Importance of Defense

[WideoutProspector]

Given a standard scoring format, where do you rank the importance of Defense/special teams on your roster?

I believe it is often overlooked and many place too little emphasis on this area

[eagles157]

well i think it is very important at least in my league's scoring format. I went into last mondays, eagles game with my team down like 20 points and the eagles d and akers left to go for my team and they won it for me. But is usually hit or miss for ds or kickers so kickers and ds after like the top 3 it is all luck what they score from week to week

[Plindsey88]

Given a standard scoring format, where do you rank the importance of Defense/special teams on your roster?

I believe it is often overlooked and many place too little emphasis on this area

I place a great emphasis on defenses, and I have been known to own 12 different D's over the course of a season... The good thing about Defenses is that even some of the mediocre ones come up against a really great matchup every once in a while, and there are always LOTS to choose from off the wire... The downside is that there is a LOT of luck involved with defenses, and it's almost impossible to pick the best one each week... And only a few of them are consistently good... But when you do pick the right one and they have that 15-20 point week, well that is one helluva good feeling...

In my money league this year, I have already owned Jacksonville, Miami, Washington, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh... And I'm about to own Atlanta as soon as our FA list opens up tomorrow morning...

[Tree_Sloths]

kickers are important. defense not so much. in my experience, they're pretty random depending on who happens to get a few turnovers that week.

[Pete123444]

kickers are important. defense not so much. in my experience, they're pretty random depending on who happens to get a few turnovers that week.

that's strange, i think exactly opposite. i think d's are a little more important and kickers are pretty much guesswork.

[Tree_Sloths]

they both are up and down based on match-ups. but kickers on high scoring teams seem to score fairly consistently all year. With most defenses, it's either feast or famine depending on if the get any turnovers.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

Both Ks and Ds are very important, high scoring aspects of your fantasy teams. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY CARRY MUCH VALUE.

Playing matchups on D is key, and I disagree that a lot of it comes down to luck. There are really only 2 teams I would play pretty consistantly every week: NE and BAL. Thats it. The rest I would play matchups on a week by week basis. Therefore, almost all Ds are similar in value other than the top 2.

Remember - how much a certain position scores compared to other positions does not determine their fantasy value. This concept is absolutely important to understand.

[Tree_Sloths]

I guess it depends on what you mean by important. It's important that they score. But I wouldn't trade my worst running back for the best kicker or D in the league. I've always drafted both in the last rounds.

[Plindsey88]

Both Ks and Ds are very important, high scoring aspects of your fantasy teams. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY CARRY MUCH VALUE.

Playing matchups on D is key, and I disagree that a lot of it comes down to luck. There are really only 2 teams I would play pretty consistantly every week: NE and BAL. Thats it. The rest I would play matchups on a week by week basis. Therefore, almost all Ds are similar in value other than the top 2.

Remember - how much a certain position scores compared to other positions does not determine their fantasy value. This concept is absolutely important to understand.

We know, it is a matter of how much a certain player in a given position scores in comparison to other players at that same position....

And I am all about picking some defenses and playing them from week to week, as you well know...

What I meant by luck is that a lot of determining which team will be the high scorer on a given week is based on luck... We can narrow it down to several most likely options, like this week:

Miami, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Atlanta, Oakland, Tennessee

But who's to say that Sean Taylor doesn't end up with 2 picks returned for TD's on Monday Night Football, and all of a sudden Washington was the stud play of the week? I mean, with other positions, we can be reasonably certain that James Thrash is not going to outscore Keyshawn Johnson in that game (although stranger things have happened), but there is really no telling which D will end up scoring higher and by how much... It could really go either way, and the same could be said of ANY other NFL game... When it comes to a position that is that heavily dependent on turnover scoring, it really does come down to how the ball bounces sometimes...

The only really true indicator that we can go off of is a comparison of offensive lines and defensive lines to help determine sacks and overall points scored... IMO, defensive matchups are as much a matter of picking the best line matchups as anything else...

[Plindsey88]

I guess it depends on what you mean by important. It's important that they score. But I wouldn't trade my worst running back for the best kicker or D in the league. I've always drafted both in the last rounds.

I don't know... I think if I had Tyrone Wheatley sitting on my bench right about now, I would gladly trade him for Baltimore's defense...