Kevin Hanson provides general strategy for your IDP draft.

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As with any fantasy football league, your league’s settings will increase or decrease the value of players beyond the value derived from their talent level, opportunity/role and offensive/defensive scheme.

For example, quarterbacks are going to be more valuable in 2-QB leagues or leagues that allow for a QB-eligible flex spot. Another case in point, a point-per-reception format will make wide receivers more valuable than they are in standard-scoring formats that don’t award a point for every reception.

When it comes to leagues that utilize individual defensive players (IDPs), the same will apply. Does your league start only one IDP? Or do you start multiple IDPs at specific positions? How many points are awarded for (solo) tackles? Et cetera.

[Note: Any reference in this article will assume the IDP scoring settings found on FantasyPros.]

You will find general advice below for those in IDP leagues, as well as some specific advice about players that I like going into the 2015 season.

NFL defensive stars aren’t necessarily IDP studs

Houston’s J.J. Watt is the league’s best defensive player and he goes into 2015 as the unquestioned top IDP option. That said, there are some elite defensive players that should not register on your fantasy radar. In IDP leagues, it’s more common to find defensive players that are household names who won’t be elite fantasy options.

That would be unusual on the offensive side of the ball. In some cases, a tight end is a strong blocker and mediocre receiver, which makes the worth to his real NFL team greater than his worth would be to a fantasy owner. But generally the league’s best offensive players (Aaron Rodgers, Dez Bryant, Rob Gronkowski, etc.) are elite fantasy options as well.

While Seattle’s Richard Sherman might have something to say about this (or anything for that matter), the league’s best cornerback (in real football) is Darrelle Revis. In addition to Revis and Sherman, some of the other elite cornerbacks in the league include Denver’s Chris Harris, Arizona’s Patrick Peterson and Indianapolis’ Vontae Davis, to name a few. If you’re building a real NFL franchise, you want all/any of those guys on your roster.

If you’re building a fantasy roster with IDP player(s), however, you don’t want Revis, Sherman or Peterson. Aside from being elite NFL players, one thing the five corners mentioned above share is that none finished among the top-100 IDP scorers last year (using FantasyPros scoring). Using Revis as a specific example, 180 defensive players including 89 defensive backs scored more fantasy points than he did.

So, if you’re new to IDP leagues, don’t just blindly select players with strong name recognition. Of course, you should have a strong understanding of your league’s specific settings, but typically the IDP options that will score the most fantasy points will be players that rack up plenty of tackles.

Linebackers. And more linebackers…

If your league starts just one IDP, that spot is likely to be filled by a linebacker.

Watt scored more fantasy points than any other defensive player, but the next 12 IDP scoring leaders were linebackers. As noted above, players that get the most tackles tend to score the most IDP fantasy points so it makes sense that linebackers would dominate the list of top scorers.

Within the linebacking corps, it’s typically a middle or inside linebacker that gets the most tackles. That said, players like Tampa’s Lavonte David or St. Louis’ Alec Ogletree are examples of three-down linebackers that rack up a lot of tackles from the outside.

In leagues that start players from each defensive level (DL, LB and DB), I will typically focus on using any IDP bench spaces on linebackers as well, given how important they are. It’s easier to find defensive linemen and/or defensive backs on the waiver wire to fill any bye weeks that I may have at those spots.

For leagues that start DL and DB, defensive ends will typically score more fantasy points than defensive tackles, and strong safeties (again, those that rack up a lot of tackles) will typically lead defensive backs in fantasy scoring. The top-17 defensive linemen were defensive ends, and there were only four cornerbacks among the top-29 defensive backs in scoring last year.

Don’t draft IDPs too early

In mixed leagues with both offensive and defensive players, I will typically wait to draft my IDP players.

I prefer to build a strong nucleus of offensive starters before I turn my attention to the defensive side of the ball. At a minimum, I want to draft my starting offensive players and probably some depth as well.

The top-ranked IDP options like J.J. Watt (Round 2), Luke Kuechly (Round 3) and Lavonte David (Round 4) are all going within the first four rounds, based on ADP Data from My Fantasy League. While those guys are obviously IDP studs, there’s a cost to using an early-round pick on any of them.

In other words, your offense will suffer as a result. Compared to offensive fantasy options, there is much more depth on the defensive side of the ball.

While linebackers are the most coveted of IDP positions, there are more than 96 starting linebackers in the NFL. If every team played a 4-3 scheme (and of course, many use a 3-4 scheme), there would be 96 starters (32 teams times three linebackers).

Looking at last year’s scoring leaders, the difference between last year’s RB1 (DeMarco Murray, 294.1) and RB24 (Jonathan Stewart, 120.8) was 173.3 fantasy points. By comparison, the difference between the LB1 (Luke Kuechly, 230.7) and LB24 (Nigel Bradham, 156.5) was 74.2 fantasy points.

The larger point is that using an earlier pick on a linebacker opposed to a running back, as an example, means you’re less likely to score a higher weekly output given the greater variance in production at running back.

Practice with the Mock Draft Simulator

Whether you’re in a league with only offensive players and team defenses, or you’re in a mixed league with both offensive and defensive players, completing mock drafts is an obvious, but essential step in winning your league.

The great thing about FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Simulator is that you can specify the specific roster settings.

So, if your league drafts only one IDP (any position), you can mock that way. If your league drafts seven IDP starters (two DL, three LB and two DB), you can mock that way as well. You can even further differentiate with actual positions (e.g. DE versus DT).

Of course, completing mocks will give you a better sense of when IDPs will come off the board based on your settings, which will help you tailor your draft strategy to your league’s specific settings.

Another useful outcome of completing mocks is that you can vary your approach to determine how each change will impact the overall composition of your team.

While this is valuable to all fantasy owners, it’s an especially valuable resource to those new to IDP.

IDP sleepers/values

Here are five IDP options that are either undervalued or sleepers heading into 2015:

• Cowboys DE DeMarcus Lawrence: Lawrence missed the first half of his rookie season with a broken foot, but he closed the season strong as he notched a sack in each of the team’s two playoff games. With the Cowboys signing Greg Hardy, who’s suspended for the first four games, Lawrence should see snaps at both end spots as well as move inside in sub packages. A top-35 selection in the 2014 NFL Draft, Lawrence has plenty of breakout potential heading into year two.
• Dolphins DE Cameron Wake: One of the league’s best pass-rushers, Wake has racked up 57.5 sacks over the past five seasons — only DeMarcus Ware (62.5) and Jared Allen (62.0) have more. With the free-agent addition of Ndamukong Suh, Wake could potentially set a new career high in sacks with the attention Suh will command, and is currently the 16th DL off the board.
• 49ers LB NaVorro Bowman: It’s been more than 18 months since Bowman’s gruesome injury that sidelined him for all of the 2014 season. Depending on his health in 2015, Bowman is poised for a monster season. Not only did Bowman rack up 140-plus tackles in his previous three seasons, but the 49ers lost both Patrick Willis and Chris Borland to retirement this offseason. Among the elite fantasy linebackers, Bowman is relatively an undervalued option compared to his current LB7 ADP.
• Saints LB Stephone Anthony: The Saints used their second of two first-round picks on Anthony, who should start Week 1 as the team’s Mike linebacker. With excellent athleticism and the ability to play all three downs, Anthony should rack up 100-plus tackles as a rookie. Anthony’s ADP is currently pick 179 overall (LB28).
• Titans S Da’Norris Searcy: Currently the 25th defensive back off the board using ADP from MFL, Searcy signed a free-agent deal with the Titans after posting 65 tackles and three interceptions with the Bills last season. It wouldn’t surprise me if Searcy finished as a top-15 fantasy DB in 2015.

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Kevin is the founder of EDSFootball. You can follow him on Twitter @EDSFootball.

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