2019 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: How to approach drafting in an IDP league

Every year when I recap this mock draft, I say the same thing. If you want to enhance your Fantasy experience in any way, include players on defense.

These are called IDP leagues for individual defensive players. We go to an extreme in this 12-team league with nine defensive starters (two defensive linemen, three linebackers, three defensive backs and one flex), along with eight offensive guys, but there are different variations of this format.

You can use just one player from each IDP spot (DL, LB and DB) or even just one defensive player overall. It's up to you. But it's a fun way to make your league more advanced.

It's also a good way to know more about the defensive players in the NFL. Some of you are savants and can name every linebacker on every NFL team, but most casual Fantasy managers aren't that into it. This can change that, and it's change for the better.

Remember, defensive players have feelings, too. They want to be involved in Fantasy Football also.

Now, the usual approach to most IDP drafts is to still focus on your offensive players first. In this league, the first defensive player drafted was Colts linebacker Darius Leonard in Round 7. It shouldn't surprise you that Gary Davenport, the IDP writer for Rotoworld, took the first defensive guy.

Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly was also drafted in Round 7, and then Houston defensive lineman J.J. Watt and Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald came next in Round 8. By Round 9, the top defensive players were flying off the board (Myles Garrett, Deion Jones, Leighton Vander Esch, Blake Martinez, Roquan Smith, Joey Bosa and Tremaine Edmunds).

As you can see, top-tier linebackers matter more in IDP leagues because of their ability to rack up tackles. Last season, Leonard, Kuechly, Edmunds and Vander Esch were four of the top eight players in this league.

I drafted Bosa, and I always like to get a top-end pass rusher in this format. I went back-to-back-to-back linebackers in Rounds 12-14 with Jacksonville's Myles Jack, Cleveland's Joe Schobert and Houston's Zach Cunningham, and I like the way my defensive roster came together.

My other defensive lineman is Cleveland's Olivier Vernon, and I have Cincinnati linebacker Preston Brown at flex. My defensive backs are Kansas City's Tyrann Mathieu, Baltimore's Earl Thomas and the Giants' Jabrill Peppers.

These guys should only enhance my main offensive players, which include Jameis Winston, Nick Chubb, Tevin Coleman, Austin Ekeler, Julio Jones, Stefon Diggs, Robert Woods, Dede Westbrook, Will Fuller and Jordan Reed. I'm confident in my team, but this is an excellent group of analysts in this draft to compete against.

Along with Davenport, we have David Gonos and Jake Ciely of the Athletic, Chris Harris of Harris Football, Bob Harris of Fantasy Football Diehards, Scott Fish of Fanball, Adam Pfeiffer of RotoCurve, Mike Tagliere of Fantasy Pros and our guys at CBS Sports, including Dave Richard, Heath Cummings and Adam Aizer.

I hope you'll enjoy this draft even if you don't play in IDP leagues. You can still gauge the offensive players and where they should be selected, and as you can see, we went deep with these rosters. And for those of you who do play in IDP leagues, this should be an excellent guide to help you prepare for Draft Day.

In this league, all touchdowns are worth six points, and we award one point for every 10 yards rushing and receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing. We also give one point for every reception. On defense, the scoring is three points for sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Pass defensed gets two points, tackles get one point and assisted tackles get 0.5 points.

Our draft order is as follows: