IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 1 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

Welcome back to our fantasy football  IDP Start 'Em, Sit 'Em picks for Week 1 of the 2025 season! As was made clear in our Week 1 IDP fantasy football rankings column earlier this week, putting too much weight into early season matchups can lead to disaster in fantasy football. Certainly, there are many trends, […]

Week 1 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2025) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

Every year, like clockwork, fantasy fans and analysts cling to the notion that team performances and trends translate from year to year. It is this notion that helps some NFL owners or general managers cling to a roster just past its prime, or drives fantasy managers to assume certain players or teams have an easy […]

IDP Fantasy Football Breakout Candidates or Avoids: 6 Defensive Players to Target or Fade (2025)

One of the biggest knocks on IDP fantasy football is that it lacks uniformity. Every league has its own unique quirks, with some starting two linebackers and others starting five. Some treat a sack like a Black Friday flat screen, while others can barely be bothered to acknowledge the play. The result is a landscape […]

IDP Fantasy Football Breakouts, Sleepers, and Busts (2025)

We are so close to real football that you can smell it. That means peak fantasy draft time is upon us. Data shows that a vast number of fantasy leagues wait to select their teams until the final two weeks before kickoff. That means the next two weeks will be busy, and those in IDP […]

IDP Rankings for 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts (Individual Defensive Players) - Travis Hunter, Micah Parsons, Jessie Bates, Zaire Franklin, Jared Verse

It officially feels like fantasy football season, and at RotoBaller, we cover all formats. Today, we will review our NFL team's updated 2025 fantasy football IDP rankings (top 150) for IDP formats. For anyone unfamiliar with fantasy football IDP leagues, this type of league format requires you to start individual defensive players (IDP) such as […]

Fantasy Football Mock Draft: One-Man IDP Mock with Individual Defensive Players (2025)

While many spend their entire spring and summer preparing for the NFL Draft and their dynasty rookie or startup drafts, August is firmly redraft territory. This is the season where veteran values match those of youthful sprites, if the older players don't exceed them. It's also the time for us to get together with friends […]

2025 Fantasy Football IDP Rookie Rankings (Post-NFL Draft) - Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, and more

Are you not entertained? The NFL Draft went just as expected. Okay, that may not be entirely true, but it was entertaining. Young men found themselves in new homes, and fantasy managers finally finalized their rankings based on landing spots and future opportunities. We look at those opportunities closely ahead of fantasy football drafts. Which […]

2025 Fantasy Football IDP Rookie Rankings (Pre-NFL Draft) - Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, and More

IDP fantasy football is a niche that grows every year, a genuinely untapped fantasy market. As the top IDP prospects finish off their final visits and begin making their way to Green Bay and the NFL Draft, I attempt to decipher the noise around social media, what we are hearing, and how I view prospects […]

2025 Fantasy Football IDP Sleepers: Five Draft Targets

It's notably difficult to identify sleepers in fantasy football IDP leagues. The skill of the players in question is very important, but situation also plays a large factor, as does a recent history of injuries. Rather than bucketing them into groups, it's better to analyze each one individually, look at where they are in terms […]

Fantasy Football IDP League Sleepers and Draft Targets: Early 2025 IDP Rankings

As any manager in an IDP league can tell you, adding defensive players to a fantasy draft changes the math. IDP formats not only require wider knowledge of league-wide rosters, it asks managers to create value systems like the real NFL Draft.  Managers having wildly different value systems are often part of the fun. Is […]

2025 Fantasy Football IDP Rookie Rankings (Pre-NFL Draft) -Abdul Carter, Jalon Walker, Mykel Williams, and more

We are only a few days removed from the Super Bowl, but rookie drafts are already underway, and the fantasy football landscape is, once again, being reshaped. As we get closer to the NFL Draft in Green Bay, understand that the market will change several times. It'll change after the combine, during free agency, and […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 17 (2024)

In Week 16, Kenny Moore made two interceptions, Taron Johnson and Marlon Humphrey both had a pick-six, and Joseph Ossai, one of my waiver-wire picks, was one of four Bengals to make a sack against the Cleveland Browns. In Week 17, I have more players who are sure to sack Browns QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson on […]

Week 17 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

This past weekend, we saw a rare vulnerability from an NFL player. On a deep pass, Tank Dell brought in a touchdown in the back of the endzone. As he went down, a teammate fresh off the practice squad collided with Dell's knee. The impact was instantaneous. Without dropping the pass, Dell went down and […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 17 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

Player health must be a priority. The fact that the NFL and fans understand this is a good thing. We have seen the NFL’s violent nature ruin too many lives already. As a result, the league should do everything it can to avoid what happened to players like Junior Seau. With that said, how the […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 16 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

For many, there is no truer proof of character than our reaction to a fantasy playoff loss. Some react to the premature end of their season with class, offering congratulations to the victor. Some scream, curse, and complain. Then there are those of us who take the high road until a catastrophe like Week 15 […]

Week 16 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

The 2024 fantasy playoffs got off to an auspicious start with the Rams vs. 49ers contest. While anyone who has played fantasy for some time has undoubtedly suffered disappointment in the playoffs, this game was the precursor to a truly painful week for many. Unfortunately, it was a dud that few saw coming. Both the […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 16 (2024)

If you faced Josh Allen (362 yards, four totals touchdowns) or Jared Goff (494 yards, five touchdowns) this week, or worse, both, then you might not be interested in reading this column, as you probably don’t have anything to play for in Week 16. That is unless you started Derek Stingley (two interceptions), T.J. Watt […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 15 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

In our IDP rankings article this week, we reminisced about old rotisserie fantasy football leagues. We discussed how fair and balanced those extinct leagues are, truly rewarding the best teams over a given season. You might wonder what brings that up. Perhaps it is the bitter pill that some of us feel when we lead […]

Week 15 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

As the fantasy playoffs start in full, now is a time to educate those too young to remember a scoring system called “rotisserie." It's a system still used in fantasy baseball and basketball, but some may not know it was once applied to fantasy football. Today, it appears to be a relic largely used in […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 15 (2024)

There’ll be scary ghost stories haunting Chiefs opponents. And Jameis Winston making angels out in the snow. And tales of the glories of fantasy playoffs long, long ago. It’s the most wonderful time of the year -- no more byes. There are four weeks to decide NFL playoff berths and fantasy championships. To help you […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 14 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

As we witness the "Super Bowl Hangover" claim another victim in the San Francisco 49ers, an interesting myth is circulating in the media. This myth centers on the idea that San Francisco is not to blame for this problem, that fantasy managers could not have planned for it, and that San Fran's misfortune is a […]

Week 14 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

As we have hinted at in several articles this year, the 2024 season seems to be the hardest proof yet that the NFL doesn't care much about fair and balanced scheduling or its fantasy fans. While millions of people watch the NFL primarily for fantasy purposes, the schedule is often bad for us. Worse, it […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 14 (2024)

In Week 13, we saw a revenge game for Seattle’s Leonard Williams against the New York Jets; Chargers rookie Tarheeb Still humiliating an old man in Atlanta, as he accounted for two of Kirk Cousins’ four interceptions; and T.J. Watt doing his part to help the Steelers defeat the Bengals, with two sacks and a […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 13 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

Thanksgiving is the most self-explanatory holiday in existence. Its very purpose is in the title. You are giving thanks, hence Thanksgiving. However, there is a small side effect that comes with the smorgasbord of Thursday football gifted to us on our nation’s day of gorging. This side effect has a sneaky impact on the NFL […]

Week 13 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

Every NFL season has what you might call a "turning point." By that, we mean there comes a time in the season when you don’t just see which teams are contenders, but which ones check out. Some teams are so lost that their players lose interest, infighting stirs, and the occasional front office will openly […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 13 (2024)

Are you one of the fantasy managers who plays in a league whose playoffs begin in Week 13 or Week 14? Did you complain to your manager that teams are on bye in Week 14? Don’t complain. Read this column instead. In Week 12, I had to suffer through sack leader Trey Hendrickson sitting on […]

IDP Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Week 12 - Streamers, Fades, Matchups for Defensive Players

Week 12 is one of the more significant bye weeks of the season, with Week 14 its primary rival in terms of volume and fantasy playoff impact. What arguably makes Week 14 worse than this week's bye is that some fantasy leagues still start their playoffs in Week 14, rendering key players unavailable when you […]

Week 12 IDP Rankings for Fantasy Football (2024) - Defense Positional Rankings for LB, DL, DB

Week 12 is an appropriate time for fantasy and NFL general managers to take stock. Is their team a real contender, a pretender, or are you comfortably in the basement? Those in the basement of dynasties may be looking to tank for better picks, while those in redraft leagues may still want to win enough […]

IDP Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 12 (2024)

Kwity Paye came up big in the Indianapolis Colts’ comeback win over the New York Jets in Week 11, making seven tackles, two sacks, and forcing a fumble. With their second straight loss, the Jets fell to 3-8, tied for last place in the AFC East and in position to draft a QB. Alas, there […]