Today, we continue our Risers and Fallers series by looking at the other side of the ball on defense. Let us look at who are the Dynasty Fallers at Defensive Lineman heading into the 2022 fantasy football
As announced on Twitter earlier this week, we’ve created an IDP scoring rubric here at Fantasy In Frames! This rubric is designed to be used in half-PPR scoring leagues with a minimum of 2 DB, 2 DL, and 2LB on your starting roster alongside your normal complement of offensive skill players. More details about why we chose these settings will be discussed this week on 4th And Frames at 8pm EST on Wednesday!
This week I’m going to talk about three defensive linemen that have fallen in dynasty value following the 2021 NFL season and ONE that has the potential to fall heading into 2022.
Defensive Linemen who have fallen…
Frank Clark
Finishing as the DL73 in PPG scoring with an average of 7.0 pts, in 14 games played, Clark saw a career-worst missed tackle rate of 24.1%, a total tackle rate of 2.7%, a solo tackle rate of 1.9%, and finished as the EDGE76 in win % according to PFF.
That. Is. Horrendous.
This decline in tackling efficiency has been occurring for the past several years in Kansas City, and with the Chiefs potentially saving around $15 million dollars by cutting him between now and July 1st versus sticking with him and his cap hit of $26.3 million, Frank Clark’s days of being a Chief appear numbered. His days of being a viable fantasy asset to his fantasy managers appear equally as dead.
I wouldn’t even give up a late 3rd or high 4th round pick to acquire him in dynasty. Just cut your losses and release him to the free-agent pool of your league now.
Jerry Tillery
The former 1st round pick out of Notre Dame hasn’t played anything like that during his past 3 seasons with the Chargers. He finished his 2021 statistical campaign with 14 QB hits (DL33), 4.5 sacks (DL51), 6 TFL (DL50), and averaged 7.6 PPG (DL55). He’s rated as one of the worst interior defensive linemen versus the run and is the DI78 in pass rush win % according to PFF.
When looking at his overall value to his team as well as his fantasy manager’s dynasty roster that one scene from the movie Office Space keeps popping into my head:
Just like with Frank Clark, you can do better at the position from a dynasty perspective.
Derek Barnett
Coming in as the DL94 in fantasy points per game (6.1), Barnett ended his 2021 season by posting 11 QB hits (DL60), 2 sacks (DL108), and a missed tackle rate of 11.5%. Barnett has pretty much fallen off of the face of the map from an IDP starter and even backup perspective on your roster. 2019 and his 10 PPG average was a long time ago, and given he’s likely not to find a landing spot in free agency that will allow him a majority of snaps at EDGE his dynasty value is practically nill at this point!
Defensive Lineman who could fall…
Yannick Ngakoue
In 2021, Ngakuoe ranked as the DL101 in solo tackles and the DL149 in assisted tackles. His 10 sacks on the season are what really helped his fantasy production, giving him an average of 9.1 PPG. Now, sure, when examining any pass rusher’s worth you want to see a decent pressure #, pressure rate, and sack production which is what you got from Yannick in 2021. He is very good at what he does which is applying pressure to the QB and playing opposite of Maxx Crosby on the Raiders’ defensive line can only help him in one-on-one matchups!
However, should his pressure rate start to slip and sack production take a hit I’m concerned his lack of tackling efficiency could tank his dynasty value fairly quickly. You might want to look at trading him away for a 2nd round pick while recency bias is still on everybody’s mind and get ahead of the curve.
