The day will come when we as a society realize just how awful it is playing fantasy football with defense/special teams (DST) in our lineups. Before I launch into my tirade against DST, let me be clear about something. If your league plays with DST, it is important that you use these units and the points you receive or lose from them to your advantage. It is not a good idea to ignore any position on your team that you have to start every week. That being said, it is completely random and stupid to play with DST.

Think about how you accumulate or lose points for your DST. It is largely dependent on how many points the other team scores. It is beyond stupid that DST is responsible for ALL points the other team scores, including a pick-six thrown by their own quarterback or a special teams touchdown allowed. Either way, your DST gets penalized for those points allowed.

Ridiculous.

I will admit that I am a fan of using individual defensive players (IDP) in fantasy football. Many people think that IDP leagues are too complicated or difficult to understand, but that is just not the case. Sure there are leagues that go way overboard and use as many as nine defensive players, but that is far from the norm. I would strongly suggest replacing DST with a three-IDP format in which each team starts one defensive lineman (DL), one linebacker (LB) and one defensive back (DB). This is very simple and much easier to keep track of than DST.

The fact is that just almost every fantasy player has the same strategy when it comes to DST. People tend to rotate DST week-by-week assuming they will be able to get a favorable matchup. The problem with this strategy is that so many of us do it that DSTs are either gobbled up at the start of the season or bid way up in price on the waiver wire. It is staggering how much of your FAAB budget you will have to waste chasing DSTs over the course of 14-16 weeks.

There are only a few recommended strategies when it comes to using DST in fantasy football. The first is to pick on the worst offenses in the league each week such as Jacksonville. This makes a lot of sense as the Jaguars averaged a disturbingly low 14.6 points and 2.6 turnovers per game in 2014. However, the problem with this strategy is that only one team can use the DST against the Jaguars. It comes down to either who owns multiple DSTs on their roster or who bids the highest on the Jaguars next opponent. The way to combat this is by preparing your DSTs two to three weeks in advance. This is difficult during the bye weeks but it still can be done. In fact, I do this myself every year and I find it far more rewarding. Let’s assume that after Week 1 every member of your league rushes to grab the DSTs who are playing the Jaguars, Raiders or Titans the following week. What you should be doing is bidding low on the DSTs that play those teams in week three. This sets a trend that you are always a week ahead of the rest of your league.

The most obvious strategy is to target the best defenses in the NFL, specifically the ones that create the most turnovers. In previous years there was always one person who drafted the 49ers DST in the ninth round. That move is obviously quite ridiculous, but I think the idea behind it was sound. Instead of drafting your DST in the last couple rounds like everyone else does, jump ahead and grab a DST that you really like three to four rounds before the end. This ensures you will get a solid DST that you will ideally be able to use every week, thus saving a lot of FAAB money.

Let me remind you not to underestimate the special teams aspect of a DST. We spend so much time thinking about how many points a defense will give up and what turnover opportunities exist that we pay almost no attention to how the special teams unit will fare. I like to grab a strong defense that has a potent kickoff and/or punt returner. A couple extra touchdowns during the course of the season could mean the difference between a playoff birth and early end to your season. When you are playing DST roulette, don’t forget to check the special teams matchups before making your bids as well.