2026 IDP Linebacker Tackle Rates: Who’s Actually Elite?

Okay, as I promised you guys, I wanted to talk a little bit about linebackers particularly the tackle rates of a linebacker um because a lot of people get this wrong a lot of times the math shouldn't be that hard i mean at the end of the day math is math right uh you can evaluate linebackers so many different ways total tackle snap count snap percentage missed tackles coverage grades you know even far as sacks if you're in those kind of leagues pressure for those kind of leagues coveted green dots but there's another way to do this you can look at tackle rates So that's what I like to do in the offseason, especially when I'm putting together my rankings.

I like to try to figure out which guys are really good and which guys are just getting by on their volume.

So it's a real simple process.

This is how I come up with this.

I pull all the snaps from 2025.

I pull all the data, the solos, the assists, what have you.

But I particularly want to do, and anybody at home could do this, that's why I'm kind of showing it to you this way.

Take your tackles, divide them by snaps, and you get a real simple way to talk about tackle rates.

Now, why do I do it like this? Why do tackle rates matter? Well, that's an excellent question, my friend.

Why do they matter? Let's do some basic math.

Let's say linebacker A gets 1,000 snaps.

Easy math, 1,000 snaps.

He gets a 15% tackle rate, so that's about 150 tackles on the season.

Linebacker B, 1,000 snaps, 10% tackle rate.

That's 100 tackles on the season.

That's a difference between 50 tackles a game.

So you kind of want to know that context.

Now let's flip the problem around.

Let's say a linebacker gets a 16% efficient tackle rate, and he only earns 500% snaps.

Do the math on that.

That's roughly 80 tackles.

80 tackles divided by 500 snaps.

See, I'm not this smart, I kinda do it on a calculator, but some people can do it in their head.

Given the average 13% tackle gets about 900 snaps, that guy's gonna get about 117 tackles.

So the amount of snaps matter, the amount of quality tackles matter.

Okay, as I promised you guys, I wanted to talk a little bit about linebackers particularly the tackle rates of a linebacker um because a lot of people get this wrong a lot of times the math shouldn't be that hard i mean at the end of the day math is math right uh you can evaluate linebackers so many different ways total tackle snap count snap percentage missed tackles coverage grades you know even far as sacks if you're in those kind of leagues pressure for those kind of leagues coveted green dots but there's another way to do this you can look at tackle rates So that's what I like to do in the offseason, especially when I'm putting together my rankings.

I like to try to figure out which guys are really good and which guys are just getting by on their volume.

So it's a real simple process.

This is how I come up with this.

I pull all the snaps from 2025.

I pull all the data, the solos, the assists, what have you.

But I particularly want to do, and anybody at home could do this, that's why I'm kind of showing it to you this way.

Take your tackles, divide them by snaps, and you get a real simple way to talk about tackle rates.

Now, why do I do it like this? Why do tackle rates matter? Well, that's an excellent question, my friend.

Why do they matter? Let's do some basic math.

Let's say linebacker A gets 1,000 snaps.

Easy math, 1,000 snaps.

He gets a 15% tackle rate, so that's about 150 tackles on the season.

Linebacker B, 1,000 snaps, 10% tackle rate.

That's 100 tackles on the season.

That's a difference between 50 tackles a game.

So you kind of want to know that context.

Now let's flip the problem around.

Let's say a linebacker gets a 16% efficient tackle rate, and he only earns 500% snaps.

Do the math on that.

That's roughly 80 tackles.

80 tackles divided by 500 snaps.

See, I'm not this smart, I kinda do it on a calculator, but some people can do it in their head.

Given the average 13% tackle gets about 900 snaps, that guy's gonna get about 117 tackles.

So the amount of snaps matter, the amount of quality tackles matter.