Managing D/STs in fantasy football leagues can be frustrating because of a variety of reasons. Out-of-nowhere sleepers always rise toward the top of the rankings, and seemingly sure-things bust at a high rate. Evalutating individual teams is important, but the Sporting News Fantasy experts spend more time during our defense preview podcast breaking down all the different draft strategies you can employ, as well as season-long strategy for how to handle this position.
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If you take anything from this podcast, it's that you shouldn't draft a D/ST too early, but that's easy to say now and more difficult to abide by when the names start flying off the draft board. We get you ready for whatever will come your way on draft day.
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Fantasy Football Podcast: Defense preview
Timestamps:
Draft strategy for D/ST (5:10): Don't waste opportunity cost and draft capital by picking a defense early. Play matchups. The other option is to get a defense that "makes you feel safe" so you can be lazy with the D/ST slot.
Matchups, matchups, matchups (10:00): Which teams qualify as "favorable matchups?" We take our best stab at idenfying the offenses to stream against (Hint: Go East, young man.)
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Top-tier defenses (16:00): There's an argument to be made that the Bears are in a tier by themselves, but we've included both L.A. teams, as well.
Second-tier D/STs (25:30): More than a third of the league fits into our second tier. Yeah, defense is a crapshoot. From the Patriots (against the weak AFC East) to the underrated Chiefs to the overrated Jaguars, there's so many ways for this position to go.
Early-season matchup plays (34:40): If you're playing matchups to begin the season, Dallas, Buffalo and Baltimore look good out of the gates.
Do-not-draft D/STs (36:30): Houston gains credence from the J.J. Watt name value but might not be up to snuff. The Jaguars simply are being overdrafted because it isn't 2017 anymore.
Sleepers (41:00): America's Team joins Darius Leonard's Colts as overlooked D/STs on draft day.
Bold predictions (52:00): The top defense won't finish as a top-five defense, but Buffalo will be in the top 10? What a world...