I recently joined a new dynasty league. What’s new for me is that this is an IDP league. For those that are unfamiliar, that means it’s a league with Individual Defensive Players. Most fantasy football leagues are mostly made up of individual offensive players like QBs, RBs, WRs, and TEs. Team defences tend to be the main way defence is involved in fantasy. The IDP format is not for the faint of heart as defensive players aren’t as popular so casual NFL fans won’t know much about them. I will be starting a series sharing what I have learned as someone who is new to IDP.

Of course, as someone who is new to IDP, please don’t take my tips too seriously as I am definitely not an expert in this format. In this article, I will start by sharing what strategies I am using in the startup draft.

Check the Settings

There are two things that determine how important IDPs are: roster size and scoring. You can think of comparing a standard league where you only start one WR to a PPR league where you must start 4 WRs. In the former, WRs would fall down the draft board while the opposite would occur with the latter. Similarly, if you are only starting two IDPs and they only put up like 7 points per week, they don’t hold much value. But if you are starting 11 and they put up around 15 points per week, they rise up draft boards quickly.

Scoring is tricky for IDPs. While there is somewhat of a consensus for offensive scoring, defensive scoring is much more diverse. A standard called IDP123 is becoming more common and it’s becoming popular because it helps defensive players put up similar numbers of offensive players.

Rounds

You’ll rarely ever see an IDP get taken off the board in the first round. The reason is that it’s a deep position. On an NFL field, you will often have 11 IDPs playing. However, you will often only have 4-6 fantasy IOPs playing. Because of that scarcity, managers usually take individual offensive players first.

If the league settings don’t put much importance on IDPs, I would focus on getting your offensive starting lineup and maybe even a few bench players nailed down before looking at IDPs. However, things are different in more balanced formats.

In leagues where IDPs are treated more like IOPs, the first IDPs often go off around the 5th-7th rounds. The core of your team should already be established by then and the top defensive studs can be considered then. However, this is only for the top guys like Roquan Smith. I’d say you should fill most of your offensive starters before targeting the rest of the IDPs.

Wrap-Up

I will continue this series but hopefully this gives you a starting point for those of you who are new to IDP.

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