Don't Get Defensive
By XFL Fantasy Doctor of FantasyRef.com
(7 February 2001) -- The two hardest predictions before week one were TE and defense. I won the "Race for the Ball" and choose to start on D.
A couple of things surprised me about the XFL debut. First, it seems every team is airing it out on offense. Except the Maniax and Enforcers, the other six were content passing on almost every play. Maybe it's the Arena League influence or the pressure to entertain the audiences, but the XFL teams decided to ignore the added bump-and-run rules and throw the ball anyway.
So,
how does this affect you? Notice how the vast majority of tackles
came from DB's and not LB's. That is a direct result of the
pass happy opening weekend. For an example, let's take a peek
at the Memphis-Birmingham game. Memphis ran the 33 times while
throwing just 19, with only 11 of those successful. On the other
hand, Birmingham ran 16 times and Weldon completed 24 of 42
attempts. Since Memphis focused on the run, the Bolt LB's were
busy. Three of their top five tacklers were LB's (Willis, Scott,
Foxx) and one more was a DL (Preston). For Memphis, which had
to defend the Bolts' pass heavy attack, their top four tacklers
were DB's (Williams, Marshall, Peoples, Sawyer). The top Memphis
LB (Hogans) chipped in just two solo tackles while assisting
on three others. Bottom line, the great linebackers (Willis,
Baisley, Merkerson, Hogans) will always get their share of tackles.
Beyond that, play
LB's on teams facing opponents who like to run, while starting
DB's against passing teams. While LaCoste and Sapp were shut
out by Birmingham's offense, expect them to be busy against
the Outlaws.
The other major surprise came from the Sandbox scoring system. For both NFL and XFL fantasy leagues, Sandbox gives one point for every SOLO tackle. However, Sandbox always seemed to award more solo tackles than the box score for that player would report. At least that's what happened in NFL leagues. For the XFL, Sandbox seems to be keeping the defensive scoring tight. Perhaps they use a different company to provide stats for the XFL league than they do for the NFL league, I don't know. What I do know is that XFL defensive players score way, way fewer fantasy points than their NFL counterparts. To you, the XFL fantasy owner, this means that you should 1) not count on your defense for too much help, and 2) rotate LB and DB depending on the opponent.
If you're looking for defensive players to scoop up, check out my XFL Depth Charts, which should hit the site about the same time as this article. There I have listed every team's best defensive players, in a general order of importance. Stick to players listed first or second (occasionally third) at each position and you'll be in good shape. Also, for Sandbox owners, click on Athlete Rankings under Game Tools on the left side of the site. Here you can sort players at each position based on how many fantasy points they've scored. It's a good, quick method to find diamonds in the defensive rough.
Ask the Doctor for a Roster Fix! Email him at xflfantasydr@fantasyref.com and read his articles each week at FantasyRef.com to find out who to start and who to sit!