IDP Linebacker Tackle Efficiency: 5 Safe Bets and 5 Red Flags for 2026
Mike Woellert dives into some of the league's most effective and ineffective linebackers so IDP managers can draft accordingly.
Three seasons of linebacker snap and tackle data raise a few questions: who actually converts opportunities into tackles, and who’s just eating snaps?
We filtered for linebackers who played more than 1,500 snaps over the 2023–2025 window — enough of a sample to make a meaningful hypothesis.
The metric is tackle rate: combined tackles per snap. It strips out scheme, usage, and volume games and asks the cleanest version of the question. Can you find the ball and finish?
Let’s dive into what the data says heading into 2026.
The Safe Bets at Linebacker
I think these are the guys you can draft and just set your lineup, knowing they’re going to rack up tackles on a weekly basis. They’re about as dependable as Kramer screwing up a Jackie Chiles case.
High efficiency, stable roles, no drama.
Blake Cashman, Minnesota Vikings
15.5% Tackle Rate | 6.46 Snaps per Tackle
Now, we’re talking about tackles, not necessarily health. That’s probably a different discussion, but it’s undeniable: Cashman is one of the most efficient tacklers at the linebacker position. In fact, he had the top tackle rate in the entire three-year sample.
Cashman posted a 16.2% rate in Houston in 2023, dipped to 12.5% in his first year in Minnesota, then bounced back to an 18.3% rate in 2025, which was the best single-season number in the dataset. In year 2, he was much more comfortable in the defense. I think the dip was a scheme adjustment, but the bounce-back was the real Cashman.
Here, Cashman keeps his head up, sheds the block, and gets the tackle on David Montgomery:
From Weeks 7-17, Cashman was the LB1 in overall scoring at the position and produced a 19.1% tackle rate.
He’s a downhill, physical, instinctive linebacker who diagnoses fast and finishes through contact. Minnesota’s run-heavy defensive identity is built for him, and he produces. He’s my LB4 in redraft.
Jack Campbell, Detroit Lions
14.9% Tackle Rate | 6.73 Snaps per Tackle
Jack Campbell has had quite the trajectory into the NFL and IDP. He was a tackle machine coming out of Iowa, and the question was always “what year will Campbell be a three-down LB?” As a rookie, he played just 59% of the snaps, but would produce a highly efficient 14.9% tackle rate over 639 snaps. Campbell earned a full-time role in year two but saw a slight dip in efficiency at 13.5%. In Year 3, Campbell earned the dot and exploded to 16.1% in 2025 as Detroit’s defensive quarterback. Campbell was all over the field and had just one game with fewer than eight tackles.
Here’s a great example of his downhill trigger and block-shedding. He wraps Josh Jacobs for the tackle:
He averaged 903 snaps per season across three years and topped 1,000 in 2025. Campbell’s downhill style and smarts allow him to get to the ball first, and he made Alex Anzalone expendable. He’s locked in as the green dot and just signed an extension.
The efficiency is legitimate, and he’s a top-two IDP linebacker.
Ernest Jones, Seattle Seahawks
14.5% Tackle Rate | 6.92 Snaps per Tackle
Jones is the most boring player on this list. In redraft leagues, that’s a compliment.
Since becoming a three-down LB in 2023, he’s recorded tackle rates 14% and above in two of three seasons. Jones was traded mid-season in 2024 and needed some time to adjust to the scheme, but finished with a 14.1% tackle rate over 10 games with the Seahawks.
He recorded a 14.0% tackle rate over his first full season in Seattle in 2025. The song remained the same with Jones; he shows up, plays 900+ snaps, and records tackles. Over three seasons and two teams, he’s the tackle machine of the defense. Not only is he an efficient tackler, but his missed rate has also never been over 10%.
Jones scrapes across traffic and gets the tackle on Aaron Jones:
In Seattle’s defense, Jones handles run fits, cleans up trash, and rarely takes himself out of position. That’s a reliable weekly starter in IDP formats that reward consistency over ceiling. He’s a middle-round IDP asset you’ll be glad you have in November.
Nick Bolton, Kansas City Chiefs
13.4% Tackle Rate | 7.48 Snaps per Tackle
Nick Bolton had a huge 2022 season with 180 tackles and a 16.1% tackle rate. However, Bolton’s 2023 was upended by injury, and he appeared in 441 snaps, which pulled his three-year rate down slightly. But look at 2024 and 2025: 11.3% and 15.2% across nearly 2,000 combined snaps. The 2025 number is the one that matters. Big bounce back to his 2022 season, that’s a full-time starter posting top-10 efficiency. A representation of Bolton’s productivity and efficiency.
Really solid tackle by Bolton. He gets the jump, hits the gap, and makes the tackle for loss:
Kansas City’s defense generates stops, and Bolton is at the center of it. He’s one of the better tacklers in the league at wrapping up in space, and he finished 2025 with 154 combined tackles on 1,011 snaps. That’s elite volume with elite efficiency.
I think Bolton is a safe LB2 with LB1 upside if Kansas City plays a lot of defense in January, which they tend to do.
Nate Landman, Los Angeles Rams
13.6% Tackle Rate | 7.33 Snaps per Tackle
The least-known name on this list and the most interesting one. Landman posted a 13.6% rate in Atlanta in 2023 and a 14.9% rate in 2024 before moving to Los Angeles. His 2025 rate (13.0%) dipped slightly, but his volume went up as he played 1,017 snaps as the green dot linebacker.
He’s a plus tackler with good instincts in the run game. He was serviceable in coverage, but tailed off a bit towards the end of the season. He graded better in man, but the Rams were more zone-heavy, as he had 444 zone snaps.
Landman gets a good jump off the snap and hits the gap for the TFL:
The Rams run single-LB with a bit more frequency than the NFL, so he has the tackle share to himself at the second level. It will be interesting to see if Omar Speights or Shaun Dolac sees more usage as the LB2. Like the show of the same name on Paramount, Landman got renewed as the dot and remains a sneaky-good IDP value in 2026.
The Red Flags
These are the players your league-mates will draft based on name recognition, snap count, or last year’s box score. Don’t be that guy. These are the guys you sell.
Quincy Williams, Cleveland Browns
11.2% Tackle Rate | 8.91 Snaps per Tackle
Quincy Williams has appeared in over 3,000 snaps over the past three seasons. His tackle rate remained below average (13%) in each of those seasons: 12.7%, 10.2%, and 10.6%.
Williams isn’t unlucky, and he really isn’t being asked to do something unfair. He’s on the field a lot, and he’s missing tackles, playing out of position, and finishing poorly. He’s had 14-plus missed tackles in six of seven seasons, with double-digit missed rates in all seven, even with a shortened season in 2020. This isn’t a small sample, and it’s becoming a trend.
He moved to Cleveland for 2026. New team, but will he be the same player? The Jets did him no favors, but a change of scenery doesn’t fix tackle technique. If someone in your league drafts him as a volume play, smile and move on.
Cody Barton, Tennessee Titans
10.4% Tackle Rate | 9.60 Snaps per Tackle
Cody Barton used to be one of my favorite IDP linebackers. But as Eric Draven stated in The Crow, after losing his invincibility, “He was. He’s not anymore.”
Barton’s efficiency is ugly, and I think it’s getting uglier.
14.3% in 2023. 10.1% in 2024. 7.6% in 2025.
That’s a Cleveland Cavaliers-blowing-a-20-plus-point-lead-in-seven-minutes type of collapse in real time.
Barton played 1,053 snaps in 2024 and 1,060 in 2025, so it’s huge volume as the green dot, but his efficiency fell off a cliff anyway. He’s now sitting at the second-worst tackle rate among all eligible players in the dataset.
He bounced from Washington to Denver to Tennessee in three years and is now in danger of losing his spot to a rookie in Anthony Hill. That’s not a coincidence, as the Titans are seeing the same thing. In IDP, Barton is a loss. Like Newman wanting to stop at a gas station for a snack, just because he has a few extra dollars.
Christian Rozeboom, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
15.3% Tackle Rate | 6.56 Snaps per Tackle
The sneakiest red flag on the list. Rozeboom’s efficiency is legitimately elite.
Rozeboom posted rates of 14.3% in 2023, 16.3% in 2024, and 14.8% in 2025. Those numbers would make him a top-three player in this entire study if the context weren’t so complicated.
Here’s the issue: He built those numbers as a rotational piece with the Rams and Panthers. Now, with the Panthers, he had a role and appeared in 88% of the snaps. With the Rams, he was in run-down heavy matchups, with specific deployments. That’s a very different ask than every-down linebacker on a new team. Now he’s in Tampa with a crowded linebacker room and no clear path to 800+ snaps.
High tackle rate on selective reps doesn’t automatically translate to high tackle rate on a full workload. There’s a version of 2026 where Rozeboom gets 500 snaps and posts a great tackle rate but 65 combined tackles. That’s a roster-killing outcome in IDP formats. The production is real. The role is the problem (as is his pass coverage).
Robert Spillane, New England Patriots
13.7% Tackle Rate | 7.28 Snaps/Tackle
Spillane looks fine on the three-year surface: 13.5% and14.5% in Las Vegas through 2023 and 2024, and 13.1% in New England in 2025. Spillane has recorded decent efficiency and reasonable volume.
But zoom in. His 2025 snap count fell from 1,093 to 740 as he missed four games, and the tackle rate slipped. The move to New England reduced his tackles, as did the missed time. Patrick Graham’s scheme opened up tackles for Spillane, much like it did for Devin White last season.
Spillane is still the green dot in New England, but he’s not an elite IDP linebacker in the Patriots’ scheme. Don’t overpay for the Raiders’ production, but look at him as more of an LB2/3.
Azeez Al-Shaair, Houston Texans
12.9% Tackle Rate | 7.74 Snaps per Tackle
The decline is quiet but real. Al-Shaair posted a 14.8% rate in Tennessee in 2023, thanks to an LB-friendly scheme. Then in Houston, he posted 12.2% in 2024 and 11.1% in 2025. That’s a player trending in the wrong direction on a good defense.
The suspension in 2024 was a disruption, but 926 snaps in 2025 is a full sample, and 11.1% is a poor rate for such a high-volume LB. Houston’s scheme asks linebackers to cover, and Al-Shaair has been increasingly exposed in those assignments. The box score tackles are there some weeks. The efficiency isn’t.
He’ll get drafted in IDP leagues as a Houston starter on a defense everyone respects. That reputation might be a bit of a trap. The data says he’s a low-floor play on a team where the pass rush, not the linebacker, is doing the heavy lifting. I’m fine with Al-Shaair as an IDP linebacker, but I’d prefer him as my LB3 considering the decline.
The Bottom Line
Not because Mike said so, but it’s paramount to know who to target and who to avoid, so by Week 5, you’re not left holding the bag, or in Kramer’s case, destroyed golf clubs at the hands of a psycho mechanic.
Tackle efficiency doesn’t lie over 1,500+ snaps. The players at the top of this list, Cashman, Campbell, and Jones, are getting to the ball faster, finishing more cleanly, and converting opportunities at an elite rate. The players at the bottom are burning your roster spot on volume that doesn’t cash out.
In IDP, you’re not only rewarded for who plays, but also for who produces. Hopefully, this helps identify those guys.
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