Fantasy Index

Andy Richardson

December 08, 2015

Defense ReDrafter

We don't do ReDrafters the last few weeks of the year, since they don't have much meaning with so few games left. Everyone cares about different weeks, and players who have great matchups in Week 15 might have lousy matchups in Week 16 or 14. But I decided to throw together a defensive ReDrafter anyway.

What I did is kind of simple, but hopefully helpful. I looked at the matchups for each defense for the next three weeks, Weeks 14-16. Any team with a favorable matchup (e.g., facing Matt Schaub or Cleveland) got a plus. A team with an unfavorable matchup (Patriots or Giants, say) got a minus. Any team that got 3 plusses is higher in the rankings, 3 negatives lower.

Obviously there's some gray area here as far as what's a favorable or unfavorable matchup, Scoring systems vary. In general I considered opponents that take a lot of sacks, turn it over a lot, or don't score very often to be favorable, while teams that take relatively few sacks, don't turn it over often, or score a lot of points to be unfavorable.

Then I broke ties based on my determinations of which defenses were better and which teams had even more favorable matchups. Kansas City, as a for instance, faces San Diego, Baltimore and Cleveland the next three weeks. Favorable! Seattle also has three favorable matchups. The Cowboys play the Packers, Jets and Bills, and got a zero. I considered home and away, as well.

This doesn't mean that I think the Giants have a better fantasy defense than Denver. But there are two weeks in the next three where I'd want to use New York, and none where I'd really want to use Denver.

Here's how the rankings shook out.

DEFENSE REDRAFTER, WEEKS 14-16
Defense141516GrGrGrTotal
Kansas CitySDBaltCle+++3
SeattleBaltCleSL+++3
New EnglandHouTennNYJ+++3
DetroitSLNOSF+++3
CarolinaAtlNYGAtl+-+2
ArizonaMinnPhilGB++-2
NY JetsTennDallNE++-2
BuffaloPhilWashDall+-+2
WashingtonChiBuffPhil-++2
IndianapolisJaxHouMia-++2
JacksonvilleIndAtlNO-++2
OaklandDenGBSD+-+2
PittsburghCinDenBalt-++2
TennesseeNYJNEHou+-+2
San FranciscoCleCinDet+-+2
NY GiantsMiaCarMinn+-+2
ChicagoWashMinnTB++-2
St LouisDetTBSea+--1
Green BayDallOakAri+--1
PhiladelphiaBuffAriWash--+1
AtlantaCarJaxCar-+-1
BaltimoreSeaKCPitt+--1
CincinnatiPittSFDen-+-1
ClevelandSFSeaKC+--1
HoustonNEIndTenn--+1
MiamiNYGSDInd-+-1
San DiegoKCMiaOak-+-1
Tampa BayNOSLChi-+-1
New OrleansTBDetJax--+1
DenverOakPittCin---0
DallasGBNYJBuff---0
MinnesotaAriChiNYG---0

--Andy Richardson

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