Defensive Strategy - Stand Pat or Play the Matchups?

[The_Dude]

So, I admittedly am terrible about anticipating which defenses are going to be better week to week. I was reading through Plindsey's prediction thread and thought I'd open up this topic. How successful have people been in playing the matchups off the waiver wire versus playing the same defense every week.

As an example, I have Seattle and Philly this week. I'm gonna start Philly, but Buffalo is available on the wire. I'm just not sure if in the long run it makes sense to drop the 'Hawks and pick up Buffalo. The Hawks may have NE in week 6, but they have Arizona, Carolina and Frisco in the subsequent weeks, and I'm a bit afraid someone will snipe them.

I don't mean for this to be a start/sit kind of question, although I used that example above. Just generally, in a 10 team league, is the taking the best mathup on the wire strategy better than having two above average defenses and taking the best of them every week.

-Dude-

[BrutallyHuge]

Pick up whoever is playing San Fran, Miami, or Tampa Bay each week...especially Miami.

[gladiator]

Also, whoever is playing GB after last night..

[Plindsey88]

DBBC has worked wonders for me for two years... So far my worst week out of my defenses this season was this past week, in which I got 7 points from the Jets... In previous weeks, I was never held under double digits... In Week-1 I got 15, Week-2 I got 10, Week-3 I got 21, and Week-4 I got 18...

So, all totalled, after 5 weeks, my defense has scored 71 points...

That's more than anyone else on my roster, except Edge and Manning.... And, unless I'm mistaken, that is more than any single defense has...

[monkey69]

How would this apply to a league where the defenses score 1 pt per 10 yrs return for kickoffs or punts. I have noted that this tends to make the return yards much more important than the rest. All teams thus far have their scores largely based on the REturn yards and then add 20-30pts for fumbles, interceptions, sacks. For instance most of the top defenses have 90-110 points this far and usually 60-70 of those pts are from return yards. I think this system is pretty bad - but its the one that we're using this year.
Any ideas which temas will keep up the consistent return yards?

[MrChunk]

Picking up by matchups is all well and good but what if you are in a sharp competetive 10 or 12 team league where the top 20 Defenses are NEVER available?

You have to plot your course based on the skill set of your league and make your strategy based on that. My league - waiver wire Ds are a longshot.

[Plindsey88]

How would this apply to a league where the defenses score 1 pt per 10 yrs return for kickoffs or punts. I have noted that this tends to make the return yards much more important than the rest. All teams thus far have their scores largely based on the REturn yards and then add 20-30pts for fumbles, interceptions, sacks. For instance most of the top defenses have 90-110 points this far and usually 60-70 of those pts are from return yards. I think this system is pretty bad - but its the one that we're using this year.
Any ideas which temas will keep up the consistent return yards?

Right now, if you get points for return yards added to your defensive score, you cannot beat Baltimore, and Atlanta is really good, too...

I'd rank top D's that include return yardage something like this:

Baltimore
Atlanta
Denver
Miami

[Plindsey88]

Picking up by matchups is all well and good but what if you are in a sharp competetive 10 or 12 team league where the top 20 Defenses are NEVER available?

You have to plot your course based on the skill set of your league and make your strategy based on that. My league - waiver wire Ds are a longshot.

My league is full of very skilled players... Which is why I always have 1 mainstay D that I can use on weeks where there are no good matchups on the wire, and then another spot that I use to pick up good matchups... And if there is nothing availbale for this week, then I look to next week or the week there after... You can almost always find at least one good matchup on the wire if you look hard enough...

[jaabroonii]

My league rewards in favour of sacks and interceptions...so I thought who gets sacked a lot....VICK...and looky here I picked up the Detroit defense which did just amazing.

[MrChunk]

True, and I have often used that to my advantage. There have definitely been times where I felt I was damned if I went one way or the other and paid the price too. This is most often the case when you wait to draft your D till late (Tampa for me this year in one league) and then have a sh!tty matchup. It cost me a game this year because I was pinched on the add drops and the WW had no good matchups.