Make-or-Break IDPs for the 2026 Season
These once-promising IDP assets still have the talent to break out, but 2026 could be their final opportunity to prove they're worth holding in dynasty leagues.
Dynasty managers learn all too often that not every prospect we’re hopeful for develops into a starting-caliber fantasy option right away, or at all. Whether due to depth-chart obstacles, coaching changes, injuries, or inconsistent play, those breakout seasons can be delayed or fail to materialize altogether. Our challenge is to determine which of these IDPs we’re willing to give another chance, and when it’s time to move on.
The pressure is mounting for these IDPs to deliver a breakout season and give us usable IDP production; otherwise, it’s time to banish them to the shadow realm. As we head into the 2026 season at a crossroads with these players, we’ll examine which IDPs are worth giving one more shot to prove themselves, as their potential role in 2026 at least looks somewhat promising.
LB Junior Colson, Los Angeles Chargers
The man around whom this article was built. Colson entered the league in a seemingly perfect situation to make an immediate impact as a rookie. He received Day 2 NFL Draft capital, selected by his 2023 Michigan coaching staff, who were making the leap to the NFL at the same time, to take over as the Los Angeles Chargers’ coaching staff. The Chargers only had Daiyan Henley as a real potential threat for starting snaps, and after the non-existent rookie campaign that Henley had, it wouldn’t have been a surprise, and to some extent was even expected, that Colson would have an easy path to playing time.
Unfortunately, Colson’s rookie season started off on the wrong foot as he was forced to have an appendectomy during training camp, which put him at a disadvantage right out the gate with Henley locking in the full-time role, and veteran Denzel Perryman showing enough to earn a role in the starting lineup as well. On top of several other injuries that Colson dealt with in Year 1, he was never able to get a grasp on a consistent role and never exceeded 58% of the team’s defensive snaps in any of the 11 games he ultimately played.
Year 2 couldn’t have gone worse for Colson after he required shoulder surgery in August and missed his entire sophomore season. Now, heading into Year 3, seemingly healthy, this already feels like Colson’s final chance to deliver, and if it doesn’t happen this year, I have a hard time believing it’ll ever happen for him. The situation is about right for him to earn a starting role, with a near-identical LB room to his rookie season, setting him up for another camp battle with Denzel Perryman, Troy Dye, and a rather underwhelming Henley. Henley will start regardless of what Colson shows in camp, but if he can finally break through in Year 3 and stay healthy, then Perryman/Dye are no longer necessary to lean on as starters, which could finally allow Colson to be IDP relevant, at the very least, for the first time in his NFL career.
Be sure to check out our 2026 IDP positional rankings:
DEFENSIVE BACKS | LINEBACKERS | DEFENSIVE LINEMEN
COMBINED IDP RANKINGS | 2026 IDP PROJECTIONS
LB Christian Harris, Atlanta Falcons
Harris had moments of IDP relevancy through his first two seasons, though he was only really an option in deeper formats, despite the Day 2 draft capital spent on him in 2022, by a roster with a rotating cast of characters at the position. Harris was able to at least lock down a full-time role by the end of the year, mostly due to team injuries, with a similar result in Year 2, though that’s about where his playing time potential ended.
The past two seasons have been marred by injuries that have limited him to just three games in 2024, seemingly leading to his permanent replacement in the starting lineup. Given his role in 2025, which saw him average just 20% of snaps across seven games and more injuries keeping him from playing a full season, it was obvious the Houston Texans would move on at the end of the year.
Harris now lands in Atlanta, where there is a significant starting role available next to Divine Deablo in Jeff Ulbrich’s defense, following Kaden Elliss ‘ departure in free agency. The Falcons’ depth chart is wide open at the moment, with only Day 3 rookies Harold Perkins Jr. and Kendal Daniels, as well as inexperienced players at the position, Troy Andersen and JD Bertrand, standing in the way. All of a sudden, Harris finds himself in an ideal position to see IDP-relevant snaps again, if he can stay healthy, which should have him on deeper IDP leagues’ radars, costing next to nothing to acquire. However, anything resembling his past two seasons with more injuries keeping him off the field, or an inability to beat out weak competition for starting snaps, and he can go kick rocks on the waiver wire for the rest of time.
LB Dorian Williams, Buffalo Bills
One more former Day 2 linebacker worth mentioning here, Williams, is seemingly in line to take over a starting role next to Terrel Bernard, if he’s able to hold off rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr. Williams has had moments as an IDP when he’s been given a starting role, though he’s never been able to hold that role. Typically, this is because Matt Milano would return from injury, but also because Williams has proven to be a liability in coverage. This is evidenced by his PFF coverage grades coming in lower than 50.0 in each of his first three seasons in the league.
With Milano out of the picture, Williams has a real chance to stay atop the depth chart this season, though again, Elarms-Orr is a legitimate rookie sleeper option for this same reason. So far, the start of 2026 hasn’t gone in Williams’ favor as he’s currently dealing with an injury that’s kept him out of the early part of camp, and if that isn’t cleared up soon, Elarms-Orr has a real chance to run away with this job, especially considering the new coaching regime has no real investment in Williams.
Given his experience in the league, which is his biggest advantage over a rookie, Williams should at least be considered the favorite for first crack at the starting lineup. Considering there’s a healthy IDP role for him to absorb if he holds that job, his current ADP of just LB98 is well worth a stab late in drafts, and if he doesn’t hit (again), then we can easily move on and never look back.
ED Jermaine Johnson, Tennessee Titans
First-round EDGEs typically come with high hopes attached to them, especially for IDP, though it’s not uncommon to see some fail to ever live up to expectations. So far in his career, due to a combination of injuries and mediocre play, Johnson has failed to maintain any sort of consistency as an IDP. His Year 2 season, where he achieved 7.5 sacks, was his peak to this point, and it’s hard to expect much more given his history.
However, there’s reason for optimism, or at least optimism relative to Johnson’s career to this point, to believe that he is worthy of at least a cheap flier in 2026 if we’re looking to give him one more shot to deliver. The Tennessee Titans traded to acquire Johnson this offseason, reuniting him with head coach Robert Saleh, who drafted Johnson in the first round during his time with the New York Jets. On a thin defensive line, Johnson’s opportunity for a hefty role this year is real, and if he can be anything more than average as a pass rusher, he’ll be well worth his current ADP of ED48.
What makes this the last real chance for Johnson to earn our trust is that outside of that one (2023) season, he’s looked nothing more than average as a pass rusher or as a run defender. He’ll now be entering Year 5 of his career, and if there’s no clear development from him as a pass rusher, and overall as an NFL EDGE, then we as IDP managers can ban him from our rosters indefinitely.
ED Nolan Smith, Philadelphia Eagles
Nolan Smith is another former first-round EDGE who has failed to gain any real traction as a consistent IDP, to the point where patience should be wearing thin for IDP managers. Entering Year 4, this is really it for him to prove that he was worthy of his draft capital and take a real stranglehold on a full-time starting job for the Philadelphia Eagles.
To this point in his career, Smith has yet to crack even the top-40 IDP performers in a season, and even this past season, when the team was very thin at the position, he averaged just 58% of snaps and managed merely three sacks on the year. Even the more unheralded Jalyx Hunt greatly outperformed Smith this past season and has now become a legitimate threat to Smith’s playing time heading into 2026. That being said, the first-round investment in Smith and his not missing a chunk of time due to injury again are certainly advantages worth buying into at the reasonable price of ED44.
Smith has shown the ability to be productive in the sack column before, but for IDP managers to believe that the 2024 season wasn’t an outlier, he’ll have to do it again before it might become time to move on from him. Even in that 2024 season, Smith finished as just the ED42 in Big-3 Scoring, which isn’t enough to put him in the majority of IDP starting lineups. Even with Jonathan Greenard brought in as the Eagles’ new ED1, Smith has a real opportunity to fight off average to below average competition for that other starting spot, and if he’s unable to do so, then he’s likely unworthy of making most IDP rosters.
CB Kyler Gordon, Chicago Bears
There should be a short leash for most defensive backs in IDP, but it’s still worth highlighting one here, as Gordon is a personal cling-on that I just can’t seem to quit. But this is his final chance. And the only real reason that I’m even willing to consider giving a cornerback another chance is that there’s an ideal scheme and situation awaiting him, if he’s finally able to stay healthy. At CB32/DB87, according to ADP, that’s a price that can’t hurt to bet on.
Dennis Allen’s defense has typically allowed the nickel defender to thrive for IDP, and Gordon missed out on that potential due to injury last season. We’ve seen the likes of Alontae Taylor, Ugo Amadi, and, most recently, C.J. Gardner-Johnson deliver high-end IDP production from that exact role. With a clear path to the team’s primary nickel-defender role in 2026, Gordon should at least get another chance to deliver for the team, but again, he needs to stay healthy, because I have to imagine that the coaching staff is getting just as frustrated by his constant absences as we are as IDP managers.
That frustration is justified even more by the fact that when Gordon is on the field, he’s a really good nickel corner, but also a pretty effective IDP, typically performing as one of the better players at his position in Tackles versus Expected. Injuries have just kept his playing time in check, and he’s never been more of a low-end CB2 for IDP, even though the potential to be so much more is clearly there. This is it, though; he has to stay on the field this year and play a full season, otherwise, there are just too many fish in the CB sea to be wasting our time on such an injury-prone player.
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This was a good read. Depressing...(because it reminds me of all the shares of Colson and Johnson I had at one time. LOL) but a good read.
I have a bad feeling that most if not all of these guys are going to sink instead of swim. At least for this year. They're all still young and perhaps a change of scenery could benefit a couple. Johnson and Harris are getting that chance now, but Johnson doesn't look the same since the Achilles injury. Maybe one more year removed from that injury will help? I still have some kind of hope for Gordon, but he is already struggling with soft tissue injuries in mini-camp.