Fantasy Football Rankings 2024: IDP defensive line tiers 3.0

• The volume and pass rush kings lead the way: Maxx Crosby and T.J. Watt continue to be the very best bets to make in IDP this season.

• New names make their case for the crown: Aidan Hutchinson, Will Anderson and Jermaine Johnson (among others) ascend the ranks as they enter their primes and come off of encouraging seasons.

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Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes

Breaking fantasy football rankings down into tiers helps fantasy managers better understand what separates each group and how to value each player at the position for this coming season.

Referenced scoring uses the settings below, with a link to all point leaders for 2022 and 2023 (min. 100 defensive snaps) here.

PFF-Preferred IDP Scoring:

Tier 1: The elite eight

The top choices heading into this year all easily cleared double-digit points per game in 2023 thanks to high-end pass rushing and/or strong tackle production. When it comes to locked-in weekly starters along the defensive line, these are the clear top choices to not leave starting lineups. All eight players ranked in the top 10 in expected sacks in 2023 as well, which is the most stable predictive metric for future sacks.

Both Maxx Crosby and T.J. Watt have been among the most productive players at their position for several years running. They each have the big-play upside to go along with workhorse playing time that allows for strong tackle floors. IDP managers can’t go wrong with either as their top choice on the board.

Aidan Hutchinson led the position in expected sacks last season (15.9) thanks to a combination of high-end playing time and elite pass-rush metrics. Hutchinson posted a 91.2 pass-rush grade, a 21.3% win rate and 101 total pressures in 2023, which all ranked top-five at his position. With Hutchinson coming away with only 11.5 sacks on the year — 4.4 below expected — IDP managers should expect him to come through this season with his best year yet.

The usual top choices — Micah Parsons, Nick Bosa and Myles Garrett — continue to be among the best picks in IDP because they provide elite pass-rush upside along with a track record of high-end consistency as perennial Defensive Player-of-the-Year candidates. Parsons gets the slight edge here as the best tackler of the three.

Josh Allen and Danielle Hunter also provide the best combination of pass-rush metrics, playing time and tackling ability remaining to fit inside this top tier. While there are other top performers in these categories from last season, they are projected for a bit of regression this coming season. Allen and Hunter don't have the same concerns because they should continue to play a high majority of snaps while producing comfortable EDGE1 numbers for the year.

Tier 2: Expected high-end production

There are plenty of high-end producers along the defensive line still remaining in this second tier thanks to strong tackle production combined with a big-play upside.

Will Anderson Jr. and Jermaine Johnson are young up-and-coming edge rushers who delivered at least seven sacks and 40 tackles. Last season was the first year of starting NFL snaps for both players and considering their strong showings, they should be able to build on that this coming season as former first-round picks who will be given a heavy workload once again.

Alex Highsmith is going to be one of the most underappreciated players in drafts this offseason after a relatively quiet year compared to his 2022 season where he posted 14.5 sacks. Highsmith’s seven sacks let IDP managers down in 2023, but there’s plenty of reason for optimism after he delivered a career year in terms of his pass-rush metrics, which includes ranking top-12 in pass-rush grade (86.2) and expected sacks (11.3). Averaging over 80% of the defensive snaps on a weekly basis also gives him one of the better tackle floors at the position and a great bet to bounce back in 2024.

Quinnen Williams is the first defensive tackle to target this season and for good reason. Much like the previously mentioned Highsmith, Williams is coming off a quieter year relative to the expectations he set in 2022, as he finished with just 5.5 sacks instead of getting back close to the 12 that he recorded two seasons ago. I will keep hammering home this point for IDP managers who still want to use previous years' sacks as a measuring stick for the coming season, but this is not the way to evaluate defensive linemen and correlates poorly year-to-year. Instead, focusing on expected sacks and pass rush metrics — of which, Williams had a career year in 2023 — we can project at least a regression to his mean. This gives him the best combination of pass rush and tackle upside at his position.

Khalil Mack and DeForest Buckner are also among the best overall producers at their positions, even if they’re now in their 30s. Mack is coming off a year where he was a top-five IDP at his position and posted his best pass rush metrics since 2020, however, there is at least some expectation for a natural drop-off as he enters Year 11 of his NFL career.

Tier 3: Established production and rising stars

A handful of interior defensive linemen start to mix into a larger Tier 3 as their combination of sack and tackle projections begin to align with the edges in this range.

Jeffery Simmons and Justin Madubuike were among the best IDP scorers in points per game in this entire tier last season, and they should still be among the first defensive tackles drafted in 2024. For Madubuike, specifically, it’s worth noting that he was among the top expected regression candidates for this coming season after totaling 13 sacks – leading his position. This is an incredibly difficult number to replicate in back-to-back seasons, so expectations need to be tempered with that baked into his 2024 ranking.

Haason Reddick and Trey Hendrickson are both some of the best pass-rushers at their position, giving them the big-play upside to target relatively early in IDP drafts, however, they’re also poor tacklers, which lowers their weekly floors should they not deliver in the sack column. The same can be said for Chris Jones and Kayvon Thibodeaux in this tier, who were both among the worst at their position in tackles versus expected, ranking in the bottom first percentile in that regard in 2023.

Kayvon Thibodeaux is a young, exciting player with excellent draft capital who actually had a productive season last year with 11.5 sacks. However, there is reason to caution drafting him too highly right now because his underlying pass rush metrics were among the worst at his position. Thibodeaux’s pass-rush volume should help keep him while also potentially improving his pass-rush metrics, but as laid out in the tweet below, there hasn’t been a single player over the past decade who posted double-digit sacks with a sub-65.0 pass-rush grade and was able to hit double-digit sacks again the following season.

#FFIDP – IMPORTANT: Since 2013, there have been 65 instances of defensive linemen recording double-digit sacks in a season, while delivering lower than a 75.0 pass-rush grade🚨

ONLY 9 (14%!) of them hit double-digit sacks again the following season!👀

🚩DLs that qualify for…

— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) August 8, 2024

Tier 4: Best of the depth options

The tiers start to get bigger here as potential outcomes begin to vary a bit more wildly for the players in this range.

Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathon Cooper lead the way in this tier as quietly productive edge rushers who should once again play significant snaps in 2024. Van Ginkel had a first-round edge added to his rotation this offseason, but he was also one of the best pass-rushers in the league last season while Dallas Turner comes out of college as a slightly less-polished pass-rusher, which should keep Van Ginkel in line for starting snaps. The Denver Broncos also don’t have much of a choice but to allow Cooper to stay on the field as one of their starters this season after performing well in that role in 2023.

Joey Bosa’s history of injury and missing time is the only reason he’s in this fourth tier instead of the top two, as he just hasn’t been able to stay on the field in recent years enough to give IDP managers any sort of confidence in making him a top-two starting option. He’s played just 14 regular season games over the past two years, though when he’s on the field, he’s among the best pass-rushers at the position, making him a potential lottery ticket to bet on in this range.

Tier 5: Sleepers and the old veterans

Jaelan Phillips is coming off a year plagued by injury and ended by a torn Achilles. Phillips was one of the best point-per-game producers in IDP last season, but with significant question marks about his health and how much he’ll play this season, he naturally falls down the board quite a bit. There is always the off chance that he will recover quickly and look great this season, but it’s not a high-probability outcome. He will hopefully rank much higher in 2025 when he gets back to full health.

This group will likely be on the fringes of producing double-digit points per game in 2024 with their more likely outcome on the other side of that range. This tier is a mix of good NFL players who are either near the ends of their careers, are coming off productive years with expected regression for 2024 or are young players who need to show more to be trusted higher than this.

For those near the end of their NFL careers, Cameron Jordan, Kyle Van Noy, Leonard Floyd and Grady Jarrett are all well into their 30s heading into this season. They should still see enough snaps to remain IDP relevant, but it’s fine to temper the limit of their ceilings as they move past their prime.

Zach Sieler, D.J. Wonnum and Travon Walker were all among the top over-achievers last season, outperforming their expected sack totals within the top 90th percentile at their position. Without the strong pass rush metrics to encourage a repeat of that, they should all be penciled in as regression candidates in 2024, lowering their value.

Tuli Tuipulotu, Chop Robinson, Yaya Diaby, Byron Murphy and Calijah Kancey are still in that young “prove it” period of their careers. Diaby and Kancey were both productive for Tampa Bay in their rookie seasons but with below-average pass-rush metrics, there are at least question marks about the sustainability of that production, even as they have a chance to improve in Year 2. Murphy and Robinson are top rookie prospects heading into 2024 but with expected limited playing time, their overall weekly ceiling and floor should be on the lower side until they’re fully unleashed in their defenses.

Tier 6: Remaining depth pieces

The last tier consists of fine depth pieces to fill out rosters in deeper leagues. Bradley Chubb would be much higher on this list if not for a torn ACL late last year that is likely to cause him to miss the start of this season. Chubb had the best year of his NFL career in 2023, delivering an 84.9 pass-rush grade (13th) and 16.1 points per game (seventh). With expected missed time combined with a ramp-up period coming off the ACL tear, he shouldn’t be drafted too highly this season.

Uchenna Nwosu, D.J. Wonnum, and Charles Omenihu are all starting the year on the PUP list or injured reserve, which will cause them to miss at least the first four weeks of the season. Still, each should see a strong snap share once they’re back healthy. Denico Autry is suspended for the first six games of the year and will also be in for a volume-heavy role once he’s back in the lineup. All these players, including Chubb, would only be considered stash options in deep leagues.