The Lost Art of Fantasy IDP

Welcome to the world of Individual Defense Players (IDP). As with any game knowing the rules gives you the best chance to exploit them legally and successfully. We are going to go over some quick hits of things to keep in mind when playing in leagues that feature IDP. IDP scoring overall is rather simple but every league has a few scoring or roster settings that can change the makeup of the league. We will go over a few examples about how scoring or roster setting can affect your strategy but first let’s go over the basics of IDP scoring.

The Most common IDP settings are typically the same or within a point of the settings we are using below.

Solo Tackles +2

Assisted Tackles +1

Sacks +3

Interceptions +4

Forced Fumbles +2

Fumble Recovery +2

Safety +2

Defensive TD’s +6

Let’s Look at the NFL leaders in several defensive categories to get an idea of how many points we can expect over the year per player. We will compare the highest scorer in each category with the 10th highest in each category to show the disparity in each category after just a few players are off the board.

NFL Leaders In 2020 Regular Season

Tackles – Avery Williamson – 98 Solo Tackles, 61 Assisted Tackles = 257 Points

Sacks – TJ Watt- 15 = 45 Points

Interceptions – Xavien Howard – 10 = 40 Points

Forced Fumbles – Marlon Humphrey – 8 = 16 points

Fumble Recoveries – Chase Young – 3 = 6 points

Safeties – Justin Houston – 2 = 4 Points

Defensive Touchdowns – Troy Hill – 3 = 18 points

Number 10 During 2020 Regular Season

Tackles – Neville Hewitt- 77 Solo Tackles + 42 Assisted Tackles = 197 Points

Sacks – Leonard Floyd – 10.5 = 34.5 Points

Interceptions – Kenny Moore II – 4 = 16 Points

Forced Fumbles – Demarcus Lawrence – 4 = 8 Points

Fumble Recoveries – Fred Warner – 2 = 4 Points

Safeties – Jonathan Allen – 1 = 2 Points

Defensive Touchdowns – Tyrann Mathieu – 1 = 6 Points

(Stats From NFL.COM)

Tackles are the single most recorded stat for defensive players, there’s a tackle on almost every defensive play. We want reliable scorers so we need to get players who have high tackle numbers. When we look at who is recording the most tackles each year we find that the list is full of linebackers(LB) and a handful of defensive backs (DB) most of them being safeties (S). So as of right now, our priority would be adding the players at the top of the tackle list we just looked at. While we are off to a solid start we still need to make sure we are not getting burned by the rules.

Sleeper allows you to view the scoring leaders under your league’s specific settings, even if your league hasn’t drafted yet! This is a great tool to use and helps us gain a better understanding of which IDP players finished the best in under your exact scoring rules without having to project or calculate anything. By going to the leader’s button, then adjusting to stats for the full season and the year to 2020, you can view which players scored the highest this past season.

Let’s say we see a lot of Linebackers(LB) at the top of the list still (very likely). If your league only requires you to start two flex IDP players then grabbing a few names towards the top of the list could be the end of your IDP problems. What happens when we have to start several IDP players? Let’s say six or more? Not only does this league require you to start six IDP, it requires you to start two at DL, two at LB, and two at DB.

How does this new wrinkle affect our process? While we saw several LB and S atop of the tackle list we didn’t see any DL. This is a big red flag, DL absorb a lot of blocks and don’t make as many tackles throughout a season. In a league like the one laid out above, we would want to make sure we took a few quality DL before they are all gone. If we wait on DL they are likely to go fast as few are consistently reliable. We would not want to be stuck with DL who are at risk of giving us goose eggs or single tackle performances.

Just like that, the number of positions required to start and how many of each has flipped our player priority on its head. This is why knowing the rules is key in IDP. Next time we will journey a little deeper into the forest of IDP and look at position scarcity and how it affects your decisions when it comes to drafting, trading, and prioritizing IDP players overall.

(For IDP advice tailored to your league settings/scoring send me a DM on twitter with league settings and any questions you may have.)

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