I think I’ve proceeded this year with a pretty healthy attitude compared to my burned-out looseness (I made the same point about four times upthread) in late August/early September, but I will say that I proceeded with my original intent of backfilling (our draft had already passed, so I invested very little other than a roundabout draft capital cost).
My conclusion up front: You can do this, but you might need upside in the end. Luck also factors in, and I’ve been a bit blessed thus far. My roster has nary any draft capital and the only investments are FAAB, roster spots (important and expensive), and a trade where I swapped a backer for a backer as part of a deal and threw in a 3rd to get the whole trade with the right TE, and if being honest, the right LB. But I wouldn't have done it without the TE, so call it 3/8ths or so of a third-round pick. So it’s roster spots, dollar bids, and a part of a seven-piece trade.
Money listed is FAAB. All money is league money—our outlays decrease gradually in reverse finishing order from $304 - $150 FAAB dollars, decreasing by 14 dollars each rank-ordered placement. Champs get $150. I had $164 plus I traded my fourth and fifth because I churn like a madman, and I'll chalk the fourth-round pick up to IDP because that seems to be where most of the money went.
My roster at LB is:
Starters: Devin White ($2 bid, Oct. 27, 2024, all year)/Tyrel Dodson ($1 on Sept. 6, 2025, rostered all year)/Barrett Carter ($1 July 8, 2025, rostered all year, think roster spots)
Bench: Mack Wilson (July 8th, rostered all year), Lavonte David ($37 in 2022), Shaun Dolac ($1 Week 7, beat in Week 6 $1 bid due to waiver order), Noah Sewell ($1 Weeks 3-5 rostered and $3 bid Week 10), Cody Simon ($1 pre-season and $3 Week 10), Danny Stutsman ($1 Week 5, he had gone 5.11 in our draft), Drake Thomas ($1 Week 5), Payton Wilson (just now in trade)
As you might be able to see, there are eleven of them. I have used two more roster spots than I wanted to use and three (or four, even) more than the ideal. We have fifty-one-man rosters and only forty overall protected keepers, so some of the older gentleman and a rookie or two might not be sticking. I think Lavonte might be finally ready to hang them up; if not, he has a spot on the roster most likely.
So you can see it, and see that the league seems inactive, but it isn’t (Gally, Don Quixote, Enderdog, and uazwildcats from FBG play in it). It's just most of our league won’t put a premium on it. I’ve reserved four spots for breakouts and risers and there are still guys on the wire I’d like. We do not have taxi squads, so the lack of draft capital and the roster size for a start-nine IDP league is actually reasonably tight and prohibitive to stashing, but I've done so anyway (I always churn madly and stash; it's my style).
But I really came over because I sat and listened to the IDP Show (it's pretty good usually and helps me stay with it) and I heard something that made me think of this conversation back in August. IDP scoring in our league is a bit light for the time and energy I've spent catching up with it, and it took me a while but I've noticed that the variance, even for the top guys, is crazy. And continues to be. So I'm listening to the show and these guys just, in an aside (and I thought I'd heard them saying it before) had this sort of almost-jaded (even though they love the game) downturn where they asked who among their DLs they could trust to just put out there. And they named like DL1-6 (more like DL1-12 upon re-listening) and then stopped and the more names they named, they were saying "no," to the rest, and the guy who was furthest to the left on the screen says (paraphrased), "I'll just backfill," and I smiled. I was nodding. So it took me a while to get, but there we have it.
I'll find the clip. Hold on. It cracked me up because I'd noticed them saying it before and I was just like, "Yeah. Every position, not just DLs." If you can't get POS1-8 in IDP, you might as well forget it. It's done. If you're in a league like mine, backfill and stream for the most part and invest like MAC. Especially DEs. Other than the top twelve, they're getting chipped and slowed and can't do anything about it and we don't measure them for pressures or collapsed pockets or anything like that. And the NFL is moving away from big edge-setters who tackle in the run game. They seem to be EDGEs or they're just eating space for the slot corner or box safety; not even for the linebackers anymore like an old 3-4. And QB Hits as a stat won't solve the issue (we have that in our league), and more points awarded can't stop the variance and merit issue, so then . . . welp. There ya go. Your on-the-rise DE13-24 gets chipped all game, and good night and better luck next season to your team because Joe Schmo, who is one of the best athletes in the world but is a mediocre NFL'er, well, he gets the sack over the guy you drafted in the first.
I'd like to see what they say about it. It just makes me kind of an IDP nihilist.
So let me try and find it, and I'll post it. Maybe I misheard or was excited and missed the point. Nope, I heard it. There's twelve-fifteen, nah, more like ten. I say like twelve. Keep it divisible. But after that, in their words, get "the guys you can get for free."
This was my conclusion. As these guys say, "I'd rather just churn, build up assets . . ."
That's what I do. They make the argument I was making in late Aug/early Sept. and that i have practiced for about three years now regarding LBs at about 18:30. LOL. And I never even considered DEs when my first 2.01 was Chase Young. Heh. But they're talking pretty much every position here.
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I disagree with them about WRs and think that, well, actually I think people should really do what they want, but that zero or anchor RB is the best if you're trying to win, unless you've got a potential RB1-4 but then injuries . . . nah, stick with WRs, guys, they're the only (reasonably) consistent value in FF.
