Team Defense Drafting Advice
When should I pick a Defense in my draft this year?
This question will vary from year to year depending on whether or not their are some dominant defensive teams that force a lot of turnovers or sacks. Some defenses also thrive when their team is up by 14 points in a game; the other team has to take chances and that's when the defense will pounce.
I would say that if you want one of the Top 4 defenses (Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos or Chicago Bears) you should try to draft the defense no earlier than the 14th round. If others want to pick these teams in the 10th through 12th rounds, let them and pick up some of the still viable RBs or WRs left.
After these first 3 teams, you probably are only talking about a total of 20 fantasy points difference for the season between the next 10 to 15 team defenses. You shouldn't waste a pick on any of these until the 14th to 15th round or so.
What I end up doing most often when I don't get a dominant defense is to look for a good matchup against a bad offense a week or two in advanced. I will often cycle between teams and keep one if they are consistently doing well.
I would also look for someone to drop one of the top 4 teams during the bye week. If they do, pick that team up off of waivers.
Previous Team Defense Advice
REMEMBER - TEAM DEFENSE INCLUDES SPECIAL TEAMS
There are two stages of thought when it comes to select a team defense for your fantasy football team:
Should you draft the previous year's best defense or not?
Generally, I would say NO. The few teams that score the highest in a given year will usually do so through defensive and special teams touchdowns. Don't count on any team to reliable score defensive/special team TDs.
Also, injuries can kill a defense throughout a year, so that defense you thought was untouchable can become average. This was the case with the Baltimore Ravens last year. Many people drafted the Ravens in one of the top 6 rounds last year and got burned.
The margin of points scored between the best defensive teams and the second level defenses isn't always that great. For that reason, I would suggest waiting until at least the 9th round before you draft a defense for your fantasy football team.