When drafting a defense for fantasy football, our primary focus should be on how we can rack up fantasy points (sacks, turnovers, TDs), as opposed to just limiting the opponent’s scoring output. Accomplishing both is obviously great, but we already have a good sense of which teams are expected to score the most or least points in a given game by using Vegas team totals.
But how do we know which teams to target for sacks, interceptions, and fumble recoveries?
Sacks, interceptions, and a sack leading to a fumble can only occur when the opposing team drops back to pass, so the easiest way to estimate defensive success in fantasy scoring is to target defenses that will see plenty of dropbacks and have the means to benefit from those dropbacks. How exactly can we target these defenses? I like to use the following criteria…
- The opposing quarterback is vulnerable to sacks and turnovers.
- The defense I’m selecting is favored to win the game; the bigger the spread, the better.
- The defense has an advantage in Thorn’s DL/OL matchup for that game.
Following those three criteria will generally put us in a good spot to get fantasy production out of our defenses.
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