Spot Starting Defenses

[BigMusky]

Has anyone tracked their spot starting vs actual defenses? Right now on the season i am around 110pts from my D which puts me at the #4 spot behind New England, Chicago and Baltimore.

[Inukchuk]

I have never tracked it, but it is the strategy I've been using for a while now. I think that defensive performance is easier to predict than other positions. I'm actually surprised at the number of people here at the cafe that consider it a bad idea.

This year, I have rotated between Indianapolis, Philadelphia (spent a dollar on both) Miami, and Cinci (picked up off FA after Philly and Indy faded), and my defense has scored more than all but 2 other teams'.

[BrutallyHuge]

I just play Baltimore every week. It's been working out.

[Azrael]

Starting any defense against Pittsburgh and Cleveland seems to be beneficial.

[Stelly]

I've spot started Defenses every week (thanks, Plindsey!!), and have scored about 183 points through 12 weeks. That ranks third behind Baltimore and Chicago.

Averaging a little over 15 points per week isn't too bad for my last draft pick!

[EWSPECIALTY]

What is this "spot starting defenses". What is the stratigery?

[JasonSeahorn]

spot starting defence means picking up a defence to only play a certian week because they have a good matchup, then going to the next week and picking up a new defence that also has a favorable matchup.

some people do this with kickers, and i guess it can work with quarterbacks too. in my good league (1st place), i've shuffled around huard, wallace, favre, pennington, frye and leinart

[Stelly]

What is this "spot starting defenses". What is the stratigery?

Basically, it involves finding good matchups on a weekly basis. For example, this week I am starting KC's DST @ Cleveland. KC is available on many waiver wires, and Cleveland gives up a ton of points to Fantasy D's (lots of sacks, turnovers, low scoring offense, etc.). The general idea is to exploit a favorable matchup by looking at turnover rates vs. takeaway rates, sack rates, etc.

There is a thread posted each week in the "Who to Start/Sit" forum that is excellent. Plindsey88 has developed a statistical analysis that predicts with great accuracy the best Defenses to play on a weekly basis. The formula considers home/away, and past performance (both by the D and the team they are playing).

[SDubya]

Wow, this thread motivated me to track my defence scoring this year. I drafted Washington and played them week 1, then picked up San Diego for week 2. I've played San Diego most weeks with a few spots starts of KC and Detroit once.

The result: 69 points, good for fifth worst! This is even worse when you consider each team has had one bye week. San Diego has really thrown up some stinkers since their huge week 1.

I can't believe how bad I've done with defence. Brutal!

Next year I'm going with the Plindsey formula all year.

[JasonSeahorn]

or you could draft chicago in the 4th round.