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The Re-Draft Roundtables Series
The Footballguys staff looks at various strategies to help you in redraft leagues.
Participating in a redraft league is a process that starts with the draft and hopefully ends with a championship. The Footballguys staff has answered several questions about various strategies to help you achieve your championship dreams. From the beginning to the end and everything in between, we've got you covered to give you the tools and knowledge needed to dominate your redraft league.
What is your approach to kickers and defenses for leagues that require them? How do bye weeks factor into your strategy? Is there a key to unlocking which team's defense will be a pleasant surprise?
JASON WOOD
One of the issues with defenses is the fallacy of prior strength of schedule. Assuming you know which defenses will be atop the fantasy standings on draft day belies years of history to the contrary. We start having a good sense of in-season value after about six games have been played. So rather than being smart and trying to grab your favorite defense a round or two earlier than your league mates, the truly smart play is to have a few units in your pocket who are playing terrible teams in Week 1. I almost always draft a DST I think has a juicy Week 1 matchup and fully plan on swapping them for another DST in Week 2.
As for kickers, there is no justifiable reason in most leagues to draft a kicker before the final round. Way too many people talk themselves into thinking otherwise. It's absurd.
SAM WAGMAN
For kickers and defenses, more often than not, streaming is the correct way to go about the process. You’re mostly drafting them in the last two rounds of your league, so the draft spot could matter a bit. I throw out all past stats for defenses, as not many team defense stats are sticky year over year. I prefer kickers that play in a dome or are named Justin Tucker since those have been the most consistent options. When looking at defenses to draft, I tend to look at sacks as that is always a key metric in a defense’s fantasy success.
BEN CUMMINS
If drafting early in the summer, I don’t select a kicker or defense unless the league forces me to do so. Instead, I draft players with a path to extreme upside should something happen to a starter in front of them. Unfortunately, there will be many injuries in training camp, so it’s smart to get out in front of this if possible. Bye weeks don’t factor into my strategy at all. Keys to unlocking a surprise defense include evaluating the roster and the schedule, especially the early season schedule.
CRAIG LAKINS
I will almost always wait to take a kicker or defense until the last rounds. The elite defenses never seem to repeat during the following season, but pass rush is the most predictable common denominator for defensive fantasy points. A good pass rush will create turnovers and accumulate sacks. I do not factor in points allowed as this is often unpredictable. In my opinion, the optimal strategy is to pick a defense with favorable early-season matchups and then plan on streaming the best defense from the waiver wire for the rest of the year.
When selecting a kicker, it's best to look for a high-powered offense that will run lots of plays. You just need to consider how many times per game their team will reach their opponent's side of the field and set them up for a field goal or extra point.
ANDY HICKS
The kicker is simple. Just grab one with your last pick. Regarding defenses, most leagues have not adapted their scoring to account for the explosion in offensive scoring. While it is vital to ensure you grab a defense that is a weapon rather than an anchor to your roster, using a high pick is just too risky. Jason mentioned the idea of playing a round or two ahead of your league and streaming defenses, which is an approach I love. I would take it a step further and be three or four weeks at least ahead. It is known very early on in a season which offenses are going to struggle. Look for matchups as far as the eye will see if you have the roster space.
DAN HINDERY
I like to wait until the later rounds. These positions are tougher to predict, and there are always good options on the waiver wire during the season, so investing premium picks on either position does not make sense. The key factor for defensive fantasy scoring is having a top pass rush. Pressure generates sacks, interceptions, and fumbles. Thus, I try to focus on which defenses have the most pass-rushing upside.
GARY DAVENPORT
Unless the league requires me to draft a defense and kicker (or there are no preseason waiver runs), I won't bother with either position more often than not. Instead, load up on upside plays and lottery tickets at other positions. Then, once the preseason has come and gone and injuries have shaken up NFL depth charts, dump your two least valuable players to get a defense and a kicker. In the case of the former, target teams with good early season matchups—the Browns have a favorable September slate, and the Eagles, Colts, Commanders, and Titans all open the season against offenses that aren't exactly The Greatest Show on Turf. In the case of the latter, who cares? The difference between the No. 1 kicker and No. 12 kicker in a given season is usually only a couple of fantasy points per game.
RYAN WEISSE
I do not draft kickers and defense unless forced to by the league rules. Jason said it best: You should only care about Week 1. Plan to stream the position using the waiver wire, and you can build a top-5 kicker and defense yourself by playing the best matchups weekly.
CHAD PARSONS
For kickers, I wait until the final round or two as holding through a bye week with a kicker in-season is not happening on my roster. And with the annual (and weekly matchup) variance, I will not likely hold my drafted kicker for more than a few weeks. For defenses, I only look at Week 1 matchups to select a streaming candidate. Bye weeks are a non-factor at either position unless defenses score well, and most will be drafted out of the gate.
DAVE KLUGE
If drafting early in the offseason, I will not even draft a kicker or defense. I’d prefer to draft high-upside running backs with potential for more voluminous roles. The difference between a top-12 kicker and a top-24 kicker is hardly two points per week. Streaming kickers or picking up this year’s newest surprise is easy. Getting into a waiver wire bidding war over a backup running back who saw a major injury to his backfield partner will cost you. I’d rather spend my last picks on Chris Evans or Hassan Haskins, who are an injury away from a heavy workload. Before Week 1, I’ll trim the fat off my running back corps and pick up a kicker and defense.
ADAM HARSTAD
For defenses, I tend to assume most defensive performance is downstream of pass rush. A good pass rush results in more sacks and interceptions, the two categories that usually contribute the most to defensive scoring. But really, there's no secret to identifying breakouts. Invest very little in the position and be ready to pivot as new information comes in.
Regarding kickers, I write the weekly kicker streaming column where I recommend kickers who are on waivers in at least 50% of NFL.com fantasy leagues and track my results. You can see last year's summary here. The high-level takeaway: last year, only one kicker outperformed what you would have expected to get simply by grabbing one of the best two or three kickers off the street for free weekly. And that one kicker (Nick Folk) was undrafted in most leagues.
There's no reason to spend a premium draft pick at the position. If you have to draft a kicker, use your last pick on whoever has the best Week 1 matchup. If you don't have to draft a kicker, don't. Just grab someone off waivers right before the season kicks off.
CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS
The main factor to consider with defenses is the early-season schedule. A great defense can stick on a roster, but identifying the great one before the season is often difficult. The 2021 Dallas Cowboys are a prime example. Instead of looking for the defense that sticks, I traditionally look for the unit with the easiest first three weeks. The plan is to stream throughout the year, hoping to land a team that sticks on your roster. This approach eliminates the need to plan for bye weeks.
With kickers, I attack good offenses that I believe will score points. I also try to attack teams that lean on the conservative side with fourth-down decisions. A kicker like Dustin Hopkins for the Chargers looks great until you consider the rate at which they will go for it on fourth down when on the opponent's side of the field.
I don't take a season-long approach for both of these positions, which is why I will traditionally wait until the final couple of rounds to attack each of these positions.
JEFF BELL
Always use the last two picks unless a rare occasion presents itself where the league has not stepped in on elite producers very late in the draft. You can almost always grab an emerging kicker on a surprise offense or stream into bye weeks when inevitably someone will drop an elite producer you can add for the rest of the season. Streaming defenses have become more common, making it harder to grab good matchups. Still, it does present an opportunity for a breakout defense to shake free when mistaken as simply a weekly play. If streaming, try to look ahead on schedules that will give you an ok matchup before a favorable matchup and save a roster move.
JUSTIN HOWE
My list of kickers is almost agnostic to the kickers themselves. Rather, it's a blend of the highest-projecting offenses and the best kicking situations (domes, solid weather, etc.) More often than not, those factors are going to tell the tale. I'm not interested in a Texans, Jets, or Giants kicker, no matter how strong his recent personal history may be. They simply won't be in scoring position very often, and I'm not interested in praying that any particular kicker will go 35-for-37 this year. Kicking stats fluctuate wildly for most kickers; some go from the practice squad to the All-Pro team to weekly struggles to the unemployment line in the span of a year or two. And no, I won't take a single one until the second-to-last round.
As for team defenses... best of luck, my friend. Sacks, takeaways, and defensive touchdowns are among the least sticky and most frustrating stats to track from year to year. I'm playing the regression game and tracking defenses that were almost great last year.
Take the Browns, for example. Last year's Browns finished a good-not-great ninth in sacks but finished with the third-best win rate on pass rush snaps. That, coupled with their solid glut of defensive playmakers, likely points to more sacks, forced fumbles, errant throws, and even touchdowns. So, while many chase last year's results, I'm happy to target the Browns defense toward the draft's tail end.