By In the NFL, special teams is an immensely important phase of the game that is important to win over your opponent. Kicking, defending kicks, and field position, are important details to emphasize for an NFL team in order to come out with a victory. Defense is an even more important part of a football team. Keeping a team’s offense off the field and limiting their time of possession is massively imperative to any NFL team’s success. While defense and special teams might be integral to the success of an NFL team, it has no barring on your fantasy football capability and should not be a part of your leagues.
This is not coming from someone who was just recently burned by a kicker going off for 20+ points, or a late-game pick-six that sealed my fate. Kickers and defenses are simply unnecessary variables to add to your lineup and can have big impacts on your league.
If you are in a league that strategizes defenses and special teams and projects them for the whole season, this article is not for you. This article is meant for those who select a kicker and defense respectively with your final two picks.
Most of us indulge in fantasy football because we love the competitive nature, strategy, and bragging rights. The competitive nature comes from the head-to-head matchups and leaguewide rivalries and friendships that can develop.
If you strategize for kickers and defense, you are wasting your time. For one, they are entirely matchup-based, and do not demonstrate “skill” or fantasy “prowess”. If you were to replace a kicker and defense with two flex spots, or one flex and one Superflex spot, the importance of strategy in your league will double.
Strategizing, for an extra quarterback is a complete game-changer. Instead of taking a quarterback in the mid-rounds and not thinking about the position again, you pretty much need to select one in the first few rounds. The top QBs usually fly off the board within the first two rounds. By the time you have your third pick, the majority of teams will already have a QB, if not two. With that comes the availability of higher-profile players later in the draft. There is more opportunity to grab value a round or two later in the draft than you would if there were one QB.
Adding two flex spots to your lineup forces fantasy managers to strategize more intensely as well. Instead of just grasping for kickers and defenses that you will inevitably drop, create the possibility for a larger skill gap. Those two extra picks that you will need to plan for allows for a wider gap between the less and more fantasy-inept players.
Think about it, how many times have you lost a week just because of someone’s random kicker who decides to score 25 points? I am now speaking directly to those who had to face off against Daniel Carlson in week two, who won special teams player of the week after his perfect day kicking. Even if it’s just once, that’s one time too many. Make the switch. Open your eyes.
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