Tips on Drafting Individual Defensive Players (IDP)
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The newest wrinkle that has been added to many Fantasy Football leagues is playing with Individual Defensive Players, instead of Team Defenses. This brings a whole new aspect to playing and drafting for the game. The main league that I play in has been playing IDPs for four seasons now, and I’ve come up with a few strategies to help out someone who is playing this format for the first time.
- Be Flexible. You will find that many defensive stars will come out of nowhere. I guarantee you no one drafted Bart Scott, Nnamdi Asomugha, DeMeco Ryans, or Aaron Kampman, but they were all great contributors and points scorers last season. Now I’m not saying grab the guy who does well each week, but if you see someone start to have two or three good weeks, give him an add.
- Safeties and Middle Linebackers are the guys you want to focus on, and stay away from defensive tackles. DTs are basically there to take up space for the skill players to make tackles. They are nearly worthless when it comes to fantasy. It is great when you pick up interceptions and sacks, but unless you have the top guys in those categories, you will have many weeks where you have low points. With few exceptions, the league leaders in interceptions change from year to year. Most defensive ends only get about 30-45 tackles, and cornerbacks a little more than that. Sure, you might get 10 sacks, but you will have a bunch of weeks with 2 tackles, and that’s it. Focus on the guys who will get you 10 tackles each week consistently, and then mix in some sacks and/or picks. Middle linebackers usually roam around and are great at stopping the run, blitzing every so often, and covering tight ends. Safeties also stop the run, and are great at just watching the quarterback and closing on the ball. They are the best guys to have.
- Bad Teams = Lots of time for the defense to be on the field. Most of the time you don’t want that shut down corner on a great team. Why? Because the other team never throws the ball that way. And if there’s no interception, you’ve got crappy fantasy points. The worst teams often have their defenses on the field the most amount of the time, thus many opportunities to score you points.
Next I will have a listing of players by position (defensive line, linebackers, defensive backs) that are the guys you should be targeting on draft day.
As always, your questions about your team (adds, drops, trades, etc) and comments are welcome at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com. I guarantee an answer within 18 hours.
