2008 Off-Season Free Fantasy Football Advice

Never Too Early: 2008 Off Season Advice for IDP Rankings-- By Robert the IDP Guru

ALAS! All good things must come to an end, and once again it appears we are relegated to shoveling snow, going to work, and spending the next 6 months sucking up to our wives as football season is officially over, fantasy football news is scarce, and we have absolutely nothing to do.

"WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY"????

For the casual fan this past season may be over, and thoughts of the 2008 fantasy football projections for the next season is far from being more than a daydream, but to me and others of my ilk, last season ended yesterday, the new season begins TODAY!

Right now you're saying to yourself, “Bartender, I'll have what he is drinking”. Well, let me pour you a glass.

Over the next several months here at FantasyFootballStarters.com I’ll be writing a series of articles on what can help you in the off season prepare for next season. Many ideas can be employed on both sides of the ball, but what I'm mostly here to talk to you about is my so called area of expertise which I pride myself on which is IDP, or Individual Defensive Players.

First off, let me start out by "Pimping" the IDP Leagues, if you play in one, you know how challenging it can be, if not, then let me give you a quick idea of what you're missing.

Let’s say you're in a 10 team league, and after picking numbers out of a hat, you draw the 10th spot, well it's a long way from LaDainian Tomlinson down to you, and chances are in a standard league where you only draft team defenses, you are really waiting on next year or hoping for a significant injury to make the playoffs, but in an IDP league, the knowledge you possess could be enough to offset the advantage your fellow player had because he was lucky enough to pick the number 1 out of a hat. IDP leagues allow you to draft Individual Defensive Players the same as skill position players and you get points for Tackles, assists, sacks, interceptions, touchdowns, forced fumble, fumble recoveries, passes defended... Do you see what you're missing out on?

Now the first thing I like to do at the end of each season is take a look at my original fantasy football draft, see the players I dropped, and who I picked up in their place. Next I evaluate the reasons why I dropped that player: was he hurt? Was he subject to a change in coaching and philosophies? Or was he just past his prime and I was just hoping he could go one more year?

Next I do the same thing with every other team in my league, I evaluate what he may have saw and ask myself did he have a legitimate reason to drop him? Or was this fellow owner as dumb as a football bat and that player ended up in someone else’s or even my lineup? Here a fantasy football tip for you: it’s good strategy to keep in contact with these owners during the off season as you may get an idea of what he might be willing to trade for come next season.

Once I get a clear picture of players cut and picked up, how they performed, I make a list of the players I consider who have real value. Sure, you can use this fantasy football strategy for offensive players as well, but even your average owner will be able to target those players as well and in many cases make a reach for them to early. For example, were you the one that picked Lawrence Maroney in the first round this year after being assured that he was going to be okay coming into training camp even though you knew his shoulder was still not 100%? Yet you listened to a so called expert who promised he was okay? Well was he? To me it really didn't seem like it as the Pats used a running back by committee approach and to be quite honest, would have been just fine lining up with 4 or 5 wide each down.

Another thing to note is that there are a few magazines out there who give you the 10 top stars at each position (D-Line, Linebacker and D-Back), but they're usually star players you already know about and not the guys you're looking to cash in on by selecting later in your fantasy football draft.

I'll use my league as an example. We have a 30 round draft where we must take 3 QB, 4 RB, 5 WR, 3 TE, 2 K, 4 D-Line, 5 Linebackers, and 4 D-Backs, and we start 2 of each defensive position each week. You can imagine how much research I have to do to get the best players available each year on defense.

Okay, let’s talk IDP fantasy football sleepers and surprises. In 2006 the Vikings drafted Chad Greenway as their #1 pick. He was the top linebacker that year on many NFL teams’ boards, but soon after in training camp he went down with a season ending injury. Instead of forgetting about him, I wrote his name down to remind me to follow his progress during the off-season and pre-season and was lucky enough to grab him as my #4 linebacker. Then I was smart enough, because I had done my homework, to grab Patrick Willis as my #5 Linebacker (the 30th LB selected overall) five hours into our draft!!!

I still think Greenway only had a good year this year, but I can really see him as a stud next year, so I may have to go up to #3 to get him.

Speaking of injuries, Buffalo rookie LB Paul Posluszny went down early and many will forget about him because he did go down that early. Or they will forget about him because he plays on a below average team that does not get much media coverage. You can steal him as your LB #4 in your next fantasy football draft.

Another guy to really watch out for is the Panthers LB John Beason. He was not injured, he was just waiting for Dan Morgan to get hurt, which he obliged unfortunately to late in the season, but I truly feel that if Beason would have started the season, he would have rivaled Patrick Willis for defensive rookie of the year.

Always keep in mind when you are making notes on injured players just what kind of injury they had, research how long it take to recover, and remember that younger players heal faster than older guys. Take it from me, I’m an older guy.

Another thing to pay attention to is the age of the player. Is he just coming into his prime or has he passed it? Honestly, it depends on the position they play. In many cases a first year linebacker can make a huge splash in the league, and in some cases, even defensive backs, although I prefer to take a DB that has 3-5 years in the league under his belt. However, I really wait on D-Lineman, I usually don't see much in them until year 4, and they're generally good thru year 7 or even 8, some can go longer depending on if they had any major injuries.

So there you go. These are a few ideas to get you started on the upcoming season, and if you make it a slow and tedious process, and you play your cards right, you can get out of shoveling snow, apologizing to the wife, or even going to work! Well, 2 out of 3 anyway unless I can find a way to do this full time. Hey! There’s an idea! Where's that phone number at? Ahhh, here it is... okay it's ringing. “Hello, Jeff... Russ, it's me Robert, Hey I have another great idea- Hello? Hello? HMMM. Line went dead again, they sure do have a lot of snow storms in Arizona...”

Oh well. I’m looking forward to next month anyway. I'll delve more into IDP’s and how they can help make fantasy football drafts a success. We’ll look at some players to watch out for after the combines, along with how the coaching changes in the NFL at the end of this season will affect some IDP’s, and what this can mean for your favorite IDP stud!

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