Today, we continue our series on players to target in your dynasty leagues this season. Let’s keep the train moving as we break down our first IDP dynasty target, Divine Deablo!
“The Greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist!”
Background
He may not be the devil, but Divine Deablo is looking to convince IDP managers that he does exist! The 6th-round pick out of Virginia Tech wasn’t expected to make much of an impact in 2022 after Las Vegas signed Cory Littleton to a $35M deal in 2020 but he definitely made his mark.
During his time at Virginia Tech, Deablo was a Safety and looked poised to enter the draft as a hybrid Safety. He saw a valuable amount of snaps at Safety, Slot Corner, and in the Box during his time there.
Production was never an issue! In his JR year, Deablo saw the 4th most coverage snaps of any Safety in the FBS, and subsequently was Top 15 in pass play tackles. His SR season was abbreviated due to injury, but in the weeks that he did play (Wk 4, 8-16) he had the 11th highest coverage grade (per PFF) and was Top 10 in solo tackles among Safeties.
Current
While Littleton failed to impress during his first two years at linebacker, Deablo took the opportunity and ran with it. Beginning in Week 13, and extending into the Wild Card weekend, Deablo played more snaps than any other Raiders linebacker. The conversion from Safety was more than instrumental in his increasing role with the Raiders. Sideline to sideline speed with a reckless abandon is exactly what the Raiders were looking for to spark their linebacking room!
During Deablo’s run as a heavy-snap linebacker, he impressed not only his coaches but fantasy managers alike. Over that stretch, he totaled 45 tackles (28 solos), 1 tackle for loss, 1 pass defense, and a fumble recovery. When we peel away the layers, we see a player who was solid enough against both the run and the pass to see an increasing role going forward.
The 2022 Raiders’ linebacker room is now rid of Cory Littleton but did bring in Jayon Brown to join Deablo and Denzel Perryman. I feel that Deablo will ultimately carve out a full-time role as he did towards the end of last season!
Outlook
The key to dynasty value is to be able to stay on the field and demonstrate value to the organization. One way to stay on the field is to be versatile in both run stopping and pass coverage. Last year, Deablo did just that. From Wks 13-18, he ranked in the Top 25 among LB in run play tackles (17), with only one missed tackle. His growth in coverage skills will be the key to continued playing time, and that desired contract extension, as he is a pending free agent in 2023. While his overall coverage grade left a little to be desired (57.4), it isn’t always a bad thing for fantasy points to allow the ball to be caught, as long as you make the tackle, which Deable did! In fact, his 13 pass play tackles were on par with such IDP studs as Roquan Smith, Isaiah Simmons, and Eric Kendricks.
Divine Deablo’s 71.8 Run Defense Grade ranked 4th among rookie LBs ☠️ pic.twitter.com/Rx2AxoGUwy
— PFF Las Vegas Raiders (@PFF_Raiders) April 4, 2022
As we enter the 2022 season, Deablo is definitely on my dynasty must-draft list. In addition to the production, depth is a serious issue going forward. Next year, the Raiders will lose Perryman, Brown, Micah Kiser, and Kenny Young. With a solid 2022, it seems pretty obvious that Deablo is in line for significant snaps!
Fantasy managers will be ever so grateful that we won’t fall for the trick, and know that Deablo does exist!
Thanks for checking out our IDP Dynasty Target article on Divine Deablo. Over the course of the summer make sure to click here for more Dynasty Target articles discussing players for you to acquire this season
For all your other IDP needs, tune in to “Shoot the Gap” for our weekly IDP Podcast, as part of the Fantasy In Frames Podcast Network.
