Welcome to Defensive End George Karlaftis’s 2022 IDP recap and 2023 deep dynasty profile.
2022 Regular Season IDP Recap
Defensive end George Karlaftis was the Chiefs’ 30th overall pick in 2022. He looked a bit miscast at the beginning of the season, with full-time snaps that averaged around 75% of the snaps per contest in the first half of the season.
Karlaftis’ poor IDP production per snap left managers wondering what was happening with their highly-toted post-draft rookie. But an interesting thing happened. Around Week 11, against the divisional rival Chargers, his snaps fell to around 55% or less. In the process, Karlaftis’ production also took a U-turn.
Over that same time frame, George Karlaftis’s production skyrocketed. He recorded 6.5 sacks and multiple stats to pad the slight jump in the combined tackle stats to about three per contest and finish out the last seven fantasy matchups as hot as it gets.
This also left his former managers wondering. Where was this when I expected it and before I dropped him to the waiver wire in many formats?
2023 Deep Dynasty Profile
Believe it or not, after being a doubter, the road to his in-season development has changed my mind about George Karlaftis. He could have been better on film this year, but in terms of what he’s accomplished in K.C. during the season. That last stretch of the season and those backfield stats are crucial to our deep dynasty hot take.
If we see the Chiefs continue to supply relevant defensive players around him on that front five, other than Chris Jones, there isn’t anything keeping me from projecting him as a T.J. Watt lite* edge rusher type. And George Karlaftis could end up being what the IDP fans have wanted out of the DE/EDGE Frank Clark all this time.
And by that Watt lite* comparison for the future, it’s all I saw in the last few weeks of the regular season. A T.J. Watt in a red and white jersey, but with his hands in the dirt. And rushing from a 3 or 4-point stance, depending on the situation. At the same time, Watt is a 3-4 outside linebacker that rarely has his hands in the dirt at the snap of the ball. But other than that, the skillset is there.
George Karlaftis recovers the fumble off a Mike Danna strip of Jarett Stidham ๐ชpic.twitter.com/r9PYy9wkUk
— NFL on ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsNFL) January 7, 2023
So we are going lite* because we think the Chiefs have taken Karlaftis, slimmed him down, and beefed his strength up. Our only doubts now are that he’ll add much more to his combined tackle as a natural defensive end in this system when history has shown George Karlaftis will have to prove one more thing.
Like Myles Garret or Max Crosby, he can record plenty of tackles to support the backfield stats as a defensive end. And if he does, that would make him a part of the 3% of the DE that achieves it in the NFL.
Don’t get this wrong from my point of view. George Karlaftis will enter next season as a solid DL2 with an upside to top edge rusher tier-one potential. And he’ll end up developing enough by then this time next season.
In most formats, we’ll be projecting George Karlaftis as a clear-cut tier-one IDP option across the board. And then we’ll know we have two DLs on the Chiefs for a change worth playing every contest.
Thank you for checking out Defensive End George Karlaftis’s 2022 IDP recap and 2023 deep dynasty profile. Like to see a similar NFL player hot takes? Then check out my IDP Guys author page. And be sure to tackle more NFL defensive players with me on Twitter at @TheIDPTipster.
