Defense Philosophy

[chiroacademy]

As I approach my draft this year I am thinking of taking a defense with my last pick and playing match-ups all year. I played match-ups last year and did an exceptional job at consistently picking the team that produced points. This is just my second year in fantasy football so I'm curious if this is a good approach or I just got lucky.

 

What is your philosophy on defense and how did your approach work last year?

[Grogansghost]

I always wait on defenses - but one thing to consider is that the ability to pick up a new defense with a good match-up every week can vary a lot depending on the league.

 

e.g. in a 10 team league with a passive waiver wire it should be relatively easy to find a decent defensive match up every week. But in a league of 12+ teams with several owners who also like to stream defenses the pickings will be much slimmer.

 

In the league's where I think the waiver wire will be thin every week I try to identify a defense in the first month that I think I'll be able to ride most weeks and grab it.

 

The fact that picking match-ups worked in your league last year - I'd expect that strategy to continue to work. In one of my leagues, however, I was the only one streaming defenses the first couple of years but then several other owners adopted the strategy later making it much tougher.

[Wubammer]

If you didn't draft a top defense (Cardinals.....just ask Baby Jane ) your philosophy works fine. Some guys draft defenses way too early.

[Joessfl]

Wouldnt that depend on what the other teams are doing? If the other teams are carrying two defenses, then you dont get your pick of any of those, unless the other guys are playing matchups too and dropping teams each week to get the best matchups. So if its a 12 team league, that means 11 of best Defenses are not up for grabs. Many of those will be in the best matchups, so you will have to settle for 3,4, or 5th "best" matchup.

 

If you really want to get into matchups, I would keep one Def on your roster and use another roster slot for a "best matchup" for a particular week. I doubt that there will be a best matchup each week of the season on the WW for you.

 

ETA: And what they said above.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Joessfl

[chiroacademy]

What defense would be a good match-up for the first month of this season?

[Scorcher]

Depending on league scoring a defense can be a significant contributor. I one league I reached a little early and grabbed Chicago. It paid off well. The other leagues I did the match up thing. I have to say it was nice to just put a defense in and for get about it.There were a few games that were won for me by Chicago. I know the majority say draft a D last but I will probably be drafting a D earlier.

 

[Axe Elf]

What defense would be a good match-up for the first month of this season?

 

 

I dunno about the first MONTH, but you gotta like the Buccaneers taking Darrelle Revis back onto the Jets' home turf to face Sanchez in the opener.

[CSWR]

It really depends on your scoring rules and how your defensive scoring compares to the other positions. Defenses are notirious for being unpredictable, and there are always a few surprise teams that you can easily pluck from waivers as the season progresses.

 

While other teams are sticking with their defenses because they blew a 9th rounder on them, I just watch the trends and scoop-up a surprise team for a measly waiver-wire selection.

[darin3]

I've done this in the past and it's worked out pretty well. There always seems to be a couple matchups to pick from and while there's been the occasional time where it didn't give me any sort of weekly advantage, it also didn't result in me taking a loss. I'll wait on DEF (and PK for that matter) and will load up on WR and RB depth.