Week 7 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football - Positional Rankings for Linebacker, Defensive Line, Defensive Back

Time flies when you’re having fun, allegedly. Perhaps that’s also occasionally true when you are not having fun, though. How else could one explain how quickly it seems we've reached Week 7 of the NFL season despite countless injuries that only continued to pile up in Week 6? In the past two weeks alone, we've lost Christian McCaffrey, David Montgomery, Anthony Richardson, De'Von Achane, Justin Jefferson, and others to varying degrees of injury.

If you are one of those struggling with injuries this year, Week 7 will likely send you spiraling. The QB position could be particularly decimated this week, which will be devastating in superflex leagues. You’ve already lost Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Richardson, Daniel Jones, Deshaun Watson, and Justin Fields to injury. Now, on top of that, five more fantasy starters are on bye while Trevor Lawrence and Jimmy Garoppolo are questionable. That’s brutal!

In total, six teams are on vacation this week. For IDP managers, those defensive losses will be tough. However, this week’s defender vacations are surprisingly tame compared to the offensive ones. In total, 21 regular offensive starters are staying home this week (including three QB1s, two WR1s, three WR2s, two RB1s, and two RB2s). Conversely, IDP managers will lose “just” 11 Tier-1 and Tier-2 defenders to bye. That’s not too bad in comparison… right?

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IDP Scoring System for Rankings:

6-points per Defensive Touchdown

4-points per Forced Turnover (FF/INT)

3-points per Sack

2- points per PD, FR, Safety

1-point Solo Tackle

0.5-points Assisted Tackle

Note: These rankings are also based on leagues that start one player at each defensive position (DL, LB, DB) and two DFLEX.

Top Fantasy Defensive Linemen of the Week

DL Riser of the Week:

Ed Oliver, Buffalo Bills

Oliver leads his team in quarterback pressures, pass rush snaps, and quarterback hits. He's a volume player with good metrics, production, and a solid matchup in Week 7.

The Patriots are PFF’s third-worst graded pass-blocking team, with exactly one offensive lineman earning a positive pass-blocking grade. Their blockers have surrendered 90 pressures on the season, and they're throwing the football at the sixth-highest rate in the league. Whoever is under center for New England should be ripe for the plucking.

DL Disappointment of the Week:

Nik Bonitto, Denver Broncos

As my readers know, I am a big fan of Bonitto and have been since his time at Oklahoma. However, he derives nearly all of his fantasy value from sacks. That could be a problem since his opponent this week is a Packers offense that surrenders just 10.2 quarterback pressures per game.

Green Bay blockers are credited with only five quarterback hits all season, and Jordan Love has been sacked a mere ten times all year. Even with David Bakhtiari out, the Packers' current starting tackles have surrendered two sacks and 22 pressures on the year. That makes Bonitto a very boom-or-bust prospect this week.

Top Fantasy Linebackers of the Week

LB Riser of the Week:

Lavonte David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Picking David as a riser may seem obvious, given he's historically been a strong fantasy contributor, and he's had two elite fantasy performances in his past three games. However, the veteran entered this season with the needle pointing down for various reasons. Our instinct to fade the aging tackler is likely why he's the 35^th most rostered LB in fantasy and the 36^th most started.

Given how undervalued David still is, it's fair to list him as our Riser of the Week. Even though we were down on him not too long ago, he’s risen to 16^th in this week’s ranks. The primary reason the Nebraska alum sits so high this week is an elite matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.

The Falcons surrender an average of 10.3 standard IDP points per game to opposing LB1s this season. If you factor out Frankie Luvu's minimal output against Atlanta in Week 1, the Falcons are feeding LB1s at a rate of 11.1 standard points. Even better, five LBs have notched double-digit tackles against Atlanta. Considering that premium matchup and David’s recent numbers, he is a borderline LB1.

LB Disappointment of the Week:

Nicholas Morrow, Philadelphia Eagles

In a week with six teams on bye, it's tough to find a real "disappointment" or "fade." Even if this bye week could be worse for defenders, the pool of options is limited, and the standard for a good game is lower.

With that in mind, Morrow feels like as good a bet to disappoint as any. He wasn't a starter for Philadelphia to begin the season; those roles belonged to Nakobe Dean and Zach Cunningham. Now, Dean has returned from injury. While Morrow has arguably outperformed Cunningham in recent weeks, he was the one who sacrificed the most playing time once Dean returned.

While it's unclear whether Dean will get his old starting role back anytime soon, reports suggest his 49% snap share in Week 6 was part of the team's plan to ease him back from injury. Dean was a pre-season darling for a reason, and odds are he will see his role continue to grow. If that happens, Morrow’s role will likely continue diminishing. Thus, we anticipate Morrow's fantasy stock will dip as Dean's grows.

Top Fantasy Defensive Backs of the Week

DB Riser of the Week:

Josh Metellus, Minnesota Vikings

Josh Metellus has been a plus pass rusher from the secondary and a premium tackler this season. He ranks seventh at his position in standard IDP points this year, too. However, he's rostered in just 9% of IDP leagues and should have a solid matchup this week against the 49ers.

San Francisco's pass blocking ranks sixth worst in the NFL through six games, and Trent Williams is now gimpy. They could also be without Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel this week, making their offense more predictable. Consider Metellus a DB2 option this week.

DB Disappointment of the Week:

Julian Love, Seattle Seahawks

Love was a very good fantasy contributor last season, and he currently sits 20^th amongst DBs in standard IDP scoring. This is despite Love sitting out half of last week’s game and missing Week 5 with an early bye that most DBs haven’t yet served. That said, the return of Jamal Adams has forced Love into a rotational role that tanks his formerly high fantasy stock.

Last week was the first that Jamal Adams saw a significant number of snaps (85%). As a result, Love was the odd man out, seeing just 44% of the snaps while losing his starter designation. Although the game script will often factor into whether Love can be useful in fantasy, he was DB2 before Adams' return, and now Love will be lucky if he sees enough snaps to be a boom-or-bust DB3. That’s disappointing.

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