• The NFL draft is wrapped, and now it’s time to rank those IDPs: While the first defensive player didn’t come off the board until 15th overall, there are a lot of potential IDP assets to sort through and rank for rookie drafts.
• Edge defenders occupy the entirety of Tier 1: Unless league scoring dictates tackle-heavy over balanced/big-play formats, the top three edges are the best options to target first in rookie drafts.
• Junior Colson and Edgerrin Cooper lead the linebackers: The top two IDP linebackers are pretty clear coming out of the NFL Draft, but there is hope for others to emerge down the road.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
With the NFL draft concluded, it’s time for dynasty fantasy rookie draft season to begin. With draft capital and landing spots now solidified, we can start to sort these future fantasy assets into rankings and tiers to help sort dynasty managers’ big boards for one of the most important events of the fantasy football offseason — rookie drafts.
Below is a rankings table for the 2024 IDP rookies as well as tiers, and write-ups for each tier, which include some quick player notes and thoughts.
For more detailed information on this year’s rookie IDP class, be sure to check out a lot of the other pre-draft rookie articles on PFF:
- Fantasy Football: How 2024 NFL Draft's edge defender class stacks up in stable metrics
- Fantasy Football: How 2024 NFL Draft's interior defender class stacks up in stable metrics
- Fantasy Football: How 2024 NFL Draft's linebacker class stacks up in stable metrics
- Fantasy Football: How 2024 NFL Draft's safety class stacks up using key stable metrics
- Fantasy Football: Analytical spotlight on the top 2024 rookie edge defenders
- Fantasy Football: Linebacker IDP rankings for the 2024 NFL Draft
- Fantasy Football: IDP EDGE rankings for the 2024 NFL Draft
Preferred scoring for 2024 Dynasty IDP Fantasy Football rankings:
| Position | Solo Tackles | Assists | Sacks | Tackles for Loss | QB Hits | Pass Breakups |
| ED/DT | 2.5 | 1.25 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| LB | 1.5 | 0.75 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| CB/S | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
IDP ROOKIE DYNASTY RANKINGS
Tier 1
- EDGE Laiatu Latu, Indianapolis Colts
- EDGE Jared Verse, Los Angeles Rams
- EDGE Dallas Turner, Minnesota Vikings
No matter how IDP managers want to rank these three first-round edge defenders, they each have excellent upside to bet on for dynasty purposes at a very valuable position for IDP. Latu and Verse are best suited to deliver earlier in their NFL careers with more experience, elite college pass-rush metrics and ideal landing spots, but they're a couple of years older than Turner. While expectations for the early portion of Turner’s career should likely be tempered as he’s relatively raw for a first-round edge, he’s also just 21 years old with time to develop into the elite IDP asset that fantasy managers will be banking on as a Tier 1 rookie IDP asset.
‼️MY 2024 EDGE PROSPECT MODEL SCORES‼️
Happy Draft Day!🥳
Stacking up the 2024 rookie EDGE prospects using underlying metrics, athletic scores, draft capital, & more!
These are NOT my rankings but instead, a way to help separate each EDGE by stacking up the more stable metrics… pic.twitter.com/AskWD6wFWl
— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) April 25, 2024
Tier 2
- DI Byron Murphy, Seattle Seahawks
- EDGE Chop Robinson, Miami Dolphins
- LB Junior Colson, Los Angeles Chargers
- LB Edgerrin Cooper, Green Bay Packers
Depending on team needs, there are some strong options outside the first tier, starting with the top interior defensive lineman in this class, Byron Murphy. He is the only interior defender to have a career pass-rush grade above 90.0 while also leading the class in career win rate (15.6%) despite fewer than 10 career college sacks — a wildly unstable number to focus on coming out of college. The 21-year-old becomes especially more valuable in this DT-required format and should be a staple on the Seahawks defensive line for years to come.
Chop Robinson is one of the most explosive pass rushers in this year’s class, evidenced by his 16.0% quick pressure rate that is a 98th percentile mark among edge prospects since 2016. There could be an opportunity early in his career to play a significant role for the Dolphins as both Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb recover from season-ending injuries. On top of his early opportunity, the first-round draft capital should provide optimism for long-term upside to go along with his excellent pass rush profile coming out of college.
There are two clear linebackers worth investing in relatively early among this year’s class of IDPs, and they were the first two drafted this year on Day 2. Cooper went first to Green Bay as the lone second-rounder in this class, and while he’s ranked behind Colson in these ranks, it’s close enough for those who have a preference for Cooper to swap them.
The biggest difference between the two comes down to a combination of Year 1 opportunity and a little bit of personal pre-draft bias. Colson walks onto a defense where his primary competition for snaps consists of Denzel Perryman, Nick Niemann, Daiyan Henley and Troy Dye. Oh, and he just helped lead Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan defense to a national championship and gets to reunite with him in the NFL. Cooper will have a strong chance to see starting snaps, though Isaiah McDuffie did potentially earn the first crack at that job after a strong showing last year in multiple games where he was forced to fill in for injured starters. It is not unusual for an NFL team to give a more experienced player a starting job over a highly-drafted rookie (see; Jack Campbell in 2023 or Jamin Davis/Zaven Collins in 2021 for recent examples), so there is just a bit more hesitance to fully embrace Cooper as a locked-in IDP starter Year 1 with former first-rounder Quay Walker also set to start.
Tier 3
- DI Jer’Zhan Newton, Washington Commanders
- LB Trevin Wallace, Carolina Panthers
- EDGE Bralen Trice, Atlanta Falcons
- LB Payton Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers
- S Cole Bishop, Buffalo Bills
- DL Darius Robinson, Arizona Cardinals
- DI T’Vondre Sweat, Tennessee Titans
- DI Braden Fiske, Los Angeles Rams
- S Tyler Nubin, New York Giants
- S Javon Bullard, Green Bay Packers
- CB Cooper DeJean, Philadelphia Eagles
- EDGE Chris Braswell, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- EDGE Marshawn Kneeland, Dallas Cowboys
- LB Cedric Gray, Tennessee Titans
The tiers get much larger here due to the premium position first-rounders being off the board. This group consists almost entirely of Day 2 picks with an emphasis on the defensive line. Many of these defensive linemen, specifically Trice, Robinson, Fiske and Braswell should play decent snaps as rookies, giving them experience and potential for production right out of the gate. Even if they aren’t playing ideal snaps to be consistent IDP starters, for dynasty purposes, these are the big-play IDPs worth betting on in this middle range of prospects.
There are also some high-upside linebackers who have a shorter path to snaps early in their NFL careers, which includes the lone Day 3 pick in this tier, Cedric Gray. Between Wallace, Wilson, and Gray, these were all highly regarded linebackers in this class heading into the draft and while they aren’t as likely to be consistent factors in Year 1, they have the potential to emerge relatively early in their careers.
Cole Bishop leads the safeties and cornerbacks in this tier, as one of the more intriguing IDP safeties thanks to his ability to play near the line of scrimmage and deliver strong production in that role. He’ll have a chance, on a thin Bills depth chart, to contribute early and given his experience around the line of scrimmage — with nearly half of his career snaps coming in the box or on the defensive line — he becomes that much more interesting for IDP.
Tier 4
- CB Tykee Smith, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- EDGE Jonah Elliss, Denver Broncos
- LB Tyrice Knight, Seattle Seahawks
- LB Jordan Magee, Washington Commanders
- LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Philadelphia Eagles
- EDGE Xavier Thomas, Arizona Cardinals
- S Kamren Kinchens, Los Angeles Rams
- S Calen Bullock, Houston Texans
- CB Quinyon Mitchell, Philadelphia Eagles
- CB Terrion Arnold, Detroit Lions
- CB Nate Wiggins, Baltimore Ravens
- S Jaden Hicks, Kansas City Chiefs
- LB Marist Liufau, Dallas Cowboys
This tier is essentially the “hopeful” range for prospects who all found decent landing spots to get experience in Year 1 with a path to grow that role down the road and become more IDP-relevant. The linebackers in this tier likely exemplify this best, as they don’t quite have the draft capital to be considered the future of the position on their rosters, but with depth charts and contracts the way they are on their respective teams, if more isn’t added to their depth charts next offseason, they could be sitting pretty in 2025.
The edge defenders and defensive backs should all have opportunities to see the field as rookies, and the cornerbacks are most likely to do so; however, it’s a less valuable position for IDP because that pool of players to choose from is so deep and the production is wildly unstable year-to-year.
Tier 5
- DI Michael Hall Jr., Cleveland Browns
- LB Edefuan Ulofoshio, Buffalo Bills
- LB Tommy Eichenberg, Las Vegas Raiders
- LB JD Bertrand, Atlanta Falcons
- ED Austin Booker, Chicago Bears
- DI Kris Jenkins, Cincinnati Bengals
- DI Ruke Orhorhoro, Atlanta Falcons
- DI Maason Smith, Jacksonville Jaguars
- LB Ty'Ron Hopper, Green Bay Packers
- ED Adisa Isaac, Baltimore Ravens
- ED Jalyx Hunt, Philadelphia Eagles
- ED Javon Solomon, Buffalo Bills
- CB Kool-Aid McKinstry, New Orleans Saints
- CB Mike Sainristil, Washington Commanders
- S Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Arizona Cardinals
- LB Jaylan Ford, New Orleans Saints
Similar to Tier 4, these players all found themselves on rosters where there is a path to snaps down the road but aren’t guaranteed anything due to the lower draft capital invested in them. The difference between this tier and those listed above just comes down to personal confidence level that these options will emerge as IDP-relevant assets, with this latter tier feeling less likely but still worth some cheap dart throws in IDP dynasty leagues.
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