I want to say I hate team Defense leagues but that can't be true because I play in a few team defense leagues out of necessity. I guess I tolerate them. I just don't think there is any skill or art in drafting or choosing team defenses.
There's usually about three or four defenses at draft time worth starting every week. This year it was Chicago, Baltimore, New England and maybe Pittsburgh. Chicago suddenly became iffy when Mike Brown, strong safety, went down. Then they completely fell apart when six starters went down to injury. Plus Rex Grossman didn't throw an interception unless the lucky recipient had a clear lane to the endzone. All those turnovers for TD's counted against this vaunted D. Suddenly the above list shortens to two worthwhile teams, the Patriots and the Steelers because they have reliable offenses.
So now you're spending too much time on the waiver wire finding the strongest Defense that is going up against the weakest offense. Not much thought goes into it.
One final thing that is incredibly annoying about team Defense leagues. Every year the NFL makes rules which support more scoring by the offense yet the penalties for being scored against stay the same or even increase.
I love IDP leagues. No wait...I LOVE IDP leagues. They show respect for defensive players and if the league is designed correctly, who you have on your team can offset those one or two Running Backs who scored over twenty TD's in a season or transcendant Wide Receivers that ended up on one team.
First of all, there's so much more to research in preparation for the draft. For instance, knowing the base defense of the team can help you decide who to take at each position--in a "Cover 2" cornerbacks and weakside linebackers can be as valuable as strong safeties and middle linebackers in a "4-3". In a "3-4" tackles can be a valuable as ends. You can break it down even further by finding out what the philosophy of the defensive coordinator is. Some are more about covering areas while others have a go to the ball philosophy. All of this and much more can be taken into consideration be fore you make your picks. Plus if you do the work you are more apt to make value picks in later rounds while others are reaching for recognizable names. Back in the Nineties someone would always take Deion Sanders even though he was rarely thrown at nor punted too. The value in the 4-3 is the second cornerback.
A friend of mine who played fantasy baseball made the cynical observation that all you had to do was take the guys from the bad teams since they are the ones who will likely be on the field the most. It's certainly a consideration but as I've played more and more I've learned players who are on the field a lot are likely to get hurt. Plus bad teams can be scored on so quickly that nobody gets many points. Ray Lewis was the best linebacker in both the lean years and the Super Bowl and playoff years. Urlacher had one of his best years last year en route to the super bowl. Sacks occur more often when an offense is rendered one dimensional because they need to come back from a large deficit.
And even with all this there is the element of dumb luck: I was considering benching Osi Umenyiora in week 4 due to his nagging injuries and almost started Robert Geathers. Then, while listening to the Sirius Fantasy Show, Adam Caplan made a throw away comment while talking about Donovan McNabb that the Eagles were starting a rookie at tackle. He said that would make a great matchup for Osi. Osi in Geathers out. Osi got six sacks and scored 36 overall points and I regained the top spot in my division from the guy who had the first pick in our league.
My point is that being good at IDP is like being a bassist in a rock band. It doesn't take much talent to be competent at it. But there is a lot of potetial to study and be great at it. Team Defense is like being the tamborine player.
I'd like to start a movement right here with the three readers I have spreading out the message: Make requests to all your Fantasy Football services to make IDP leagues an option in their public default leagues...I'm looking at you, ESPN. My two favorite leagues have seven players on D but a default could easily be Linebacker, Defensive Lineman, Defensive Back, Defensive Flex. Whatever. Just make the request and give IDP a try and you'll be down wid' it.
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