Fantasy Football: IDP Draft Strategy Revealed

By Sean Haugh, IDPs specialist for Fantasy Football Maniaxs.com

I’ll be honest; at this time last year, I was facing my first IDP dynasty-league draft and felt like anything but a genius picking players on that side of the ball. 

However, I studied hard, absorbed the thinking of some brilliant IDP minds across this big wide Internet, and won my championship. Now I am here to add to that knowledge. 

If my example proves anything, it’s that anyone can figure out how to pick and play the right defensive players. It isn’t rocket surgery. You too, can win championships right out of the gate.

There are some prejudices I have which will come out in my advice. I play in dynasty and keeper leagues exclusively, so I favor younger players and often ignore older ones entirely.

I prefer players that score consistently, week in and week out, over guys with a knack for the occasional big plays. For IDPs, that means I’ll take a tackle machine over a sack artist every time.

I hold all defensive backs in contempt, as they swing wildly in performance from game to game and year to year. Of course they have value, but their inconsistency makes them disposable.

I hate to draft all players from USC. They’re certainly fearsome in college, but that program sends them to the NFL thinking they have it made already. Sometimes it takes a couple years for them to figure out that everyone in the NFL is actually as good as or even better than they are. Most of them never recover.

Yes, I am a Sooners fan and darn proud of it, but I won’t hesitate to tell you if they are naughty or nice, as you’ll see below. (Here’s a hint: All Sooner WRs in the NFL stink—I mean, there are sleepers and then there’s the dead—although I hold out hope for Malcolm Kelly.)

As you enter your August drafts and prepare for the season, here are a few things I have learned about IDPs. During the season, I’ll offer you start/sit and waiver-wire suggestions.

Everybody tells you this, but it bears repeating: Know your league’s scoring system,  especially with IDPs. There are all manners of differences between point values for tackles, sacks, and turnovers.

The first thing to ask yourself is if your league counts return stats for your players. If so, then a DB like Terrence McGee or Antonio Cromartie becomes someone worth reaching for in your draft. Otherwise, you can let someone else spend a high draft pick on them.

This leads to the fact that there can be a remarkable difference between a great football player and a great fantasy football player. In every draft, some poor fool reaches way too early for DE Dwight Freeney.

Sure, when healthy he is an exciting player to watch and a dominant force for his team, but there are plenty of other DEs that will score more points on a weekly basis.

When it comes to DBs especially, a lot of times you don’t want to draft a player precisely for name recognition. The reason why I devalue Cromartie this year is many teams sure won’t make the mistake of throwing his way, like they did last year. 

Conventional IDP wisdom will tout the flipside of this, saying bad DBs are good fantasy value because they are tested so often and thus have many more tackle opportunities.

The problem with that theory is that no one has fantasy value while benched. Last year, I was excited to draft DB Roy Williams, but after one horse-collar tackle too many, I’m glad to be rid of him.

That’s just a high-profile sign of his overall sloppy play. Now that some reports from Cowboys’ camp say he may be struggling for a roster spot, much less his old starting gig, I feel vindicated.

For those of you about to draft, here’s what you are looking for in IDPs.

One general rule is to not draft them too early. Stock up on RBs and WRs before you fill out your IDP starting lineup. You can always get solid value, at LB and DB in particular, at the end of a typical 26 or 28-round draft.

I will often allow myself one IDP pick in the back half of the first 10 rounds, just to get it out of my system, and wait until rounds 15 or 16 to concentrate on defense.

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