2025 Fantasy Football Must-Draft IDP Sleepers At Each Position

Looking for undervalued IDP talent? Here’s one sleeper at each defensive position who could help you win your 2025 fantasy football league.

Miami Dolphins linebacker Chop Robinson (44) reacts after attempting to recover a fumble against the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The fantasy football season is on its way, and we are all trying to figure out which hidden gems are going to help us win our leagues in 2025. While we all love running backs and wide receivers, some of us like to delve even deeper and focus on individual defensive players. For all of the IDP players out there, this is one sleeper at each defensive position that you should consider drafting this season. 

DE Chop Robinson, Miami Dolphins

The rookie got off to a slow start in the 2024 season, failing to record a sack in any of his first seven games. However, then something clicked, and he looked like the first-round pick that Miami thought they drafted. Over his final 10 games, Robinson racked up six sacks and 16 of his 26 tackles. He was dominating offensive tackles off the ball with the same athleticism he showed at Penn State. Usually, a breakout end to the season like that for a first-round pick would skyrocket him up IDP draft boards. 

Nevertheless, he is bogged down in the rankings, and sharp IDP players should take advantage. The reason for the lack of enthusiasm around Robinson is the returning pass rushers in Miami. With Bradley Chubb and Jaelen Phillips expected back to start the season, experts are only going to rank three pass rushers on one team so high. With that said, they are sleeping on the wrong guy. Robinson is poised for a double-digit sack season, and the attention Chubb and Phillips draw will only help him get there. 

DT Jer'Zhan Newton, Washington Commanders

Newton is another second-year player poised for a breakout. While he fell to pick 36 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, he was projected by many to be a first-round pick as well. Last year, he saw his snap count slowly rise from zero snaps in Week 1 up to 50% of the snaps late in the season. By December, he was a tackling machine, racking up 12 tackles in his final three games of the regular season. 

This year, he will be given all the snaps that he can handle. The Commanders have moved on from Jonathan Allen, who was as close to an every-down player as a DT gets. While he dealt with injuries last season, which limited him to about a 60% snap share in the games he played, in 2023, he played just under 83% of the snaps. His departure greatly improves Newton's path to production.    

CB Paulson Adebo, New York Giants

Adebo was a tackling machine during his time in New Orleans, which is both a rare and valuable trait for an IDP cornerback. In just seven games last year, one of which he exited early with injury, he amassed 52 tackles and three interceptions. That was no fluke because in 2023, he piled up 76 tackles, four interceptions, two forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries. In his four-year career, he has totaled 254 tackles in 52 games. That's just about five tackles per game, which is a ridiculous number for a corner over a sample size that large. 

Paulson Adebo wants you to see this INT from his rookie year 👀 pic.twitter.com/kSTFiyhJnY

— New York Giants (@Giants) March 18, 2025

S Lathan Ransom, Carolina Panthers

The box safety in Carolina is a fantasy points gold mine. No matter who they plug into that spot piles up tackles. Last year, we saw Demani Richardson get five spot starts due to injury, and he racked up 48 tackles in those five games. This year, three safeties will be battling for that job. Richardson, Nick Scott, and Day 2 rookie pick Lathan Ransom. The rookie is the player who we expect to fly under the radar, but it sounds like the team is very high on him from what they've seen so far this offseason. Whoever wins that job will be a fantasy asset, and Ransom is currently the cheapest option. At Ohio State last year, he played more than 30% of his snaps in the box, so he's more than capable of stepping up and filling this role.  

LB Jaylon Carlies, Indianapolis Colts 

This is another role that everyone who gets plugged in just piles up tackles. With EJ Speed now gone, this job is Carlies's to lose. In his only game playing full-time snaps last year, he made 10 tackles on a 98% snap share. The starting ILB next to Zaire Franklin generally plays north of a 90% snap share in Indy. Despite missing three games, Speed made 244 tackles in 31 games as the full-time starter over the past two seasons. If Carlies slots in to the same role as expected, he's a candidate for triple-digit tackles in 2025.