The default IDP plan is offense for six rounds. Gary Davenport's 2026 IDP Draft Blueprint for Footballguys says so in the open: spend Rounds 1–6 on the offensive side of the ball, then get ready. That is the right default for a vanilla tackle-heavy league.
His own exception
Davenport does not treat that clock as universal. In a "standard" tackle-heavy IDP setup — 2 DL / 2 LB / 2 DB, maybe a flex — elite defenders typically come off around rounds 4–6. "Scoring and roster requirements can change that significantly." The more IDPs a league starts, and the higher those defensive players score, the more managers will likely accelerate addressing defensive players.
The line that matters: unless your league starts a large number of defensive players or the scoring favors defense (almost) as much as offense, the first big LB run likely will not happen in the early rounds. In the Huddle IDP Expert League — a vanilla IDP setup — the first linebacker last year was Zaire Franklin, early round 7; 11 LBs were gone by the end of round 9.
His 2026 IDP target in Step 1 is LB Jordyn Brooks, Miami, in rounds 5–6. Brooks is his highest-ranked linebacker: 183 total tackles last year, led The Godfather's Default IDP Scoring, and failed to hit 140 tackles only once in five years.
Step 2 and later of the Blueprint sit behind Footballguys Elite. We are not reconstructing that gate. The caveat we can measure is already on the public page.
The missing number: outscore is not outrank
Davenport already flags the case where scoring or starter counts move the clock up. What the Blueprint does not publish is a measured crossover: when a high-tackle linebacker starts beating a WR1 on points, and when he actually passes him on the board.
We already published that as a controlled synthetic-pool experiment. Engine 1.11.0, same synthetic player pool, roster shape held still, only solo-tackle scoring moved from 0.5 to 5.0. These are research archetypes, not live 2026 player recommendations. The full sweep is How Much Is a Tackle Worth Before LB Beats WR1?.
| LB archetype | First solo value that outscores WR1 | First solo value that outranks WR1 |
|---|---|---|
| High-tackle | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Balanced | 3.0 | Not reached |
| Sack-heavy | 4.0 | Not reached |
At 2.5 pts/solo, the high-tackle LB scored 368.3 vs WR1's 312.0 — and still ranked 59th vs WR1's 22nd. Replacement linebackers rose with him. Projected points exploded; VORP compressed. He does not win the rank comparison until 4.0.
That is the number on Davenport's caveat. Vanilla scoring, stay on offense. Scoring that favors defense almost as much as offense is a different board — and even then, outscoring the WR1 is not the same as outranking him.
The same report, same evidence label, shows the roster-slot side of the same thesis. Superflex: 22 of 22 QBs gained rank, mean +107.09 places, projected points change 0. Across half-PPR, full PPR, TE premium, and IDP-heavy, the largest rank move was 52 places. Scoring and slots reorder the board; projections can sit still.
How to tell which league you are in
Vanilla IDP is Davenport's "standard": 2 DL / 2 LB / 2 DB, tackle-heavy but not so heavy that defense scores like a second offense. In that world the first big LB run waits until the middle rounds, and Brooks in rounds 5–6 is a target, not a round-3 steal.
The other world is the one his caveat names: more IDP starters, or scoring that favors defense almost as much as offense. Read the settings, not the nickname.
On our IDP cheat sheet — a 12-team superflex, full PPR league that starts 2 DL / 3 LB / 2 DB, with solo=2 / assist=1 / sack=4 / INT=4 — Jordyn Brooks is LB1, #26 overall, 236.0 projected points and 72.2 VORP (engine 1.45.0, stamped Aug 21 2026). That is one extra LB starter and a 2-point solo relative to Davenport's 2/2/2 standard. It is not his draft. Do not read #26 as a round-3 pick in a Footballguys-standard room.
If you import a vanilla round chart into a 2-point, 3-LB league — or the other way around — you are drafting the wrong replacement line. Why Generic Rankings Lose IDP Drafts is the same failure with consensus sheets. How Does IDP Scoring Work? is the scoring primer. Three Scoring Families, Three IDP Drafts sorts the leagues themselves into tackle-heavy, big-play and True Position, which is the question one level up from this one. The comparison page at LeagueFrenzy vs Footballguys is the product split: they publish the Blueprint; we build the board from the league on your screen.
Our public IDP rankings run the same replacement-aware math on one disclosed scoring set, so you can see how far the position moves before you connect anything.
Connect the league. The board is the test.
A round chart is a map. Your scoring is the territory.
Connect your league — free. LeagueFrenzy reads the tackle values and the DL/LB/DB slots, then ranks defense next to offense on one board. That is Davenport's caveat applied to the league you actually play, not a universal round chart.
Secondary reading: the scoring-format impact report and the IDP cheat sheet.