2024 IDP Experts' Draft Review

Each year, I’m honored to be a part of an industry draft of IDP experts, hosted by the Huddle and USA Today. I’ll explain my approach, my pivots, and how I think I did. Hopefully, this will give you strategies to attack your upcoming IDP drafts.

Step 1: Review Scoring and League Settings

Do not underestimate this part of any draft. The scoring for IDP leagues vary wildly and there are advantages to be had if you use the scoring as a weapon.

For starters, the offensive scoring is standard PPR. No bonuses, no kickers, no team D. Now, onto the defensive scoring.

A few things jump out to me. First off, elite DLs/EDGEs can score BIG. But beyond that, this is a tackle-heavy league. CBs only have 1 pt for a PD to help out their inconsistent tackle production. So, I’m aiming for a ton of tackles, emphasizing elite DLs early.

Step 2: Deploy IDP Draft Plan

Armed with that knowledge, I’m going to use my 2024 IDP Draft Plan as my guide through this draft. I’ll need it here more than ever since this is a pool full of sharks. I’m combining the Draft Plan with what I’ve learned about the scoring settings and the fact that my competition won’t let much fall to me. I started with the 1.01. Let’s see how I did through the first 10 rounds.

From the Draft Plan, I want most of my starters on my roster before I start adding defenders. The exception is at the turn in Round 8, because I needed to get a piece of the Elite DL run that occurred. I’m high on Hutchinson this year. He’s one of my picks to move into the Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby tier. By the time I start actively pursuing IDPs, I’ve picked up 4 RBs, 3 WRs, the 1-of-1 TE, and Burrow at QB. I’m happy with that, as long as CMC doesn’t snap in half.

Round 6 was when the top IDPs started to fall. Roquan Smith, Foye Oluokun, Zaire Franklin, and T.J. Watt were the first four defensive players off the board. Round 7 featured the next run of top defenders, with Bobby Okereke, Ernest Jones, Alex Singleton, Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, Danielle Hunter, Micah Parsons, Azeez Al-Shaair, and Bobby Wagner being scooped up in that order. It was the end of this run that made me grab Hutchinson 10 spots after Wagner. I got two more rounds of offensive weapons (Zay Flowers and Tyjae Spears) during that IDP run and still got my Elite DL.

Let’s look at the next 10 rounds.

This is the IDP-heavy section of the draft for me. I’m still taking shots at upside players like Jameson Williams (WR3) and Josh Palmer (WR4), and I’m still solid at LB with three 3-down LBs in Wilson, Dodson, and Davis. Dodson is one of my favorite sleepers this year. I’m also taking advantage of Curl’s depressed value and Blackmon’s invisibility. Both of these safeties are preferable to so many hotter names getting drafted 5-6 rounds earlier. Look how long I waited at DB and still drew those two. I also love Karlaftis this year and I’m stoked to have him as my DL3.

At this stage, Most of my starters have been drafted:

QB: Joe Burrow

RB: Christian McCaffrey

RB: Javonte Williams

WR: Nico Collins

WR: D.J. Moore

WR: Zay Flowers

TE: Travis Kelce

DL: Aidan Hutchinson

DL: Derrick Brown

DL: George Karlaftis

LB: Logan Wilson

LB: Tyrel Dodson

LB: Demario Davis

DB: Kamren Curl

DB: Julian Blackmon

Now, let’s look at the last eight rounds:

This might be my favorite area of this draft. With so many DBs and DTs available, I was able to wait until Round 22 to pick up Jones and Wilson. Both are projected to be the box-leaning every-down safety on their teams and they are on my bench. And Madubuike is the next star at DT, in my eyes. To get him at the end of the draft as my DL4 was a pleasant surprise. As I pointed out in my Draft Plan, DTs are more abundant these days. I’d much rather have a DT as good as Madubuike than DEs Trey Hendrickson or Alex Highsmith (both drafted multiple rounds earlier). Dude had 13 sacks, and 56 tackles last season. I got him two rounds from the end. I also bought insurance for CMC and Kelce, my two potential league-winners.

My final roster looks like this:

Referencing my list of Elite/Anchor, Solid/Reliable, and Upside IDPs from the Draft Plan, I got 1 Elite DL, 2 Solid DLs, and 1 Upside DL. 3 Reliable DBs and an Upside DB. I only ended up with a single LB from my list, which was Upside LB Tyrel Dodson. This is where I ended up bending to feel strong in my other positions. It’s not what I set out to do, but something had to give, and by the 20th round, the LB cupboard was pretty bare. This might be my downfall, but with so many decent LBs, my hope is that my other positions will hit often enough that a crew of 7-9-tackle LBs will get the job done.

Final Thoughts

DT is deep this year. So is LB. I used that to my advantage to pick up several upside offensive weapons. Perhaps I waited a little long on LB. If I have a few LBs go down, I’ll be in trouble. My DLs and DBs are deep, but I’m weak at LB beyond my top 3. And with no stud to carry me there, I’ll need some injury luck. The flip side is if Williams, Palmer, or Spears blows up, I can endure having Bentley or McFadden start if my LBs get banged up.