The case against IDP leagues

1. One of the great things about fantasy football is that there are so many different ways to play it. Scoring systems and lineup configurations are as diverse as our great nation itself. But as much as I enjoy the variety, I'm not a big fan of IDP leagues, and here's why:

There are a number of different ways to handle scoring for individual defensive players, but in most IDP leagues, tackles are the primary unit of currency. In some ways that makes sense. All defensive players can be involved in tackles, and because there are far more tackles recorded than sacks or interceptions, it ensures a steady flow of defensive stats on which to base an IDP system. But rewarding tackles creates a glaring discrepancy between real football and fantasy football. In real football, cornerbacks, defensive linemen and outside linebackers are more important than safeties and inside linebackers. In fantasy football, the opposite is true: Inside linebackers and safeties are the most valuable individual defensive players in most IDP scoring systems because players at those positions tend to record the most tackles.

The emphasis should be on sacks, interceptions, tackles for loss and passes defensed rather than on tackles. A tackle after a 10-yard gain or a 31-yard gain is a statistical reward for defensive failure. But sacks, interceptions and other big defensive plays have furthered the goal of stopping an offense from scoring and getting the ball back to your team.

I haven't completely turned my back on IDP leagues, but I wouldn't play in one unless the commissioner had concocted a scoring system that addressed this discrepancy and placed appropriate emphasis on the most important defensive positions.

 

2. Arian Foster was my No. 1 running back and No. 1 overall pick before the now-infamous tweeting of his MRI. Now, I'm hedging. You have to, don't you? I now rate him No. 6 at running back behind the five surest bets at the position: Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Chris Johnson and Rashard Mendenhall. But if the hamstring turns out to be not that big of a deal, then yeah, Foster will be a steal as anything but a top-three pick.

 

3. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in a fantasy "experts" league that held its draft last week. The league is being sponsored by the good people at FantasyPros.com, who aggregate the predraft and weekly player rankings done by fantasy-football analysts. This league includes 12 experts, including several of the fantasy football writers at Yahoo! and a few of the analysts from Football Guys. Special thanks to Andy Behrens at Yahoo! for setting up the league and coordinating the draft.

How did it go? I was pleased with the results, but only time will tell. I picked No. 7 in a snake draft. I wasn't familiar with the format, which requires each team to start 11 of the players on a 16-man roster, but in studying the scoring system and lineup configuration, I decided that strength at the WR position is essential, since up to five of your 11 starters can be wide receivers, and there will be about 50 receivers in starting lineups in a given week. Here were my first seven picks:

Calvin Johnson

Aaron Rodgers

Reggie Wayne

Ryan Mathews

Kenny Britt

Marshawn Lynch

A.J. Green

As you can see, I hit the WR position early and often, leaving me with a sketchy set of RBs. But our rosters aren't frozen. We have a free-agent acquisition budget, and we're free to make trades. I suspect I'll be involved in some sort of WR-for-RB deal before long.

I'll try to provide occasional updates on how I'm doing in this league, and I'll note any interesting league developments. (Unless, of course, I'm doing terribly, in which case you'll never hear another word about it from me.)

 

4. In the aforementioned experts draft, I took Calvin Johnson seventh overall. Chris Johnson, still holding out at the time, went eighth. Chris Johnson ended his holdout the next day. Was I disappointed about missing an opportunity to draft him? Nah, not really. During the latter stages of his holdout, I rated him as the No. 6 running back. With the holdout over, I've bumped him up to No. 4, behind Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and Jamaal Charles. There's still much to like about CJ2K, but the Titans' offense isn't going to have any more balance than it had last season (Matt Hasselbeck is terrible), and it's a little unnerving that Johnson hasn't been engaging in any football contact.

 

5. So many people are geeked up about Falcons rookie Julio Jones, but it wouldn't surprise me if WR Harry Douglas ended up with more receptions than Jones this season. With Jones' value being overstated (at least in my opinion), Douglas is flying under the radar, but he's going to be an important cog in Atlanta's passing game.

 

6. The season-ending knee injury to Rashad Jennings really changes the narrative of the Jacksonville RB situation. Jennings was terrific last season, and had he been healthy for 2011, he might have been able to force a RB-by-committee situation with Maurice Jones-Drew. That would have made a lot of sense for the Jaguars, who could have lightened the load on MJD and his surgically repaired knee. Even if Jennings wouldn't have played as large of a role, his contribution still would have been significant.

Now, the song remains the same: MJD will be asked to carry the sort of heavy burden he has been carrying ever since Fred Taylor left Jacksonville. The question is whether he can handle it. The Jaguars brought Jones-Drew along slowly in training camp, and though MJD promises he'll be his old self, we have to at least acknowledge the possibility that he won't be. Behind MJD is Deji Karim, who's decent but isn't in Jennings' class as a backup. Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio has made noise about giving his fullbacks more carries, but don't expect much from Greg Jones and Co. As of this writing, the Jags hadn't brought in another RB of any significance.

In my final preseason draft board, Jones-Drew was my No. 10 running back. Had the Jennings injury occurred earlier, Jones would have been ranked two spots higher, jumping ahead of Matt Forté and LeSean McCoy. If MJD's knee is truly fit, he once again could end up being among the most valuable fantasy performers in the league. We can only wait to find out.

 

7. Speaking of season-ending injuries, TE Tony Moeaki's torn ACL in the final preseason game is a tough break for the Chiefs. Moeaki was an integral part of Kansas City's passing game. The Chiefs liked to line him up all over the place — in the slot, as an outside receiver, as an in-line tight end. The only other tight ends on the Chiefs' roster are Leonard Pope and Jake O'Connell. Pope is a blocking type. O'Connell is of dubious pedigree.

So, how will the 60 or so receptions that Moeaki would have had be redistributed? A few go to Dwayne Bowe, a few to Jamaal Charles, a few to Steve Breaston, possibly a handful to Jerheme Urban. Rookie Jonathan Baldwin isn't ready to help. (More on that later.) The biggest statistical beneficiary might be little Dexter McCluster, the hybrid RB-WR. McCluster's role was likely to increase this season anyway. Now, I think he's a draftable fantasy commodity, and it's possible he'll be startable at some point, at least in PPR leagues.

 

8. The preseason can be misleading, but Roy Williams looks like he's toast. It'll be a surprise if he has even 700 receiving yards for the Bears this season.

 

9. At first it seemed as if Stevie Johnson would be the only Bills receiver worth the attention of fantasy owners, but Marcus Easley is coming on fast. A 2010 fourth-round pick out of the University of Connecticut, Easley missed his rookie season with a knee injury, and when he hyperextended his knee early in training camp, it looked as if he'd be a nonfactor. But Easley has looked terrific since returning to action and is expected to open the season as Buffalo's No. 2 receiver. Interestingly, Easley was a college walk-on who started only 10 games at UConn before making the jump to the NFL. He has an impressive combination of size (6-2, 225 pounds) and speed, along with some sticky hands. He might not be rosterable yet in standard-sized fantasy leagues, but Easley is one to watch and could merit a waiver-wire claim before long.

 

10. If someone were to carve a Mount Rushmore of Rock, would it include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd? Or would the Beatles not be considered "rock" enough and be replaced by The Who?

 

11. Far be it from me to question the wisdom of Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, who has had more bouquets tossed his way than an unattached 40-year-old bridesmaid, but his decision to draft WR Jonathan Baldwin late in the first round is starting to look terrible. Baldwin brought some personal baggage with him when he came to the Chiefs from the University of Pittsburgh, and the character issue reared its head a couple of weeks ago, when Baldwin reportedly injured himself in a locker-room dust-up with RB Thomas Jones, depriving the rookie receiver of valuable practice time.

The Chiefs needed help along the offensive line, but Pioli went with a receiver in the first round even though the Chiefs already have a legit star receiver in Dwayne Bowe. It's not inconceivable that Baldwin will end up giving the Chiefs less in his rookie season than the team is going to get out of journeyman Jerheme Urban. For fantasy purposes, Baldwin is undraftable in redraft leagues, and his value is dubious even in dynasty leagues. We should give Pioli another year or two to see how the Baldwin pick pans out, but the early returns are discouraging to say the least.

 

12. There are people who think the Eagles have a top-10 defense thanks to the high-profile signing of free-agent CB Nnamdi Asomugha, but Philly's defense could end up being a bottom-10 unit. The Eagles' linebackers are terrible, and opponents are going to try to pound the ball down the Eagles' throats with the running game all season long. That could mean fewer sacks and interceptions than you're expecting if you own Philadelphia's team defense.

 

13. On a related note, I think the Rams are going to bump off the Eagles on Sunday.

 

14. Remember the outbreak of Tamme-mania after Dallas Clark was injured last season? Jacob Tamme didn't catch a pass in the Colts' first six games but then amassed 67 catches for 631 yards and four TDs over the last 10 games of the regular season. He had seven or more receptions in seven of those 10 games, so he was pure gold in PPR leagues. Now that Clark is healthy again to begin the season, Tamme's fantasy value is perceived to be back in the tank: His ADP is out of the top 30 at the TE position.

Hmmm. Isn't there at least a small chance that Tamme will have decent fantasy value as a No. 2 tight end for the Colts? And even if you don't buy that, we've seen that Tamme is good enough to be a top-10 tight end when Clark is out of the picture. In fantasy leagues with larger rosters, isn't Tamme worth taking as top-30 tight end just in case Clark gets hurt?

 

15. Cecil Shorts.

(No comment about him; I just enjoying saying the name.)

 

16. If you like to have the gang over to your place to watch NFL games on Sundays, you owe it to yourself to get a slow cooker if you don't already have one. I mean it: This is an essential household item for any man, even a man who doesn't cook. Picture your buddies coming over to watch games, and instead of offering them the usual array of pretzels and tortilla chips, you're serving up pulled-pork sliders with a choice of barbecue sauces. Your friends will treat you as a god, and everyone will feel fat and happy.

And really, it couldn't be easier to make an enormous batch of pulled pork. Buy a pork shoulder, coat it with salt and pepper, put it into the slow cooker and add two cups of chicken stock. Set the slow cooker to "low," and in 7-8 hours you'll be ready to eat like a king. Just trim off any large portions of fat (but do it after you cook, not before; that fat melts into the meat and adds flavor, my friend), then shred the meat with a fork and you're good to go. Buy some slider-sized buns and give your pals a choice of sauces — one sweet, one spicy, one mustard-based.

It couldn't be easier. You owe it to your buddies and yourself to try it.

 

17. John Kasay is employed again, kicking for the Saints in place of the injured Garrett Hartley, and all seems right with the world. Kasay's first year in the NFL was 1991, which was also my first year of participation in a conventional fantasy football league. Nice to have the old geezer back for at least one more go-round.

 

18. Just about every fantasy league has conducted its draft or auction. But two leagues I play in have not. These drafts will be held Sept. 9 and Sept. 10, after the Thursday-night Saints-Packers game has been played. Owners still will be permitted to start Packers and Saints players in Week One, and their stats from the opener are applied to Week One scores. So yes, you know in advance what sort of output you're getting from those players, and their performance in the opener often affects their draft value.

Weird, huh? People are flabbergasted when I tell them two of my drafts are held after the season opener. But really, it's not that strange. The retroactive scoring from the Thursday-night opener isn't ideal, but none of the players in either league complains about it. Both leagues have been doing it this way for a while, and everyone has come to accept it.

We do it out of necessity. Before the NFL started staging a Thursday-night season opener, these leagues had always drafted on opening weekend. When the Thursday-night openers began, we had a dilemma. The guys in these leagues are scattered throughout the Midwest, and some drive a long way to get there, so a weekday draft was out of the question. Owners didn't want to draft on Labor Day weekend because of family obligations, and a lot of people were reluctant to draft earlier because so many player situations are still unsettled two weeks or more before the season opener. This was the best solution for us, and I know of a couple other leagues that handle it the same way (though one league doesn't allow you to use players from the Thursday-night game in Week One). I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a late draft to the members of any league who face unexpected scheduling conflicts and have to alter their draft schedule.

 

19. By all accounts Chad Ochocinco did not have a very good training camp with the Patriots, and his preseason performance has been less than encouraging. Should Ocho owners worry? Nah, I don't think so. Better to boil this situation down to the basics: Ochocinco is still a good receiver (though no longer a great one), and he'll be playing in a highly effective passing offense, with Tom Brady as his quarterback. It's not out of the question that Ochocinco will flop, but it's very unlikely.

 

20. At this point, Abe Vigoda has better knees that Rams WR Danario Alexander. The odds of Alexander making it through the season healthy are worse than the odds of John Daly making it through a round of golf without a cigarette. Still, Alexander is too much of a big-play threat to be completely dismissed. He could turn out to be good enough for every-week fantasy use until the inevitable injury happens. And if he somehow manages to elude that injury and play a full 16-game season, he could turn out to be a top-20 receiver. Don't take Alexander lightly, and don't sleep on the capabilities of the Rams' passing attack under new offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

 

21. Green Bay over New England in Super Bowl XLVI. Book it.

Source: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/09/08/the-case-against-idp-leagues

Patrick Edwards Eugene Sims Aldrick Robinson Tory Collins Brandon McRae Jermelle Cudjo