New to IDP this year and in my draft I ended up with Asante Samuel and Atari Bigby as my two defensive backs. However there are a number of players who went unpicked and who I could swap my starters for before someone else picks them up. These include Nate Clements, Gibril Wilson, Sean Jones, Antoine Winfield, Roman Harper and Champ Bailey.

Should I replace Samuel and Bigby with any of those guys? From all those names mentioned which two should I go for? League scoring is 0.5 for a solo tackle, 4 points for an interception. Haven't really done IDP before so any help would be appreciated.

Sean Jones and Gibril Wilson are both top 5 DBs. I'm guessing this league is on Yahoo and was autopicked for most people? (Rankings on Yahoo are severely messed up).

You should absolutely grab those two IMMEDIATELY.

And this thread should be moved to the IDP Assistant Coach.

There's a subforum for these kind of "help" questions. I'm sure the thread will get moved there, but you should always be more specific when seeking advice. How big is the league and how many IDPs do you start at what positions? Stuff like that.

Fwiw, it looks like this league starts 5 or less IDPs or those guys wouldn't be available. I would go with Winfield and Gibril. All of the names you mentioned are probably better options than Asante and Atari, though their names have a nice ring together. The 8:1 pts ratio between tackles and picks makes Samuel interesting, but I find picks impossible to project and still favor the more consistent players believing the picks may or may not come. Others may differ. The good news is there' s excellent options available.

hmmm....that's a tough one because you guys are really big playcentric and my league is just the opposite -- tackle friendly.

I'm down on samuel, but I'm a pats fan, so I'm a little biased, although he could at least get some picks.
gibril is my guy, but he's not really a pick machine.
winfield would be great in my league, but not so much in yours.
bailey would be pretty damn tempting, if I was in your shoes.
I wouldn't be all that excited about the rest in your league.

what do you get for passes defended and sacks?

edit ps

another thing you might want to consider is just keeping a spot open to play match ups every week, preying upon qb's who throw a lot of picks.

1 point for pass defended and 4 for a sack.

14 in the league. Start 2 DL and 2 DB's.

PS: Sorry if I put this in the wrong forum.

to the Forum.

This is the toughest scoring system to handicap DBs. You're in a very heavy big play league (INTs worth 8x a solo tackle and PDs worth twice a solo tackle). Problem is, it's nearly impossible to reliably forecast INTs. Ordinarily, I'd still try to find a tackler or two, but that solo tackle value is so low that it's worth shooting for the moon.

I think I'd roster Clements and hope he has a big season. Even if he doesn't add 5-6 INT and 15-18 PD, you're probably not losing much in the tackle column. Then I'd decide just how much risk I'm comfortable with. If you want to minimize the risk, Sean Jones is a lock for a couple of INTs and a bunch of PDs to go with his tackle numbers. I like him narrowly over Wilson and Winfield. If you want to take on a bunch of risk, I'd keep Samuel. He's a ball hawk in a defensive scheme that forces turnover chances. I don't like Samuel's chances, but I don't think Bailey gets thrown at much this year.

If you go Clements/Jones, I'd take the set it and forget it approach. If you don't, it might be worth cycling one or both roster spots based on matchups. It may not work that often, but there are plenty of young and erratic QBs in the league. You might be able to isolate bad QB on the road, ball hawk CB matchups pretty well with a deep waiver wire and shaky competition.

And no worries on posting in the wrong forum.

well, at 4/sack I'd probably warm back up to harper, and you might want to keep an eye out for adrian wilson, if he's sitting around.

jene --- would you expect anything in the way of sacks from gibril this year?
I think I'd grab him up if you have room --- at least bump bigby for him.

I would definitely look and see if Adrian Wilson is available. Considering the others that were, he might be too. Otherwise, I'd go with what Jene suggested.