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Defensive Notes

If you’re a diehard fantasy player, most of you will at least consider adding IDPs -- individual defensive players -- to one of your leagues this year. And while some of you will take the plunge, many will decide against it. Maybe you’ll decide it’s too confusing and too much trouble, or you’ll hesitate to mess with a good thing. More likely, the decision will be taken out of your hands, as the majority of owners in your league will decide it’s too confusing, too much trouble, and runs the risk of messing with a good thing.

That’s too bad. Because IDPs are just like any other fantasy wrinkle, and while there have been occasional missteps along the way (Head coaches?), many of them -- points per reception, flex positions, etc. -- do, in the eyes of the majority of owners, make the game better.

If you’re on the fence, or trying to convince your fellow owners to give it a try, here are some of the major selling points.

1. It’s the other half of the game. You say you love football, but really, in most leagues you only love half of it. Sure, you’ve got a “team” defense, but to put that in perspective, would you want to play a team offense? Or would you feel that would give short shrift to individual stars -- particularly ones on bad teams? You cheer for Marvin Harrison when watching the Colts, so why not cheer for DeMeco Ryans if you’re unfortunate enough to be watching the Texans? Your Sundays will never be the same when you’re not only cheering “the Giants D recording a sack,” but caring whether it was Michael Strahan or Osi Umenyiora getting credit for it.

2. There’s less luck involved than with team defenses. Zach Thomas has been a top-5 tackler for six straight seasons. Julius Peppers has had 10-plus sacks in four of the last five years. The next year Donnie Edwards has fewer than 120 total tackles will be his first since 1997. This is not to say IDPs are predictable, but rather that preseason IDP rankings are based on a lot more history, with a greater likelihood of consistency, than your average team defense rankings. Top 2005 defenses like the Giants, Falcons and Colts were unusable in 2006. In contrast, the only real strikes against the top IDP options are injury and dramatic changes in defensive schemes. With team defenses, most owners wait until the end of the draft for all but a handful of options (Chicago, Baltimore, New England). And why not? The separation between the bulk of the defenses is comparatively small, as is the predictability. With IDPs, a lot of strategy comes not in the Who to Draft, but WHEN. Is a backup quarterback or third wideout more important than having a tackle-machine at linebacker?

3. It’s challenging. Think back to your first year as a fantasy owner, where you only had the slightest grasp of which quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers were better than others. Not just in NFL terms, but in fantasy terms. You’ll get to revisit that feeling all over again when trying to determine how Brian Urlacher compares with Lance Briggs, or Kerry Rhodes with Erik Coleman. Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson is a fantastic player, but if you’re not a Cardinals fan or in an IDP league, you’ve probably barely heard of him. With IDPs, you’ll spend a ton of time learning about these players -- you'll have to in order to draft the right ones.

4. It’s new. If you’re in enough (too many?) leagues, a certain familiarity sets in. The lineups are similar, the scoring is similar, and since everyone likes different defenses after the top few anyway, you’ll probably end up with the same defenses in multiple leagues as well. That all changes with an IDP league or two; no longer will you worry about whether to start Philadelphia or Dallas; instead you’ll need to figure out if you want Lito Sheppard in the lineup against Eli Manning or Charles Woodson against Tarvaris Jackson. Challenging, fun, different -- and new.

5. It’s a chance to have a whole new obsession. As you can no doubt tell, I’m kind of into IDPs. I played in my first league with defensive players about 10 years ago, and frankly I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing. It took me a few weeks to figure out that in tackle-heavy scoring systems, mediocre players like former Packers linebacker Bernardo Harris could be quality fantasy starters. And that top cornerbacks like Deion Sanders weren’t always good options, since opposing quarterbacks never threw their way. By the end of the season, I knew all this and more, and my fantasy football obsession had an exciting new chapter.

In short, there’s nothing overly scary or complex about IDPs. Nothing that you can’t pick up in a few weeks or months of reading, research and -- of course -- watching football, anyway.

So give IDPs a try. See how the other half plays football.

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