decline, though not to the point where he shouldn’t deliver in that regard. Not only is that a strength of Elliss’ game, having delivered a minimum of 3.5 sacks in each of the past four seasons, but depending on just how much usage he gets in that role, he’s one of the better bets for improved sack numbers this year as well. Elliss led the linebacker position in Expected Sacks last year (8.0) but finished with only 3.5, suggesting potential positive regression. Even if not 8 sacks, since he’ll be rushing slightly less, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him land 4-5 on top of the improved tackle numbers and really elevate his IDP status once again in 2026.
As the LB18 in our ADP at the moment, Elliss stands out as a clear-cut target to improve on his 2025 season and potentially deliver a result similar to 2024, putting him in that league-winning territory.
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