Thoughts on drafting a defense

[SuperSteelers 1]

I thought I'd mix it up with a little talk on team defense. I've always drafted a defense with one of the last two picks. This season I drafted San Diego with my last pick in the 14th round...actually it ended up being 14.11.

 

The first defense taken in our league was Pittsburgh at 9.6 (102). I never felt a defense was worth that many points.

 

Thoughts?

[FrankRizzo 0]

I thought I'd mix it up with a little talk on team defense. I've always drafted a defense with one of the last two picks. This season I drafted San Diego with my last pick in the 14th round...actually it ended up being 14.11.

 

The first defense taken in our league was Pittsburgh at 9.6 (102). I never felt a defense was worth that many points.

 

Thoughts?

 

You know it's midweek when we start talking Kickers and Defenses ....

 

My strategy is to look for the weakest offensive division ... this year my eyes fell upon the AFC West with the Oakland Raiders, KC Chefs, SD Chargers and Den Broncos. So next I look at what would be the best possible defense (and return game if you have ST as part of it) out of that group ... SAN DIEGO/Sproles. Play Oaktown 2x, KC 2x, Denver 2x and favored to win division by landslide.

 

Hasn't worked out so far ... but picking a Defense should be one of LAST ROUNDS .. I just looked at our 12team Waiver Wire and there are 6 top 10 D's sitting in it ... you wouldn't find that in any other position (except kicker of course).

[FeelingMN 273]

I always wait until the last round or two to snag my defense. Since I wait so long, and the top defenses are already off the board, I pick the D with the seemingly best matchup. This year it was Dallas @ TB. I dropped them the following Thursday....picking up Washington. From here on out, I'll just play matchups....and with Cincy and SF still available, I'm going to land a decent defense for cheap.

 

I think it's a wasted pick to draft a defense in rounds 9/10/11.....half the time they don't pan out anyway.

[gimethedamnball 2]

I always wait until the last round or two to snag my defense. Since I wait so long, and the top defenses are already off the board, I pick the D with the seemingly best matchup. This year it was Dallas @ TB. I dropped them the following Thursday....picking up Washington. From here on out, I'll just play matchups....and with Cincy and SF still available, I'm going to land a decent defense for cheap.

 

I think it's a wasted pick to draft a defense in rounds 9/10/11.....half the time they don't pan out anyway.

 

 

i agree.

 

last year i ended up with 2nd to most points and first seed going into the playoffs with the same strategy. i probably had 5 or 6 different team defenses all year including miami, ny jets, niners and san diego. this year i have already had 3 defenses:

 

W1 - san diego - 10 pts

W2 - atlanta - 8 pts

 

i just dropped atlanta and picked up denver. never thought i would ever start denver d, but they are playing well and are playing against oakland. if you can get 8-10 pts from your defense a week, then i think you have a good addition to your team. people always discount defenses, but they can definitely help you by playing matchups.

[Jedi Sensei 17]

I say it depends on how your league scores DEFs, and on waiver transaction fees.

 

In week 1, the Philly D/ST scored 5, 31, 43 and 58 points in the various scoring schemes of my various leagues. D/STs are much more of a factor in this last league than in the first league -- you'll see BAL & PIT go as high as RD5 sometimes.

 

The D/STs flavor-of-the-week strategy is viable for some scoring formats, but owners may not be inclined to add to the pot weekly if your league charges for transactions (or charges a lot for them).

 

 

 

In general, my philosophy is to target a top 5 D/ST in the last 5 rounds and if I can't get a top 10 unit by the last round, play the flavor-of-the-week approach.

[SuperSteelers 1]

i just dropped atlanta and picked up denver. never thought i would ever start denver d, but they are playing well and are playing against oakland. if you can get 8-10 pts from your defense a week, then i think you have a good addition to your team. people always discount defenses, but they can definitely help you by playing matchups.

 

 

I have to agree with you for the most part. Defenses can win you matchups each week which is important. Although I won in Week 2...San Diego was a big disappointment. I have been really high on San Diego the last few seasons, but they never seem to play to their potential. Merriam and Cromartie are both back and healthy.

[Candygram4Mongo 8]

I quit spending a decent draft pick on a DST after wasting a pick on the Ravens in the 8th two years ago. I cut them after week 4 I think.

There's too much flux among defenses, and not such a distinction between the best and the other top 10.

Trying to pick a good D each week is actually sort of enjoyable.

 

I dumped the Bears for the Skins last week. I'll ride them through this easy part of their schedule, then get somebody else.

[Patriotsfatboy1 1,432]

I normally wait as the other positions (RB, WR, QB) have more of an impact than defenses over the long haul. I picked SD this year as well in the 14th round. Dropped them already for WAS because of matchups.

 

I will have a different one soon as we head to the bye weeks. I tend to go with matchups more than teams, particularly those that are good because they play a tougher schedule.

[Effington 0]

I can speak from experience last year, I was in the same boat as a lot of you. In general, defenses don't score that many points, so I figured I would play match-ups week to week and use the waiver wire. I'd say about 40% of the time it worked out.

 

This year I took a different approach and picked a defense as soon as the first one came off the board. Pitt went 1st and I took NYG. Through 2 games I can say I'm extremely happy about this pick, as I've beaten my opponent's defense by 10+ points each week. I didn't realize what I was missing last year and am ecstatic about getting solid points out of the same draft pick that would be something like Justin Fargas, a guy entrenched in my bench.

[GridIronAssassin#1 0]

Depends on your scoring but I value a good defense. I use the default yahoo scoring in my league. I drafted Tennessee in the 8th, Dallas in round 11, and the Jets in round 13. I dropped Dallas and picked up Denver to give me the Titans, Jets, and Bronco defenses right now. I'm playing the Jets defense this week, but am keeping an eye on that Bronco defense for possible future use. It's very hard to believe that Denver was ranked 32nd last year and is currently ranked 2nd.

[Huh? 7]

I drafted the Packers in the next to last round, and they've been solid so far.

 

My problem with Defenses is that, depending on the scoring system, the best NFL defense might not be a very good fantasy defense. I can't remember which year it was, but I had Baltimore, and they had a record-setting year in terms of low scores and yardage allowed. People were comparing them to the '85 Bears. The problem for me was that my league had minimal bonus points for low points allowed (I think it was 3 fantasy points for <6 points allowed and nothing else). Even though the Ravens had a great D, they still usually gave up more than 6 points. Plus there was no bonus for minimal yards allowed.

 

So, to make a long story short, the Ravens were one of the all-time greats at stopping other teams, but they didn't force many turnovers and ended up being below average in my fantasy league. Meanwhile, the Denver defense gave up a lot of points and yards, but they also forced a ton of turnovers and scored some TDs.

[sirwinzalot 1]

I've been screwed by taking a D early, anymore I'll just play matchups. I was in line to draft Minny this year, only to have them drafted right before me, and with dipping into the pool of defenses every week, I've done better than if I did get Minny.

[TimHauck 1,880]

Defenses can score a good amount of points (depending on the scoring system), it's just that they're so hard to predict and fluctuate a lot from year to year. Last year I had the Steelers and it was nice to not have to think about which defense to start. Yeah, playing the matchups can get you more points, but that's risky IMO unless you have the matchups planned out for the fantasy playoffs or you could be SOL.

 

But if you do draft one early, you have to know when to give up if they're not living up to expectations. I think I made a mistake by drafting the Ravens relatively early this year. Going into the draft I thought the Steelers and Ravens were the safest bets, so after the Steelers went a few picks before me, I took the Ravens, but they haven't been exactly lighting it up and many think that they've lost a step. Hopefully they'll pick it up, but if they don't I will most likely have waited too long to make a switch and I'll most likely miss out on a potentially good WW defense (I don't have a backup D right now although I've seriously considered adding one). That's the good thing about playing the matchups: you don't have to worry about the don't bench your "studs" theory, you just play the best matchup.

[skibadee 0]

Our DST scores 2 points for sacks, fumbles and Int's plus any DST TD is score as 6 points

 

The the normal points and yards allow points too

 

 

In our leage some of the top DST average 15-20 a week , so people do reach for them

[We Tigers 71]

It all depends on scoring. In leagues where sacks are worth 2 points, a big pass-rushing team can be monstrous. In both of my leagues, we get 1 point for sacks, 2 for INTs or fumble recoveries, and the usual 6 for TDs, plus a 0-10 or 0-8 point scale for points allowed. Before the draft I just make a list of 6 or 8 teams outside the obvious (Ravens, Steelers, etc.) and pick whichever one's still around in the second-to-last round. Got me Green Bay in both leagues this year, which is working out just fine.

 

In my 14-team league, 7 of the top 14 DSTs so far are unrostered. And don't look now, but Pitt's #17 and Baltimore is outside the top 25. Things will even out a bit, but I'll never take an early defense since production is pretty close among the top 10-12, and since the only position that's less predictable year to year is kicker.