Fantasy Football: IDP Draft Strategy Revealed

Don’t draft too many of them either. You only need enough for your starting spots, with bye-week coverage. In leagues with two starters at each position, that means three players max. Save your remaining roster spots for rarer and more valuable RB and WR prospects and leave the IDP prospects to ripen on the waiver wire.

Linebackers are the key to IDP success. Simple reason, they score points by the boatload. My dominant LB corps was a big reason why I am a champion today. The good news is the pool of solid LBs is deep, and you can get great value in later rounds. 

My championship LB corps was picked in the 11th, 16th, and 23rd rounds. They were Patrick Willis, Nick Barnett, and E.J. Henderson.

This year, some brazen soul will jump all over Willis, Chicago’s Brian Urlacher, or Houston’s DeMeco Ryans as early as the fifth round. Let them. If you feel you must have a sure-fire elite LB, then sneak in a round or two later and tab Carolina’s Jon Beason or David Harris of the Jets, who should be just as good at a lesser price. 

You probably can get an even better deal on Buffalo’s Paul Posluszny, who should be right up there with them after recovering from the broken arm that put him on IR early last year.

The remarkable thing about LBs is the recent trend of dominating rookies. Many pundits say this year’s crop doesn’t measure up to the studs that entered the league in recent years, and we should not count on that happening this time.

I disagree.

I watch a lot of college football games, and on the offensive side of the ball, I’ll confess that I have yet to completely wrap my mind around how prowess in the college game translates into NFL success. Nevertheless, I believe I have found the key to knowing what to look for when picking your rookie LB phenoms.

That key ingredient is a non-stop motor. You want the guy that always seems to be flying out of nowhere from a corner of your TV screen to bring down the ball carrier.  You want the guy that is always seen running 20 yards or more to make sure he’s in on every tackle possible.

If such a player ends up on a team that desperately needs him to start from day one, there you have your pick.

There are two rookie LBs who fit the mold this year, Curtis Lofton in Atlanta and Jerod Mayo in New England. Lofton will most likely see the field more than Mayo since the Patriots’ offense will be driving longer, and having to rebuild due to age is an easier task than doing so out of complete ineptitude. 

In both cases, however, these two have exactly what it takes to play every down and put up big numbers immediately.

Defensive linemen are like tight ends; they don’t score a lot but there are few elite options available, which means having one gives you a significant edge. This year, I won’t fault you if you use a relatively high pick on Minnesota’s Jared Allen, the Giants’ Osi Umenyiora or Justin Tuck, or Mario Williams of the Texans.

You could make a reasonable case for Green Bay’s Aaron Kampman or Philadelphia’s Trent Cole to be included in this group, and if you’re a bit of a gambler, you might want to reach just a little for Rams’ rookie Chris Long. If age doesn’t scare you away, then sure, consider Jason Taylor or Patrick Kearney as well.

If you miss out on those guys, wait a little and make do with the best mediocrity you can cobble together on the DL. Look for guys who had a down year last year and you believe will rebound, like Carolina’s Julius Peppers.

One guy that is so undervalued that he wasn’t even taken in our inaugural Maniaxs’ dynasty league draft is Redskins’ DE Andre Carter

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