Defensive Strategies: Part 1

Defensive Strategies: Part 1

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When a player’s Defense goes off to the tune of a 20+ points in one game, the player who selected them is sometimes subjected to the scrutiny and accusations of being ‘lucky’. But is this actually the case? Selection of your Defense or Defense/Special Teams is an often overlooked and under-analyzed aspect of Daily Fantasy Sports. If I were to ask a lot of my friends that participate in Daily Fantasy Sports what the defensive scoring system is for their favorite site, they often couldn’t give me the correct answer. Many choose their defenses based on views of the matchup alone, which is not the best approach. There are many stats available for your immediate use that can give you an edge while selecting your Defensive picks.

The major Daily Fantasy Sites use a combination of: Points Allowed, Sacks, Defensive Touchdowns, Special Teams Touchdowns, Interceptions, Fumble Recoveries, and Safeties to produce their Defense/Special Team scoring. You should gain a good understanding of how each of these categories effect the defensive scoring when selecting your lineups, as well as which categories that site has contribute towards scoring. Today we’re going to discuss factors to consider when selecting your defense and a list of resources you can start using. In Part 2 we will do a side-by-side comparison of all Daily Fantasy Sites and their Defense/Special Teams Scoring, and run through some example selection processes. You can easily view a site’s scoring system at any time by visiting their Review Page on RotoGrinders and selecting the Scoring Tab.

Defensive Factors To Consider

I like to use the NFL website’s stat section to look at NFL Defense Stats when doing my weekly projections. It is easy to use and offers a variety of sorting options. If a site uses Special Teams scoring, you can also sort by NFL Kick Return TDs within their stat section. If you are not comfortable judging matchups on your own already, I highly recommend looking at a team’s past stats for some of the categories below before ranking your defensive plays for the week.

Matchup: Bucs vs. Lions
Over/Under: 40 Points
Spread: -7 Points Favoring the Bucs
Bucs (Proj.) 26.5
Lions (Proj.) 13.5
Over/Under (Sum) 40
Spread (Margin of Victory) Bucs by 7

Opponents Factors to Consider

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As alluded to earlier, there are other factors to consider beyond just your defenses statistics. Most important is the Defense’s matchup. The following list is what I look at to analyze how good I think a particular matchup will for a Defense on any given week:

Defensive in Nature

A defense should not automatically be the last choice you make, or the second to last choice behind your kicker. It is a good idea to come into the lineup selection process having picked multiple defenses per site you play, per week. That allows you some flexibility with structuring your offensive lineup, while still selecting a top defensive play. There are at least 11 men that contribute towards a fantasy Defense/Special Teams, which helps provide consistency as opposed to an offensive player which relies on fewer teammates to produce every week. However, expect a lot of variance in your projections due to the nature of the statistical categories; defensive plays and statistics simply happen less frequently throughout the season than the categories that go into an offensive player. It is not as easy to predict on one particular day, all of the variables that accumulate points for a fantasy defense as it is for say, a running back averaging 20 attempts per game. However, it is possible to accurately project a Defense/Special Team’s fantasy score over time, and it will give you an edge up on the competition.

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By: Cameron M.E-Mail

About the Author

Cameron
Cameron MacMillan (Cameron)

Cameron MacMillan is an entrepreneur and angel investor, who co-founded RotoGrinders in 2010, alongside Cal Spears and Riley Bryant. Cameron operated as the COO, creating & implementing a multitude of business & content systems for the company over the course of 11 years, before Better Collective completed its acquisition of RG in 2021. In 2022, Cameron stepped back into an Advisory Role.