Defensive Team By Committee (DTBC)

Photo: USA Today Sports

There are a couple of common approaches to addressing the team defense position in fantasy drafts.

• Draft a top defense fairly early.
• Draft two defenses fairly late to stream your way to production that is on par with a top defense.

Well, there is another common approach. Draft a decent defense, drop it when it underproduces, pick up another one, drop it, and rinse and repeat all season long.

Let's avoid that third approach.

Going After a Top Defense

Simply put, you're in the wrong place for a top defense. But if that's how you roll, we have multiple avenues for you to take here.

• Use the Draft Dominator. With it, you'll be able to get fully customized rankings. You'll know exactly which top defense you should target.
  
  
• Go straight to our Defensive Team rankings. These are customizable, but the generic list will give you a general feel for highly rated defenses.

If you're having trouble deciding on a top defense or you want one with an easy schedule, take a moment to check out our SOS for defenses.

Now, let's find a DTBC.

Starting-Level Defenses

If we have a DTBC, we won't be taking an early defense. And that means we won't start the season with a single starting-level defense (here are the first 12 defenses off the board, listed with their projected fantasy points per game).

• Dallas Cowboys - 16.27
• Baltimore Ravens - 16.24
• Cleveland Browns - 16.09
• San Francisco 49ers - 16.19
• New York Jets - 16.07
• Buffalo Bills - 16.03
• Kansas City Chiefs - 15.72
• Pittsburgh Steelers - 15.92
• Chicago Bears - 15.5
• Houston Texans - 15.7
• Miami Dolphins - 15.82
• Cincinnati Bengals - 15.5

Matching the Bills

The goal of creating a DTBC is to compete against starting-level defenses. But if we just want to get into the top 12, we can just take the Cincinnati defense. Instead of just getting by, let's compete toward the top and be in the top half of a 12-team league. So, to get a top-6 defense, we need to beat the Bills and average over 16 fantasy points per game.

Without taking any of the 12 defenses listed above, let's find 16.03 PPG and beat the Bills.

Finding DTBCs

Finding the right committee will be based on three things:

• Bye-week compatibility - This seems obvious, but your two defenses can't have the same bye.
• Projected fantasy points scored - Defenses projected to score more fantasy points this season will generally rank higher in the list of possible committees.
• Strength of schedule - Defenses with easier opponents will generally rank higher in the list of possible committees.

So let's get to it.

Looking through the 165 possibilities, a whopping 128 of them are projected to beat the Bills. And 113 of them are projected to beat the Cowboys.

Yes, tons of quality options with a good deal of variety. Take a look.