Cole’s Fantasy Corner: Top Defenses from Last Year are Proof you don’t Draft Defenses Early
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Welcome to another edition of Cole’s Fantasy Corner. Hope your team is killing it as we are a little over the halfway point of the season. If you drafted Tom Brady or Cooper Kupp, you are loving life because both are exceeding expectations and chances are you didn’t have to reach for them. If you drafted Allen Robinson, all I can say is I sympathize with your pain.
We're at a turning point in the season where wins and losses are significantly more important and managing the bye weeks becomes a key factor for your team. One thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is your defense because chances are you didn’t draft one of the top ones. In this edition, I will tell you why this year’s top defenses are proof that drafting a defense before the last two rounds is a catastrophic mistake that can haunt you the rest of the season.
The pre-season projections had the Bucs, Rams, Football Team, Ravens, and 49er’s as the top five defenses. Seems like a good list considering how good they were last year (maybe so much not the 49er’s but that was because of injury). I guess the reason people want to draft defenses early is because they want to get the best at the position, which makes sense because that’s what we do for all the other position players. The problem is the defenses that are good one year can be worse the next year and the defenses that are bad one year can become good the next year.
Let’s look at this year’s leaders. The top five defenses in order are the Bills, Patriots, Colts, Cardinals, and Saints. The Bills and Colts aren’t surprising as they were both top five last year. The Cardinals were ranked 15th last year and the sixth ranked defense the Titans were ranked 24th last year. Both defenses for the most part went undrafted this year and now people are starting to use them weekly.
Meanwhile, the Bucs are ranked 12th, which isn’t horrible, but people drafted the Bucs defense early to be #1 not #12 ( and yes I realize they can still be the #1 defense). The Rams are ranked 17th, the Football team is ranked 23rd and the 49er’s are ranked 19th. Not good at all when you drafted them to get them before the final two rounds. The point here is that defenses are different from year to year. It’s almost never the same defense and some players get better and some get worse. Don’t reach for a defense when there are still plenty of position players still available. You could miss a player that goes off just because you thought you were getting a top defense.