The Lost Art Of Fantasy IDP: Position Scarcity

If you haven’t read part 1 click here! Chances are if you are looking into IDP this isn’t your first fantasy football team. If you have played FF for a few years you likely know how many people scout players, do weekly player rankings, DFS breakdowns, and everything else for offensive players. We still have people doing these things from a defensive perspective but there a significantly fewer of us. This is a good thing for you!

While everyone is seeking an advantage by adding that possible breakout WR whose been 4th string for 2 years or that 3rd string RB in line to get carries for a single week due to a few unfortunate injuries, you can be ahead of the game. By zigging while your league-mates are zagging you can find quality IDP starters on the waiver wire each week, something nearly impossible on the opposite side of the ball. But there’s more to it than just in-season waiver adds.

If we can find quality starters during the season, on the waiver wire, that affects our drafts strategy and makes IDP less valuable (double-check your scoring) in a startup or even a trade. A good way to think about it is like this. If your starting running back gets hurt it is going to be very hard to replace them with someone quality from the waiver wire. If your starting linebacker gets hurt you have a much better chance of finding a quality starter on the waiver wire. One of the main reasons is position scarcity.

Football teams start eleven players on each side of the ball, but only six offensive players are eligible fantasy scorers while all eleven defensive players are eligible scorers. In addition to having more eligible scorers, defensive coaches typically rotate their players more frequently than offensive coaches. The result is the number of defensive players scoring each week is much higher than the number of offensive players. Just because we have more players scoring doesn’t mean they are all going to be scoring big numbers. With more players scoring each week and fewer people scouting it can be harder to sort through the mess, but we will be here all season long to help you with waiver priorities.

Here are a few actionable responses we can draw from the information above.

Prioritize offensive players in a start-up draft and delay taking IDP players.

Attempt to trade elite defensive players for quality offensive starters.

Save roster spots for offensive depth over defensive.

There are exceptions to every rule but following these “rules” can help you maximize your roster space and use the waiver wire better.

Next week we go over more of the nuances in the three major IDP designations, Defensive linemen DL, Linebackers LB, and Defensive Backs DB.

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