Fantasy Football Defense and Special Teams Drafting Tips, Strategy and Advice
by Hoai DFFB Player, RotoPicks.com
There is no real strategy for drafting D/STs in full season leagues. You simply fill out your roster with all the position players then pick the best available D/ST in the second to last round before kickers. It's a bit different in daily/weekly fantasy football though, as there are usually a small handful of teams that are head and shoulders above the rest. An even better situation is when one of these superior DST's is going up against a poor offense. In this case, you should seriously consider NOT waiting until your last picks to select that defense. That's all I'm going to talk about with regards to STRATEGY for fantasy football defenses in DFFB (daily fantasy football) in this article, as that's really about all I can say!
Since there isn’t much to discuss about strategy when picking a D/ST, I want to talk about what I look for when selecting one in weekly format.
The first thing I want to talk about is what makes a good real life defense and how this doesn’t always translate into good fantasy scoring. Traditionally, defenses are judged by two stats, yards per game and points per game. Since a defense’s job is to stop the other team from accumulating yards and scoring points, it makes a lot of sense to use these metrics in real life football. Fantasy football is a little different. Stopping the opposing team from scoring is not nearly as important in fantasy as sacks, turnovers and D/ST scores. A team can play a great real life defensive game and not score well in fantasy and vice versa. Looking at traditional defensive stats is only the first step in ranking fantasy D/ST.
More than any other position, ranking D/ST for fantasy is all about the matchups. But don’t just look at the D/ST matchup with the other team’s offense. The matchup when your D/ST is not on the field can be just as important. I look for D/ST that are paired with an offense that can grab and sustain big leads. D/ST have the best chance to score when the opposing team is in obvious passing situations. These situations lead to sacks and chances for interceptions. If a team can grab a big lead, this will force the opposing team to abandon the run and make them one dimensional. Teams that have good pass rushes but poor run stoppers thrive in games when they can get ahead and play the pass exclusively. The same team usually struggles in games when they are forced to play the entire playbook. So when I look at weekly defensive rankings, I try to find the defenses of high scoring teams that have dominant pass rushes and not focus just on yardage and points given up.
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Just as I like to select D/ST with good offenses, avoiding ones that are paired with bad offenses is just as important. It is not unusual for a team to play a great real life defensive game and score poorly in fantasy because their offense cannot sustain drives, gives up an abundance of turnovers and/or cannot put pressure on the other team to take chances. This can lead to inflated point totals for the other team because the DST gets tired out, has to defend a short field and/or is forced to defend a conservative game plan. So don’t overlook the opposing DST matchup with your offense when looking at DST. In a weekly game setting, I feel that this can be just as important as the strength of the D/ST themselves.
When looking at weekly matchups, I also like to look at situations where the D/ST feels comfortable and the opposing offense isn’t. Obviously, teams and their D/STs feel more comfortable playing at the home. Most teams are built to take advantage of the crowd noise, the playing surface, familiarity and the weather of their home stadiums. On the flip side, that may make them vulnerable when they have to play outside of their element. I always like my D/ST to play against dome teams that have to play outside, warm weather teams that have to play in the extreme cold, cold weather teams that have to play in the extreme heat and teams that have to cross multiple time zones. It's a proven fact that when teams are forced to play outside their comfort zone, it leads to mistakes by their offense and scores for the D/ST.
The last aspect I wanted to point out when selecting a D/ST is the special team part of the equation. A great return game increases the chances of special team score, but great kicking game can lead to advantageous field position for your D/ST. Pinning an opponent back on their side of the field makes them easier to defend and also can lead to defensive scores. The opposite is also true because a bad kicking game can give the opposing team great field position and points that are unfairly credited to the defense.
It is very hard to project fantasy production for D/STs on a weekly basis, but by using some of the tips, strategy and advice that I have explained in this article, you will increase your chances of finding good D/ST matchups and avoiding bad ones!
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