Looking for a fun way to mix things up a bit in your fantasy league, utilizing individual defensive players is certainly one way to go. I got involved with an IDP league back in 2001, and it’s been one of my favorite formats ever since. The funny thing is though, almost everyone I’ve tried to recruit into this league has the same hesitation I initially had… Defensive players? How does that work? Sounds too complicated, and I don’t know all the players.
The reality is that couldn’t be further from the truth, and to quote Tom Cruise in one of my favorite action movies, “it’s going to sound ridiculous at first, but the longer I talk the more rational it’s going to appear.”
Fast forward to September 24th later this year. What’s so special about this date you ask? Thursday Night Football baby! YEAH!!! So who’s playing? … {coughs to clear throat} … It’s … {whispering} … the Miami Dolphins versus the Jacksonville Jaguars.
(deafening silence)
(followed by more deafening silence)
You mean you’re not excited about watching the Dolphins play the Jags? Well, unless you live in certain parts of Florida, or maybe have Leonard Fournette on your fantasy squad to kick off the week. Let’s face it, this is one of those Thursday night matchups that has very little appeal for the casual football fan.
But you love football. You love the action, and you love your fantasy squad. And you know full well the games are so much more exciting when your guys are on the field filling up the stat sheet.
Enter IDP. Joe Schobert and Jerome Baker should each be good for their usual eight to ten tackles that night. Xavien Howard and Byron Jones are in line for high pick probability, and second-year pass rush sensation Joshua Allen could very well be in a blow-up spot for a multiple sack night.
All of a sudden with an IDP format you have some skin in the game. The Dolphins have the ball and you’re watching #41 hit the line and get after Ryan Fitzpatrick on each snap. And when the Jags are on offense you’re eyeing #55 as he chases down the ball carrier play after play.
Now that we’ve taken care of the excitement factor, let’s move on to this myth IDP formats are too complicated. There are no hard restrictions as to how many defensive starters you need to build into your league. Whether you start small with a partial IDP formula (let’s say two linemen, two linebackers and two defensive backs per fantasy team) or go all out with a full lineup of 11 starters, there are more than enough players putting up comparable statistics to go around.
Keeping lineups small is the easy route. Most casual football fans can name a lot of the league’s defensive stars with relative ease, and there are dozens of easy to find FFL sites that incorporate IDP rankers and projections. But regardless of how many defensive starters your league utilizes, the statistical variance player to player is quite small compared to offensive players. This means no matter the league’s scoring system, the individual defensive players will never be as valuable as those on offense. Switching from a team DST to IDP is not going to be a major C change for your league whatsoever.
Lets use the following simple scoring parameters to demonstrate. Tackles (solo or assisted) count as two points, each sack counts as five points and interceptions count as 10 points. A typical game from a middle linebacker might read 8-0-0. That’s eight combined tackles, zero sacks and zero interceptions for a total of 16 points. Or maybe you’re using Von Miller, and his average game tends to more or less resemble 5-1-0 for a total of 15 points. With the league’s top tackling LB Bobby Wagner averaging just under 10 tpg and roughly two dozen averaging more than 8 tpg, you can see how the defensive stars just don’t have the same impact on point differential for the fantasy game outcome as a Lamar Jackson or a Christian McCaffrey do at their respective positions.
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While tackles are fairly consistent from player to player week to week, sacks and interceptions are far from it. Close to 40 players had 8.0 or more sacks in 2019, more than enough to go around in a 10 or 12 team fantasy league with relative equal value. Yet when a player has 8.0 sacks, he’s still failing to get a sack in at least half the games during the course of the season. In my mind, this adds to the excitement as it relates to the fantasy aspect of using defensive players on a week to week basis.
Statistically, the defensive backs are the deepest and most unpredictable to draw from. Corners such as Marcus Peters and Stephon Gilmore who are among the favorites to lead the league in interceptions still may only pull down 4-6 of them. While that will be enough to garner Pro Bowl honors in the real world, there’s just no telling when or where those picks will occur throughout the season. Although safeties like Budda Baker and Landon Collins can give you a slight scoring edge because of their tackling ability, there are easily another 60-80 DBs averaging 4-6 tpg. In my opinion, there is very little difference between the 10th ranked DB and the 40th ranked DB. You may as well just go with someone on your favorite team for fun’s sake. Or even better, choose a new CB each week off the waiver wire going against an interception machine, like Jameis Winston.
You’ll inevitably have some additional scoring opportunities like six points per TD, along with points assigned for safeties, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. But because those categories are as unpredictable and lucky week to week as are interceptions, you simply cannot prepare for them. Just enjoy the ride those occasional weeks when the crazy points come into play. Based on the law of averages, it’ll inevitably happen for you and against you.
By the way for those who didn’t recognize the quote, it’s from Edge of Tomorrow. And if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it as much as I recommend joining an IDP league. Good luck this season!
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