All right, welcome to another edition of the IEP Corner. My name is Justin varns. You can follow me on Twitter at down with IDP with me as always is my cohort mister.Thomas Simon's how you doing today to house? Great. Justin my friend. How are you doing doing well glad to be working with you again this year worth in fantasy free agents.com. You want to follow a follow articles and and our rankings and everything up there as well as obviously we're going to be doing weekly podcast throughout the season so far. We've been mainly just hitting, you know, a lot of deep Dives on all the fantasy values for basically idt's for any defense. You can go back and go through our AFC. And NFC previews also had some great guest spots from Cincinnati Bengals Joe good Barry as well as been finalized covered helped us cover a lot of an FLL teams Thomas. We're gonna start off with some news and notes. The latest news. Was that Micah Kiser linebacker for the Rams. He had a he just underwent surgery on his pecs on Tuesday and is out indefinitely. He was supposed to fill in for Mark Baron. We already liked Cory Littleton quite a bit. But Kaiser was definitely supposed to help out next to Littleton. We got a handful of players that should fill in. Yeah, Bryce Hagar and traven Howard are a couple of the guys that might be competing. I'm as you mention Cory Littleton is probably going to see his in his value Rises. You may even see Clay Matthews slide inside a little bit more than we had planned on or but the Rams had planned on and Wade Phillips speaking of injuries, two three, four inside linebackers with Avery Williamson getting knocked out of the Jets line up with a torn ACL. They're looking to fill that spot. They did sign veteran Stefan Anthony. I'm not sure how big of a role he is going to fill their but I do know obviously he is familiar with Adam gase. They work together in Miami, but obviously, this is a Similar to Cory Littleton, this is going to move both little clay and CJ Mosley up in our ranks a little bit. How do you see that playing out next to next to CJ Mosley there in New York? Well, they also signed album McClellan former Raven. So Anthony and McClellan will probably battle Neville Hewitt Who currently is situated at the starting inside linebacker job next to Mosley. That's not a guarantee William. Essence torn ACL is huge. And that means that Mosley while Mosley's value does rise. We're concerned a little bit about the fact that he is going. He already has an injury history himself. So recent one at least and if he goes down that Jets defense goes from really good Jets defense to a really bad Jets defense in the snap of a finger. It's going to be a battle between Anthony McClellan and Hewitt to see who Starts next to Mosley. So I'm currently in Cancun Mexico and I have this awesome hotel room, but it's right next to the pool. And I don't know what they're doing at the pool right now. They are having a par-tay. So if you hear a bunch of Spanish getting spoken behind me and splashing and yelling, I promise I have nothing to do with that. So we write at least as soon as this podcast is over all bets are off. Hard working hard at work. We got it Dallas Cowboys coming off the injury list and also got an extension for Jaylon Smith. They signed him to a five-year 64 million extension. So they definitely plan on him and Layton Vander Ash anchoring that defense. Also Tyrone Tyrone Crawford and Demarcus Lawrence as was expected have both come up the pupp and So they're both looking like they're going to be able to hit the ground running with the dolphins like dolphins with the Cowboys but speaking of the Dolphins there's news came out of the mire mayor Miami Herald that the Miami Herald is very Jackson. They're not he's not predicting that Kiko Alonso linebacker. There is a lock to make the 53-man roster right now. I don't I'm not that dramatic about it. I still think he's got plenty of value for although I know. Oh, there is some cap issue there that they're dealing with but really what this does for me is it it makes me even more confident that Jerome Baker is is got a ton of upside there and also Sammy gravano as well. I think yeah, I agree even if Alonso does get released. He's likely going to land on his feet somewhere. But the fact that there is this discussion that he may not make the 53-man roster is a little bit Rising and also sees Alonzo stock just drop like a brick and water. I think that egg will bones performance during the training camp has situated himself to a starter status and they also still have raquan McMillan to they could slide McMillan out to Alonso spot if they wanted to it's a fluid situation and there is no guarantee for Alonzo. This is happening. Budget it's not it's not this is not brand new developments here where we have some of these players who have been injured a lot in the in the preseason and they're losing valuable snaps to younger cheaper players and it doesn't take much for a team to go. Well, if we this have this young kid, we're paying him peanuts and he's doing just as good of a job as his better in this cost us millions and and it you know, it shows you how important this to stay healthy. As both McMillan and Alonso haven't seen much of the playing field in the preseason and and these and Baker are going to have really taken off and it can really change the landscape of this defense last thing I've got on you've got a few others Thomas is just an update on Derwin James safety out of Los Angeles for the Chargers. It looks like his foot injury is a little worse than they thought and then expecting him to miss somewhere between three and four months so likely we will see see him later in the season, but I think we're kind of in Jason pierre-paul mode with him, which is that if you can possibly stash him great otherwise somebody just hopefully you can pick up way later to season but it's certainly time to take James off of your draftable lists. Yeah, that's a stress fracture that he's dealing with and he's having surgery on it. And when you look at his Replacements, you've got a couple of guys Adrian Phillips is most likely going Be the starter right out of the gate, but you're going to see Rayshawn Jenkins might see a spike in his fantasy stats and you may even see the rookie Nasir Adderley coming in and getting some snaps. There's a situation where you have a rookie getting a rookie salary who may see more playing time because then they don't have to pay somebody to come in, you know a veteran which will cost them a lot more to fill in for James until he returns. Now as far as there's other notes news and notes that we talked we haven't talked about. One of them is Linville Joseph. He was been cleared for team drills following an offseason upper body surgery. He had some form of an upper body issue that he had surgery around but he's been cleared for a team drills at least Tyrann Mathieu is dealing with a shoulder issue that he heard the chief second preseason game, but doesn't appear to be a really serious injury and Ed Oliver on Buffalo the rookie. Defensive tackle has moved into the starting lineup as he's climbed over Jordan Phillips. Yeah, I know we have were have been expecting that news for a while and there was a little bit of bad news coming out of the very beginning of training camp that he was slow to get moving but I don't think you were I were remotely worried about him. Eventually earn a spot is just a matter of when not if and it's just it's what it really is is it certainly helps us who still have some drafts ahead of them to feel a little bit more confident about I'll grab about grabbing Oliver the he has officially moved up there and he's not going to How have a slow climb to that starting job? So I think we're going to dive in now to some draft strategy. What's tricky about IDP? Is there so many League sizes to cover so much scoring variance. And so we're going to kind of break it up. I'm going to focus on on your traditional drafts and some of those league league sizes Thomas. I know you're going to get us started off with talking about auctions and also just doing a little bit of Breakdown of some general or fundamental IDP things. We should be considering when it comes to two giraffes and season. So you want to get us started Thomas. What's up listeners? This has been kookiness producer of the fantasy free agents podcast on anchor FM podcasting. I've been producing podcast and chose for my friends and colleagues Joe Dolan and Tom Bradley for years now. So when we decided to start the fantasy free agents podcast, it was imperative. We find a hosting platform an app that was easy to use Quick to record and post and track our stats. That's exactly what we found in Anchor. It's the easiest way to make a podcast and gives you everything you need in one place from either your phone or your computer. Their creation. Tools makes my life easier and I felt great knowing that anchor handles the distribution of our podcast to their other platforms like Spotify Apple podcasts Google podcasts and many more and don't worry about any difficult process to monetize your podcast. You can easily make money with no minimum listenership. So go download the anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started today. Day, and thanks for listening to the fantasy free agents podcast unrestricted, unaffiliated unparalleled analysis for your fantasy football and bedding needs. All right. Well, we're going to discuss here might not help the season 90 P fantasy owner for those of you tuning in. We apologize in advance. If most of this information is redundant for you still. We think it's necessary for many of you to hear what other IDP owners might plan for strategies and auctions and drafts one of the first steps in creating a successful foundation for your draft or auction is to have a total grasp of your league scoring format while it may not seem like a big deal. On nuances in your league scoring will definitely change your thought process and strategy heading into any draft or auction leagues will favor either tackles or big plays or they'll try and balance the two out in most leagues tackles are solos in the sis while big plays our sacks ints forced fumbles fumble recoveries and passes defended knowing what statistics your league favors is critical to your success and choosing the best players available as well as building a solid foundation that is made to last. injuries and by weeks if a league favors tackles way more than big plays then linebackers and safeties tend to dominate the league in scoring if big Bleak plays scuse me of big plays are heavily favored over tackles than defensive lineman and cornerbacks tend to rise to the top of the league scoring an example of this in any given week is a linebacker who gets five solos and two assists compared to a cornerback who has two solos in an INT and a PD or a defensive end that has to Solos in a sack and a tackle heavy League the linebacker gets 12 points and maybe even bonus points for five solos. Whereas the cornerback and defensive end Come Away with five nine points depending on whether ints and sacks are two or four points each in contrast a big play driven League reverses the fantasy value a cornerback or defensive end could easily Come Away with eight to ten points while the linebacker struggles to reach six points in a big play Heavy scoring. Think of it this way in the league that rewards six points for a sack or I and T and only one point for a solo tackle a cornerback picks off a pass in the defensive end gets a sack in the first quarter both idps Come Away with seven points each on that one play barring any additional big Play points involved such as fumble recoveries or TD's a linebacker would need to Total seven solos in order to tie the fantasy points of those two players that they got on that one. And play you can see how cornerbacks and defensive ends as well as Edge watching linebackers like Khalil. Mac are huge in big play Heavy scoring leagues. Now, if big plays are only four points while solos are still one point a linebacker still needs five solos to equal the one play of the cornerback or defensive end as tackle points go up and big Play points go down linebacker start dominating League scoring now, there are two ways for your league owners to acquire fantasy. The two basic ways of acquiring Talent OR through a draft or an auction. Each way has multiple versions or divide diverse options to do this leagues can be very simple to very complex legal requirements. There is a simplistic defensive lineman linebacker DB or 3. DB has three IDP lineup. There's the defensive end defensive tackle linebacker DB or for IDP lineup and you can also go to a defensive end defensive tackle linebacker cornerback safety or five I P line up now, there are 11 starter line up allows you to choose different schemes such as a 4-3 or three four or five to a nickel a dime and so on and so forth. These are normally experience IDP owners. Who do these rare 11 starter lineups. Now, there are many types of drafts and I'll let Justin delve deeper into those the same is true with auctions you have live auctions when they're usually short clock driven and done in less than a day. Sometimes. It's one minute or two minutes per pick. And you can usually get them done in anywhere between an hour and three hours email auctions are clock driven as well. And there are a lot longer for completion. Sometimes it takes five ten days to complete sometimes even more depending on how big that clock is whether it's 12 hours or 24 hours. There is also a blind auction which is where you submit a blind bid in the highest bidder wins. And this one takes forever can be quite boring, but they're in then there's other leagues that combine some of these Options in even add other ways to acquire Talent give you an example. I'm in a league called hardcore fantasy Invitational and it has 22, excuse me, 28 to 33 offensive and defensive players. They're all under contract with a 30 million cap. There's two auctions a draft and waivers before the season even starts. The first auction is an RFA auction or restricted free agent off at auction. And this is where we tag three. Offensive players and three different three defensive players and they go to an auction. And in this auction, it's their players are been on and you either match the bid or you get compensation if you want to turn the play or over to whoever won the bid then you have a UEFA auction unrestricted free agent auction. That's a we're all the remaining free agents with one or more years in the NFL are bid on we come up with a rookie and Veteran draft shortly thereafter. This is where the rookies on in the NFL for the first time or drafted in there giving contracts or veterans who weren't taken in the who weren't tagged or taken in the UEFA auction are available to be drafted here and they don't carry a contract at all on the more simplistic and I'm also in the league a local League that dipped their toe into the IDP Pain by adding an eye IDP player of any position to their league and that has been exclusively offensive players is now now adding one IDP position now in every auction you have you need to compile a budget leagues will allow a budget of a hundred or two hundred to spend on players during the auction. Some are 50 summer home 150 mind you these are not real dollars, but they're rather fake monetary units or Sim bucks. Once you have a good handle on scoring and the snow which IDP positions float towards the top of your league. I would try to look at past. Actions to see if there are any Tendencies of the fantasy owners and look at the previous League champion rosters to see what they spent on key players. This is not mandatory for success, but it does help increase the probability knowing who spends chunks of their budget on a few players and who is conservative are the type of things that would help you make decisions your own decisions. Now, I normally do an Excel spreadsheet that lists all the positions that I need. I have to come away with from this particular auction. So this includes players and starters and bench players for me. This is a major step in an auction process. I try and stick to the budget as closely as possible. But I do allow myself to deviate at certain times and go higher than budgeted. This is especially true in an auction when I'm targeting the top 15 or 20 idps. One of the strategies. I like to implore or employee in an auction is to seek out the best player available yet. I also like to Target. In positions but doing so without compromising the best player available approach. This can get tricky as you walk a tightrope and doing so I'm always looking for high potential and high reward players when a decision has to be made between a few players. The my first tiebreaker sort of speak is to evaluate high-reward potential players reality of scuse me reliability is also a key factor when trying to choose between multiple players. Now with the help of sites like fantasy free agents.com you hopefully are up-to-date on player news with that in mind you now are keen on injury and player news and have a handle on your league scoring and know which positions have the best fantasy value in your league. You might know the auction Tendencies of other fantasy owners in the league from previous auctions, and you've compiled a budget you're ready to begin your auction. Now ancient philosopher heraclitus once said everything changes but change itself. This is so true in fantasy football auctions. No matter how prepared you are things will happen that change the course of your strategy the key to success is to withstand these changes and try to achieve the strategy you began with I could sit here for another hour and talk about different IDP position strategies Ad nauseam and full detail instead of reviewing the numerous plans of action. Could take I think it's best to supply you with key items. I take into consideration prior to and during an auction a few phrases that stick out to me are snap counts annual fantasy scoring consistency and a dime a dozen waiver wire options pro football references an excellent free source to track snap counts snap counts are huge when you're trying to figure out who sees the field the most locating three down linebackers is key. Especially in tackle heavy scoring leaves their snap counts tend to be 90% or more defensive lineman that plays 60 percent or more of the defensive Snaps are high tiered IDP options as well. DBS are tricky when it comes to snap counts. Let's take a the the 2018 Arizona Cardinals. For example cornerback Patrick Peterson was a little over 99% of the Cardinals 1115 defensive snaps last year yet. No other Zone a cornerback took more than 27 percent of those snaps now due to the scheme that Arizona ran three of their safeties all took eighty four percent or more of those defensive snaps this changes from Team to team scheme to scheme knowing the defensive schemes heading into a season helps you project which positions will see the field most in a given year pro football reference also breaks down snap counts for each game and when a team faces the pass oriented New And Patriots linebackers 2/10 tend to disappear while dbe's tend to see more snaps and be more fantasy productive. The following week Seattle was the opponent and the linebackers fare much better than cornerbacks each opponent in every given week will govern how a defense will line up and what schemes they use and will rely on. This is a dramatic effect on your fantasy IDP lineup, you get more annual player consistency from Saks than you do IDP or excuse me ints JJ Watt Khalil, Mac Von Miller so on and so forth are more consistent giving you sacks on an annual basis while the int leader each year will post seven to nine picks the name of the leader changes every season not since this year's Hall of Fame inductee and Reed has there been an IDP who has been at the top consistently or number one overall every other year in preparation for this podcast. I went back to 2002 there is not been a repeat int leader in the past 17 Seasons. Thus Saxton tend to be more predictable than ints when choosing idps. You have to take this with a grain of salt though as your league scoring most likely gives more points two ints than sacks now cornerbacks are a dime a dozen on the waiver wire during any fantasy season cornerbacks are extremely inconsistent and unreliable shutdown corner back. Like Patrick Peterson Marcus Peters Jalen Ramsey a healthy Richard Sherman Aqib, Talib Etc are all studs in the NFL but that doesn't translate into fantasy production as opponents tend to shy away from them in any given week. Now on the other hand knowing who is a shutdown corner back and who starts opposite them is something to consider in your auction. Buffalo has a solid cornerback intraday vyas white teams tend to avoid him and thus cornerback Levi Wallace. Ooh should start opposite white will be targeted more frequently in give you more fantasy points. Even then players like Wallace will give you solid fantasy points for two weeks then disappear the next two weeks now, I like to go after a rookie or second-year cornerbacks after securing. What I feel is a solid fantasy CB1 like Marcus Lattimore Kyle Fuller or Kenny more opposing offenses will always test rookie quarterbacks early and often in the season this year. We have a slew of rookie cornerback. You should see the field often like DeAndre Baker Rock. Yes in Greedy Williams Byron Murphy and Google almond almond almond. E-excuse me, Google a Monday who are just a few you'll see the field right out of the gate and September now, this list will grow as the season unfolds. Thus cornerbacks are a dime a dozen on the waiver wire during the season. So in review here, there's a few things. You should consider in preparing for an auction. understand your league scoring thoroughly knowing the requirements for weekly lineups create a budget but be flexible as changes will take take place during the auction seek the best player available, but secure your starting lineup without compromising your best player available approach use fantasy free agents.com to Grass player news and notes and free articles and podcasts refer to snap Counts from the previous season comprehend the annual Cinci of certain fantasy scores remember cornerbacks are a dime a dozen on the waiver wire and in season so buy them later in the auction and Target rookie cornerback slate in the auction when available again, I could sit here and go on for another hour talking about auction strategies. Unfortunately, I put many of the few listeners to sleep before we even got to Justin and strategies for drafts speaking of which let's turn it over to my friend Justin take it away, buddy. Thanks Thomas. I just Posted an article on the fantasy free agents.com site about draft strategy for IDP breaking down for leaks. So I'm going to go over most of that here. I'm going to talk about how I focus on your last week. We talked about rankings and tears and broke up most of the of the three designations it about, you know, five to seven tears. But what I've noticed is that when I'm drafting this season, I actually have larger tears. I only have about two or three tears because I've looked Into how how these rotating snap counts have we've lost a lot of 3 down linebackers over the last several years as defenses are starting to become more multiple a lot more dime packages. There's been a lot more shifting around of players or lot more idps getting on the field than there used to be which is created a little bit of shift in how fantasy points are being doled out and I'm going to write a full article on That probably next week so but I'll just skip to the punchline, which is that it's more important than ever to get a high-end defensive lineman. If you need it and is less important than ever to get a quality or a high-end defensive back because of how the scoring has changed. Basically once you get past the first 10 or 15 defensive backs, which are which tend to be random every almost every single season after that. You've got about 50 defensive backs who score Within 10 to 20 fantasy points per season of each other which is, you know, somewhere between 1 and 2 fantasy points per week. So but the higher-end DLS are starting to separate themselves even more so than in the last several years and it's something similar is actually happened that way in linebackers as well. So I'm going to be drafting my second tier linebackers probably a little bit quicker than in years past and I'm definitely going to be drafting. Some of these kind of elite dlls sooner rather than later. So I'm mentioning Elite deals. What I want to do right now is give you guys these These Tears that I'm actually using when I'm drafting and I'm going to I'm going to list off the players in these tears that I find myself focusing on now, I'm going to end up skipping some players that are in our rankings and in most people's rank is just because as I see these drafts unfold I find myself constantly gravitating toward these players in these tears, so Let's start with the defensive line. The first thing is going to be these as I just mentioned these kind of elite dlls. There's about seven players who have a chance to be League winners for you every year. We have a handful of players whether it be JJ Watt, it was air and Donald last season and obviously what was involved in that as well. We've had Jason pierre-paul be this player. We've had quite a few defensive lineman who just who can almost lap the field in their fantasy production. They just put together a ridiculous season and I want I want a crack at that type of player because if one of these Elite deals fall short of that of that sort of like League winning two to three fantasy points per game outpacing their fellow defensive lineman the Downs the the the worst-case scenario for these Health assumed is still going to be a solid dl1. So those Elite dlsr and nobody on this list should shock anybody who's listening to this? They are Aaron Donald J. A wop Joey Bosa miles Garrett. Danil Hunter Cameron, Jordan and Demarcus Lawrence in most of my drafts. I want to leave with one of those seven players if I need more than one defensive lineman, or I'm in a draft where where it didn't make sense for me to grab one of those for a handful of reasons, which we'll get into then there's another section of solid defensive lineman that I'm also completely happy with getting and I might get two of these instead of one Elite DL if I didn't get a chance to if I missed getting one of those Elite deals the solid defensive lineman for me this season our and this is going to be a mix of defensive tackles and defensive end. So think about that depending on whether you are in ADT required League or not. You've got DeForest Buckner colitis Campbell Frank Clark Trey flowers, Carlos Dunlap Derek Barnett Melvin, Ingram and Dominic ensue Chris Jones Hakeem Hicks, Nick Bosa and a A Vernon now if you decide to yourself, wait slow down after back up and write all those down every one of those names just as I mentioned are just as I listed them there in that article that I wrote for Fantasy free agents.com. So you can find you don't to try transcribe what I'm saying here, you can just grab that file, but I mentioned to you guys in this podcast. So every time I mention a solid DL or Elite DL you'll have an idea of the kind of players. I'm targeting for linebackers I've got Three separate settings because it Som some leagues require four and five linebacker. So I needed to have three different tiers for this the anchor line backers. The linebackers that I'm comfortable are will end up in the in the in the top ten most of the time again, assuming Health. These are players like Bobby Wagner Darius Leonard Luke Kuechly Dion Jones Tremaine Edmonds who we talked about last podcast who I think is going to make a little bit of a leap this year. Cory Littleton blatant Van Der Ash and CJ Mosley, especially since we just got the news that Avery Williamson is going to be out for the season that clears up even more room for CJ mostly on that Jets defense if I miss out on those guys or I need to pick up a second or third linebacker. Then my next here are what I call solid line backers. These linebackers aren't likely to finish in the top five either. They don't have enough big play Upside or they're not quite taking every snap or they play in a 3-4 defense where their their partner their other inside linebacker happens to be also productive and you're just going to have some swings that guys like Luke Kuechly and and Bobby Wagner don't have to deal with so these players are Blake Martinez broke Juan Smith miles Jack Levante David. Damario Davis. Devon Bush Anthony Hitchens. Jordan Hicks Todd Davis Jaylon Smith, Zach Cunningham and Kendricks and then on the back and I've got a handful of high up what I call High upside lb 3 S. These are players who we're expecting to be kind of in that lb3 is Shelby two-ish range, but from that list, there's a handful of these that I think have some pretty solid upside that could push them into the lb to and possibly LB One category if you things go their way, I don't want to take that risk for my lb1 or my lb to but I'm totally down to take it for an lb3 because I know No, if I miss on my lb3, I can pick someone up from the waiver wire that could that will likely produce at a solid level. So I want upside here. So these players for me our Kwon Alexander Devon white Jerome Baker. Jeon Brown Patrick wasu Alec Ogletree Fred Warner and Nick vigil again. All of these players could see an increase in the role this season or there's some question as to how exactly they're going to get. That they end up seeing the majority of the playing time they could quickly move up this list. And then from my last tier 4 linebackers. These are Elite pass rushers. These are your Khalil Mac Von Miller Bradley chub. TJ wat Chandler Jones, if you play in a fairly shallow League, these players are not super valuable just because if they have to compete with effect to compete with Luke Kuechly and what are they just will not put up. Up enough sacks and Tackle numbers to be, you know considered in the top 10 so often they will get bypassed but for my lb 3 + lb for even a tackle heavy leagues, I'm totally fine to take a shot at these high-end pass rushers and enjoy a couple of 2 or 3 stat games and with my other linebackers being steady tackle producers. I can weather the storm if they have a few Donuts in a row moving on to defensive. Max I have a very small list of quote-unquote elite defensive backs and the reality is more often than not I'm not drafting any of these players because of how I'm drafting the season but they do exist and they are Jamal Adams Buddha Baker Landon Collins. John Johnson the third who I think is my favorite of this group and Keanu Neal. If you need an elite defensive line a defensive back, if you're scoring heavily favors defensive backs, and you want you want that sort of game changer. Or League winner. I think these five players have the best chance at providing consistency. But also a ton of upside speaking of consistency. This next group is likely the group. I find myself drafting more and more and that is what I call Reliable defensive backs. Like they are their roles. Maybe not might not be as volatile and might not have quite the upside as a Jamal atoms or Buddha Baker, but I'm but are going to Actually produce similar fantasy value of round or two later in your draft these reliable DBS are Tyrann Mathieu Jordan poyer Harrison Smith Minka Fitzpatrick, Kevin byard, Shawn Williams and Justin Reed. Now if I need a third or a fourth defensive back I go for upside similar to what I'm going for with linebackers and similar what you would probably go for for your running back three in your wide receivers three and four upside dbe's for me this year. A lot of it has to do with their role and some of the other defensive backs around them. That would be Eddie Jackson Jonathan Abrams. Jabril Peppers Antoine Bethea TJ McDonald Rocky hacen damarious, Randall, Adrian Amos and Ronnie Harrison. I find that almost every draft I've done I'm drawing exclusively from this list and I'm pretty happy with my defensive lineup. So with those players and targets and tears in mind. Let's Down the four most common rosters if you play IDP. The first is a very shallow roster. This one is what I call one, two, three Flex positions. That means it's basically an offensive roster, but you're allowed one defensive player or maybe two or three and often it's not designated by a particular position. It's just a general IDP spot. So my DL strategy for this is I don't have one. I avoid drafting a DL in a league like this. It's tempting as it is to draft an errand on. Old or JJ Watt? They have such a hard time trying to maintain even the same fantasy value as a solid lb to they have to have just one of those amazing seasons and Aaron Donald did that last year and JJ Watt has certainly done that in the past but it really does take a lot of things to line up for that to happen. And for my money, I would rather just get similar production. I'd rather have a an average player put up the same amount of fantasy points as an elite DL and not have to worry. About the various that comes with that position. So I would rather somebody else take these Elite DLCs Superstar dlls and be comfortable drafting any of those linebackers in the middle tier So to that end, I'm looking at grabbing probably one of these solid linebackers. I might if I can if I can afford it. I might grab one of the top line backers, but every time I do a graph like this I end up with one of these solid linebackers and I'm perfectly happy with them. M so linebackers, I'm just focusing on those. You know, I find myself drafting people like, you know, Demaryius Davis or Blake Martinez or CJ Mosley because usually the Bobby Wagner's and the Luke Kuechly and stuff are gone. I'm drafting idps very very late in these leagues. I want to have four running backs four wide receivers at least what at least a quarterback and a tight end before I'm even thinking about Drafting idps and League like this and then as I talk so much about linebackers being valuable here and how important it is to avoid variance in a league like this all the more reason why you just want to avoid defensive backs at all costs. I know it would it would be great to get one of those great defensive backs who has some amazing season. But again just like with air and Donald and JJ why you don't need them in a league like this Cristian Kirk sees likely going to put up more fantasy value than 20 of the top twenty five defensive backs. So instead load up on your on your back up running backs and stuff moving on to the next level of IDP roster. These are uh, these are rosters that require you to hold a position of one defensive lineman one linebacker one defensive back. So which is a pretty common shallow league in this league. I am going to grab one of those Elite DLS. It is my priority when it comes to IDP to grab one of them. So I'm Be paying very close attention if you've got a queue and whatever software using I line up all of my Elite dlls these tears I'm talking about I will line all of them up right next to each other. So as I so I can watch them drop off that list. So after I see what and Donald and boasts ago, I see that I've got four players left if I want to grab one of those Elite DL, so I'm definitely going to try and grab one of those Elite dlls and I'm totally fine letting those top ones. Ago I find I'm drafting a lot of Cameron Jordan and danil Hunter and super happy with with those players as my 1 DL in this kind of league for linebacker again. I'm going for either the low-end anchor linebacker or the or the or the mid to high-end solid line backer. So I that leaves about 15 players to choose from so similar to the defensive line. I'm trying to draft my idps later. Later in these sorts of leagues. So I'm likely going to let the Luke Kuechly xindi on Jones's go and instead try to draft some high-ups upside offensive players. So that usually ends up with me having someone like a damario Davis or Levante David and I'm also fine if there's a run that goes on while I'm stacking up on offensive players. I'm fine if it's Patrick or wasu or CJ Mosley or even a Devon white that late in the draft. Laughs for defensive back. I'm taking my defensive back. It depends on either going to take my Kicker or my defensive back with my last pick and it's just going to be those last two rounds nowhere near before that. So I'm allowing the Landon Collins has the waivers to go instead. I'd rather pick up a Harrison Smith or even weight and get a Minka Fitzpatrick or a Shawn Williams or even adjusting read and get similar fantasy value in a draft like that. If that means I can pick up. This year's James Conner or a couple of years ago. You could have picked up some guy named David Johnson laid in the drafts as a high upside pick and you won your league because of it. So if you tried to draft Richard Jones and the guy behind you drafted David Johnson, we know how that season ended think of that as a cautionary tale and just wait as long as possible on that's on those defensive backs the next levels when we start dealing with about six to eight idps now we're talking about 2 to 3 DL Three to four linebackers two to three defensive backs in this case. I'm still drafting that Elite defensive lineman early. I think there's so much value in that player that we have yet to run across a league where I'm not focused on that and then after I grab that player I might wait a little while and get a defensive lineman in that 15 to 20 range. I find that I can wait a long time and pick up Derek Barnett or Carlos Dunlap. Those are those are Target's that I found pretty readily available. Liable for my DL 2 slot. So if I walk out of a draft with danil Hunter and Carlos Dunlap is my to dlls. I'm pleased as punch even know what that phrase means. I just know it's a phrase if I move on to linebacker strategy, I am going to want to get one of those anchor line backers if possible, but likely not one of the top ones so I'm looking at you know, like a I'm actually even fine just getting 2 solid line by line backers like a de Mayo Davis Eric. Drinks if I can get one of those low end anchor lbs. I will so we're talking about a quarry Littleton or Tremaine admins or a CJ Mosley while because I can get those usually a couple of rounds later than the key Cleese and the Leonard's and if I wait even longer, I'm actually fine getting somebody like Patrick Iguazu or Devon white as my second and or third lbs as well, but I want to try and get some some higher-end elby's out of my first and Second find up with a third linebacker in a league like this again. I might be shooting for one of those pass rushing linebackers if I can grab one defensive back strategy now that we've got two or three defensive backs. I'm still not drafting one of these until the last round remember what I talked about earlier with the the fantasy points. Whereas if you miss out on this top 10 or 15, you got about 50 players that are within one or two fantasy points per game. So if I've loaded up on if I ended up with JJ Watt and danil Hunters as my two defensive lineman and I've got CJ Mosley and Levante David and and Patrick kawasu was my three linebackers. I'm totally fine. Just grabbing any one of those 50 players as defensive backs in a leak like this because I think across the board. My team will be strong in the right spots. So those players for meme the likely going to be if I can get a Harrison Smith. I'm super happy with with that. I like him I end up getting a lot of shares of Harrison Smith. Also I can find I can get Shawn Williams a few rounds later than I should be same thing with Justin byard. But if my entire defensive back rotation ends up being a draenei most damarious Randall Rock yassen TJ McDonald jibril Peppers any of those upside DBS, I'm fine with it. That's where I will make my money is on those earlier positions. With defensive line and linebacker in a league like this and I will likely pick up half my defensive back team off the waiver wire after the first couple of weeks. So why waste draft spots on them now, let's get into a deeper League. This is a league. I kind of call these full or deep IDP leaves. This is ones that have basically 11 players. You have three or four dlls, maybe four or five linebackers three or four defensive backs and often in these leagues. You are going to have a defensive tackle. Tackle and a defensive end you're likely going to have a cornerback and a safety not just a general DP spot. I'm still focused on defensive line. Nothing has changed even these deep in the draft. I absolutely wanted to want one of those Elite dlls and are likely want to not not one but two defense solid dlls. I want to have a really strong defensive line because the top 15 defensive lineman seem to be able to separate themselves. As from the rest of the pack and I want as many of those as possible. If I get a solid deal a couple of solid deals or an elite DL in a solid deal. I'm fine if my third and or fourth line defensive lineman is a situational pass rusher if I've got a ton of consistency up front. Then I'm fine to take a situational pass rusher and ride the wave of their kind of big play experience is long as I've got enough tackles and big Play Elements out of the first couple of slots for linebackers. I am basically you want one out of each of these categories and to out of one which is I definitely want an anchor linebacker. I will get one of those Top Line backers if at all possible, I want to solid line backers and then I want one high upside lb3. I find myself in the for my third and or fourth linebackers ending up with Jerome Baker or jeon brown. I love both of those guys is upside this year, and I'm fine with my situational pass rushing, El Bebe. Like rookie rochon, Gary or possibly Whitley Whitney Whitney merciless or Lorenzo Alexander out of Buffalo. All these guys will I think provides solid lb 3 lb for production and when they blow up when rochon Gary has his first two or three sack game, I'll be there to pick it up and when he doesn't play much the next week, I think I'm okay with the top three linebackers carrying the bulk of that load finally for defensive backs. We I would probably a draft one. I'm going to try to grab one of those top 15 defensive backs before the last few rounds. So if it starts to move quickly and I start seeing the atoms and the Bakers and the Collins has come off the board quickly. I want someone out of that Elite and reliable crew. I likely will only need one out of them. So if I go if I only get Shawn Williams out of those first two categories or a Harrison Smith, I'm totally fine with that. I want also try to get like a Ronnie Harris or Adrian a most for my third and fourth defensive back. I'm just going to pick from a pool of just solid players might be a solid cornerback. Who's not a shutdown Corner could also just be a solid free safety like a, you know, a Jesse Bates or or two shot Gibson somebody like that who's not who's role this year probably won't be putting up a ton of fantasy points, but they are going to end up in that crew of 50 I'm talking about and I'm totally fine with them. So hopefully this helps you guys get a feel. I we tried Tom and I try to cover a whole bunch of ground in a very short amount of time because unlike a lot of offensive ones. Although they do have you know, PBR and Half Point PPR and 2qb League stuff like that. There's so much scoring variance and so much roster variance in IDP. So I'm hoping those bigger tears and and having an understanding of where I think you should be drafting them and reference or in relation to Other idps as well as offensive players like your backups and stuff will help you go in with a flexible enough plan, but have a have a plan in place when the time comes. All right. Hopefully that helps you guys with the drafts that are coming up Thomas and I are going to focus on anything that we see coming out of preseason week 3 that is the most important week for us in terms of trying to figure out some of these volatile roles some of these In battles and then we're also going to be looking at that cut line, which is coming up very soon. It gets August 31st, and then the claiming period on September 1st. So sometime around September 2nd, September 3rd will have a pretty clear idea of what's coming up during the week. But before right what's coming up for the regular season, but before them you guys should have a whole bunch of drafts coming up. We're hoping this episode helps with that and pretty soon. We're going to be transitioning to regular season Duty Thomas video. She wanted Before we sign off. No, I'm just glad that we got this one under, you know less than two hours. Again. That's that's a step in the right direction. We aren't putting our listeners to sleep. And for those of you we will see you shortly and until then be well and be safe you guys next time.
Justin Varnes (@downwithIDP) and Tom Simons addresses IDP drafts from all angles - auctions, league sizes, scoring variance + Justin Varnes' favorite targets by Tier! A special congratulations to our own Joe Dolan for finishing #1 in Draft Accuracy for the 2018 season among 140+ sites and experts! This was Joe’s second #1 overall and third top-3 finish in the last 5 years, making his rankings THE most accurate preseason fantasy football draft rankings on average since 2015. Check out the complete list at fantasypros.com/nfl/accuracy/multi-year-draft.php. Joe’s draft was held on 8/20, but there’s still time to beat Tom! To draft against Tom, join the Rotowire Online Championship and select the online draft date and time of 8/27 at 9:30 PM Eastern. Play for the $200,000 grand prize! 