For most of the season, it doesn’t
make sense to carry more than one defense, except if you’re going to stash an
elite defense on your bench to avoid dropping them on their bye.
Early in the season, having depth at
the skill positions is just more important than rostering a second defense, for
two reasons: it gives you depth at harder to replace positions in the event of
an injury, and it allows you to acquire bench talent to use as trade bait.
But, as we approach the fantasy
playoffs, having extra depth becomes less and less valuable. With fewer games
left, there’s a lower chance that one of your starters gets hurt. You can get
away with having just one or two solid backup(s) at each skill position,
whereas it might take having two or three solid backups at each skill position
in order to feel secure in the earlier stages of the season.
The trade deadline is also a major
turning point. Since you’ll no longer be able to use your bench depth as trade
assets once the deadline passes, it starts to make more sense to stash a second
defense than it does to acquire a 3rd or 4th RB or WR, or
a 2nd or 3rd QB or TE.
The fact that the pool of available
skill players dries up towards the end of the season only exacerbates the
point. At the beginning of the season, adding a second defense can mean having
to forgo adding an immediate impact player, but, by Week 10, there are very few
skill players left who can provide an immediate impact, which means that the
opportunity cost of adding a second defense is significantly less than what it
was earlier in the year.
Week 9 or 10 is the perfect time to
stash a second defense for the playoff run because it’s late enough in the
season that you won’t have to forgo adding an impact player, and there is
enough time left to stay ahead of the game.
You can be sure that other teams are
going to try and stash defenses too. If you wait until Week 13, or until the
fantasy playoffs begin, most of the defenses with the best playoff matchups
will have already been snatched up. Teams who feel secure about their playoff
chances aren’t likely to wait until just before the playoffs to stash a second
defense – they’re likely to do it a week or two before. So, in order to stay
ahead of them, you should be looking to stash a second defense three, four,
maybe even five weeks before the fantasy playoffs begin, if you’re able to.
The goal is to find a defense that has
a good matchup during the week(s) when your other defense has a bad one. Some of
the defenses with solid playoff matchups this year, who may be available in
your league, are:
(Matchups listed
Week 14, 15, 16)
Green Bay (WAS, CHI, @MIN)
Philadelphia (NYG, @WAS, DAL)
Houston (DEN, @TEN, @TAM)
Kansas City (@NE, DEN, @CHI)
New York Giants
(@PHI, MIA, @WAS)
New York Jets (MIA, @BAL, PIT)
An injury/benching to a starting QB
over the next few weeks could also push a few more available defenses into this
discussion as well. So keep an eye out if you’re unable to secure one of the
defenses listed above.
