What separates a good fantasy football player from a great one? While knowledge plays a role, the secret to winning your league’s fantasy championship usually lies in how you prepare and execute based on the state of your league, your understanding of current events, and how up to date you are with the NFL and its players. A great fantasy manager understands that only some things will go how they would like; nothing in our beautiful world is ever truly perfect or will pan out entirely as you’d like. Like the great Heavyweight Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Just because you felt you had a fantastic draft and got all the players you wanted does not mean you’re bringing home your league’s fantasy football championship. Nailing your draft is a great starting point, but the road to a fantasy championship is a long marathon, not a short sprint. This article will explain some suggestions and tactics regarding your IDP Redraft leagues that you can apply to prepare yourself better to compete in your IDP leagues.
Ten Tips for IDP Redraft Leagues
1. Know Your League’s Scoring Settings
Scoring is king; if you don’t understand your league’s scoring, you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. Not knowing your league’s scoring could lead you to undervalue certain players or position groups in your drafts and during evaluating whom to add off your league’s waiver wire.
For example, if your league values tackles more than sacks, you would be wiser to target players who tackle the ball carrier more often. If your league values sacks more than tackles, go for a tenacious pass-rusher in the first few rounds of your draft.
Tackle-Heavy scoring according to Gary Davenport is when the ratio of big plays to tackles is less than 3:1.
Look out for “bonuses” or extra points when players achieve specific stats on gameday. For example, I have seen scoring systems that give bonus points if an IDP achieves a certain number of tackles or multiple sack game bonuses. Knowing bonuses before drafting can help you target players who could have a higher shot at achieving those bonuses, giving your team an edge on game day.
Knowing your scoring settings allows you to capitalize fully on your league’s system. This helps you make smarter lineup decisions, target the right players on the waiver wire, and negotiate better trades. This strategic understanding can give you a significant edge throughout the season.
2. Know Your Leaguemates and Choose a Draft Strategy
Do your league mates draft their home team players earlier than they should? What websites do they get their rankings or data from? Who have they been talking about on their social media platforms? Does ADP matter to them? These questions and others should be considered before drafting and may be the key to figuring out your draft board as it unfolds. If this isn’t the league’s first year drafting, make sure you check out the prior year draft board to see what rounds defensive players were targeted.
Everyone has a plan in fantasy, even if they do not have a plan. Your draft strategy will only sometimes pan out entirely, but it’s an amazing feeling when it does. The best advice is to “Stay like water,” contort, and move with your draft’s flow, not against it.
Draft strategies that I have used before include:
Tent Pole- Much as you stand the more enormous poles to set the height of a tent and to ensure a stable base, you draft players from your top two tiers at every position group to better support your overall roster. As the draft progresses, you fill in the holes with smaller players, more minor in their average draft position, stats from prior seasons, or how well-known the player may be.
Bully Linebacker- Let’s say your league scoring heavily favors players who tackle; you would then target players who will tally up the most tackles. This is usually achieved by loading up on linebackers and players on the edge who are better at run defense than bringing down the quarterback; later in the draft, target box safeties and slot corners who receive more targets since they will have more opportunities to make tackles.
Sack heavy- If your league favors players who tally up sacks on game days, you target Edge players and linebackers who are utilized in pass rush earlier than the other positions.
3. Know Your Fantasy Platform and Its ADP
Every fantasy app or platform has its own set of ADP (Average Draft Position). Knowing your platform’s ADP can be critical in navigating whom to select in your drafts. One fantasy platform may have a player a round or two higher or lower than the others. Knowing your platform and its ADP can help you understand your leaguemate’s draft strategy. If you have people in your league who live or die by ADP, paying attention to ADP has its benefits, such as:
- Knowing where good players are ranked in your fantasy application
- Finding great players who are buried in the ADP list
- It helps you predict potential position runs during the draft
- You understand where each player’s market value is within the community that utilizes that application
- Risk management of players and how a player has risen or fallen in ADP over time
4. Wait on Drafting Rookies
Everyone wants to draft the next big thing in fantasy football. The new players, especially players drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, can be highly sought out come draft season. Regarding IDP formats, let’s wait on rookies and draft an established veteran over a rookie who has yet to play an NFL snap.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t target rookies altogether; however, you should be smart when drafting and tamper with your expectations when taking rookies in your draft. Here are some things to consider if you are targeting rookies on draft day:
- What do the rookies’ opportunities and team depth chart look like?
- What position does the rookie play? Are they a full-time linebacker or a role-playing EDGE?
- What is the assumed role of the rookie?
- What was that rookie’s draft capital?
- How many chances will the rookie have to make an impact and stay consistently on the field?
Oftentimes we see that the ADP for rookies is inflated due to dynasty rookie drafts, so someone that isn’t paying attention in a redraft league might inadvertently select a rookie earlier than expected.
5. Don’t Chase Last Year’s Stats
Every season, we see players who break out that no one saw coming, and those with high expectations for fantasy fail to meet those expectations. Outlier players may have a different production than their previous season(s). Here are some other reasons to be wary of chasing a player’s stats from the prior season:
- Schemes and schedules change; over 50% of the teams have a new Defensive Coordinator in 2024
- A player’s role in a defense could change
- Players who had an outlier season may get a bump in ADP the following season, meaning you’ll have to spend a higher draft pick, assuming the player will produce the same stats as the previous year.
- Regression is highly likely for some of the top performers
Instead of chasing last year’s stats, use them as a baseline when beginning your drafting evaluation process. Why did that player have a significant season/off-year? You can generate projections based on the above factors and decide where you value players instead of relying on a player’s stats from a previous season.
6. Identify Player Position Eligibility
What position(s) does a player have? Do they only play one position, or do they have dual eligibility? “Dual eligibility” means you can start a player on your roster in multiple positions. For instance, some outside linebackers or EDGE players are eligible as defensive linemen as well as linebackers on specific fantasy football applications. Knowing your fantasy application and its position settings is a “Major Key.” Having dual-eligible players gives your fantasy roster more flexibility, and having dual-eligible players on your bench gives you even more depth than a player with one position would.
It is also helpful to know if your league utilizes three or five defensive positions. Some leagues use Defensive Lineman, Linebacker and Defensive Back while others use Defensive Tackle, Defensive End, Linebacker, Safety and Cornerback.
7. Keep Track of Snap Counts and Defensive Schemes
Knowing how many players will be on the field for each team is critical when assembling an IDP roster. While a team like the Rams is known for primarily utilizing one singular linebacker most of the time, other teams like the Jets have two linebacker spots on their defense that could tally up points for IDP rosters. Which players are on the field the most? More time on the field usually means more opportunity to score fantasy points in positions like a linebacker and defensive back.
Players on the defensive line only sometimes need to be on the field constantly to produce points for your fantasy team. Some situational pass rushers can get points alone from sacks on a particular week.
8. Understand Positional Scarcity
In IDP fantasy football, some defensive positions have fewer top players, making those players more valuable. While linebackers usually have plenty of solid options, positions like defensive linemen and defensive backs offer fewer standouts. This scarcity makes the best players at these positions more desirable, pushing fantasy managers to prioritize them in drafts. Grabbing an elite defensive lineman early can give you a significant edge over your competition. Understanding which positions are scarce helps you make wiser draft picks and build a winning team.
9. Inform Yourself
Ensure you stay updated on all the latest NFL news and trends within the league. Knowing injuries or any changes could assist you in picking up players from your waiver wire that may not have been fantasy-relevant but now are due to an unforeseen circumstance. Injuries aren’t the only thing you need to monitor; things happen constantly, such as trade requests and contract disputes that lead to holdouts, among other things. Knowledge is power, so don’t sell yourself short; stay as current as possible on the latest news.
If your time is limited, make sure you check back with RPO Football for the latest news, rankings, waiver wire suggestions, injury updates, snap counts and start/sit advice.
10. Have Fun
Don’t forget to have fun and you might just end up winning an IDP championship along the way.
- Maybe do a little trash talking with your leaguemates.
- Consider drafting a player from your favorite NFL team or a player you think will have a breakout season.
- Perhaps try out prop betting on defensive players, including tackles, sacks and interceptions.
- Add a co-manager that has never tried IDP before.
Thank you for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @Caliking49er17
If you need a little extra IDP help, check out our 2024 IDP Rankings.