Fantasy Football: Setting Up a League with Individual Defensive Players (IDP)

Fantasy Football with Individual Defensive Players (IDP) is on the rise.  Some of the traditional fantasy footballers do not want to make the jump. 

Not wanting to make the jump is different than not knowing how to make the jump.  We have found that some Owners and Commissioners would like to make the change and begin using defensive players, but the unknown scares them off.

For the Football Jabber Fantasy Football Strategy Playbook today, we will look at setting up scoring for your league and compare how some of the defensive players match up to offensive players to give you a better idea of a player's value when drafting. 

To get more of an idea on the basics, there is a link to an earlier Football Jabber article at the bottom of the page that will be helpful.

When setting up your IDP league, there is nothing to change on the offensive side of the ball (unless you're not going to use any offensive players).  It’s as simple as dropping the Defensive Team/Special Teams and adding roster spots and starters in the lineup for defensive positions. Of course, dropping the D-Team is a choice as well, but it's not mandatory.

You can break the defensive players up a few different ways.  For example, you can have DE and DT or just D-Linemen.  You can have all D-Backs lumped together or separated by position.  The same goes for Inside and Outside Linebackers.

The flexibility is there when setting it up, just as it is on the offensive side of the ball.  Adding some Flex positions shakes things up to play to your strengths as well.  Wanna play a 3-4 or 4-3?  Go for it, it’s your league!

Here is an example of setting rosters for defensive players to where you have an equal amount of Offensive and Defensive players.  For simplicity, we are not going to add the flex for this example, but you can if you wish.  We will also use this in the comparison of players later.

Offensive Starters  QB-1  RB-2  WR-3  TE-1  K-1 

Defensive Starters  LB-3  DB-3  DL-2

That was easy enough, right?  Now the missing ingredient is the scoring.  This is where a lot of new leagues to IDP get stuck because they just don’t know how to set it up. 

We will give you an example that will give you a baseline and then you can tweak a point or two here and there to fit your tastes.  Again, we are going to throw some offensive numbers out there because this will be needed when looking at the scoring comparisons.

Offensive Scoring  Passing TDs: 4 Points  Passing Yards:  .05 per yard (1 point per 20 yards)  INTs Thrown: -1 per INT  Rushing/Receiving TDs: 6 points  Rushing/Receiving Yards: .10 per 1 yard (1 point per 10 yards)  Receptions: .5 per reception (1 point per 2 receptions)  2-pointers: 2 points

Defensive Scoring  Tackles: 2 points  Tackle Assists: 1 point  Sacks: 2 points  Safety: 3 points  INTs: 2 points  Forced Fumble: 2 points  Fumble recovery: 2 points  Passes Defensed: 1.5 Points  Blocked FG: 3 points  Blocked Punt: 2 Points  INT, Fumble recovery, Punt return, Kick return TD’s: 6 points

These are the scoring rules taken from our example league in the Fantasy 101 | Starting a Dynasty League series.  They can be adjusted as needed.

So…you have your rosters and scoring set up…it’s draft time. IDP rookies tend to go after the big name Defensive stars, when they may not be the best IDP starter. It seems logical—if you're going in unprepared.  Why make your first IDP draft a learning experience?

So just how do these guys compare in the scoring?  What we are going to do is look at the top 10 from each defensive position and compare their 2007 scoring to an offensive player with a similar total.

One of the hardest parts of moving to an IDP format for the owner is when to draft and straying from their traditional draft strategy.  Why take your second or third RB/WR at a time when you can get a LB that scored twice as much as them last year?

Of course, you're going to go with the flow of your draft but this will give you an idea of the value of defensive players in comparison to some offensive players.

Position	Overall	D-Player	07 Points	O-Player	07 Points
#1	#5	Patrick Willis, SF	332.5	Peyton Manning	330.6
#2	#15	D.J. Williams, Den	266.5	Terrell Owens	266.5
#3	#16	Brian Urlacher, Chi	263	Braylon Edwards	260.9
#4	#19	DeMeco Ryans, Hou	259.5	Jay Cutler	259.65
#5	#20	Jon Beason, Car	259	Reggie Wayne	257.4
#6	#23	London Fletcher Baker, Was	257	Joseph Addai	256.1
#7	#26	Nick Barnett, GB	252	John Kitna	252.2
#8	#32	Kirk Morrison, Oak	243	Adrian Peterson	242.4
#9	#36	Ernie Sims, Det	241	Chad Johnson	241.2
#10	#37	E.J. Henderson, Min	240	Eli Manning	238.3

What you can grasp pretty quickly here is that the LBs are the RBs of your defense.  These are some pretty big names on the same scoring level as some of the LBs, huh? 

You may also notice that you don’t see some of the big names that you would think you would find here.  More on that in the link at the bottom of the page.  Don’t think you have to jump to get the top LB. 

You might notice that there is not a big drop off between a lot of them (aside from Willis), so you don’t have to be the guy to start the run.  If you're comfortable with the rest of your draft up until the time your thinking about it and feel you want to though, go for it!

Position	Overall	D-Player	07 Points	O-Player	07 Points
#1	#66	Nate Clements, SF	209	Plaxico Burress	209.5
#2	#72	Marcus Trufant, Sea	205.5	Willis McGahee	207.3
#3	#74	Leigh Bodden, Cle	204.5	Earnest Graham	204.7
#4	#78	Chris Harris, Car	203.5	Vince Young	197.8
#5	#79	Richard Marshall, Car	202.5	Kevin Curtis	197.5
#6	#81	Cedric Griffin, Min	201	Edge James	197.3
#7	#82	Roman Harper, NO	201	Bobby Engram	195.7
#8	#85	Cortland Finnegan, Ten	199.5	Chris Cooley	195.7
#10	#87	Sammy Knight, Jax	198.5	Roddy White	193.7
#10	#94	Michael Lewis, SF	195.5	Maurice Jones-Drew	193.5

As you can see with the comparisons, they are a little off.  This is because there is a huge gap of D players that scored from Earnest Graham to Vince Young.  They were staggered to put more names in instead of repeating names.  You can still get the visual.

Position	Overall	D-Player	07 Points	O-Player	07 Points
#1	#143	Jared Allen, KC	170	Ryan Grant	171.6
#2	#186	Trent Cole, Phi	156	Nate Burleson	156.8
#3	#197	Patrick Kerney, Sea	153	Hines Ward	154.3
#4	#198	Terrell Suggs,Bal	153	Justin Fargus	153.3
#5	#202	Jason Taylor	152	Owen Daniels	151.8
#6	#204	Adewale Ogunleye,Chi	151.5	Ronnie Brown	150.6
#7	#213	Kelly Gregg,Bal	148.5	Rob Bironas	150
#8	#222	Kyle Vanden Bosch,Ten	145.5	Heath Miller	145.6
#9	#228	Mario Williams, Hou	143.5	Roy Williams	144
#10	#237	Will Smith,NO	141.5	Nick Folk	142

Yes, these can be like the kickers of your Defense.  With that, getting the right guy can give you a big match-up advantage over your opponent.  Remember, they have to start them too!

That pretty much wraps up this addition of the Football Jabber Fantasy Football Strategy Playbook.  Hopefully this gives you some piece of mind if your looking to start using IDP players in your league or if you just don’t know what to do when it comes time for the draft.

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***To get more of the basics on fantasy football with Individual Defensive Players check out this article HERE.

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