It is August, and that means it is draft month for fantasy football! Fantasy Alarm not only covers the offensive side of the ball, but the defensive side as well. Every year, there are more individual defensive player (IDP) leagues, and that means commissioners are incorporating new roster spots and learning new scoring. IDP scoring for fantasy football in 2025 is a hot topic with varying opinions on the correct number of positions and scoring methods.

This is the first of four fantasy football articles focused on IDP leagues. 2024 It includes how IDP fantasy football scoring systems work, statistical leaders, how to use stats to prepare for the 2025 fantasy football season, and the best scoring formats for IDP leagues. This should be a helpful guide, but remember that my individual defensive player rankings are available in the Fantasy Alarm 2025 fantasy football guide.

 

 

 

How IDP Fantasy Football Scoring Systems Work

Although it used to be rare, in 2025, almost every fantasy football platform has a standard setting for IDP points. However, individual defensive players' scoring varies from platform to platform, and the golden rule of fantasy football applies to IDP leagues. “Know your league's scoring and settings.” There are some basic truths to IDP scoring, and the foundation of the points is tackles.

Tackles are to individual defensive players what yards are to offensive players. They are the base of IDP scoring, and can lead to several points even if that is the only statistic a player earns. Other forms of IDP scoring are: sacks, interceptions, quarterback hits, tackles for loss, passes defended, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, blocked kicks, safeties, touchdowns, and turnover yards. Some of those are more common than others, and that leads us to our 2024 IDP stat review.

 

 

 

Key 2024 IDP Statistical Leaders

Sometimes you can tell where to go by looking back. However, you should not be looking in the rearview mirror while driving, and drafting is the fantasy football equation of driving. Yet it is suggested to look at the 2024 IDP stat review in detail, and here are the high totals of a few key stats to show the disparity. 

Solo Tackles

  • 80 - Z. Franklin IND
  • 77 - K. White Free Agent
  • 73 - R. Smith BAL
  • 69 - B. Baker ARI
  • 67 - D. Davis NO

Assist Tackles

  • 85 - B. Baker ARI
  • 83 - J. Sherwood NYJ
  • 82 - Z. Baun PHI
  • 82 - E.J. Speed HOU
  • 76 - R. Spillane NE

Tackles are by far the highest statistic for IDPs, and that will be displayed with the following statistics. All of which will be less than 20 in a 17-game season… essentially averaging at or less than one a game.

Passes Defended

  • 19 - D. Ward CLE
  • 18 - D. Stingley Jr HOU
  • 17 - M. Jackson CAR
  • 17 - Z. McCollum TB
  • 16 - J. Jones LV

Sacks

  • 17.5 - T. Hendrickson CIN
  • 14 - M. Garrett CLE
  • 13.5 - N. Bonito DEN
  • 12.5 - K. Van Hoy BAL
  • 12 - J. Greenard MIN

Interceptions

  • 9 - K. Joseph DET
  • 8 - X. McKinney GB
  • 6 - C. Gardner-Johnson HOU
  • 6 - M. Humphrey BAL
  • 6 - B. Murphy MIN

Sacks and Interceptions (paired with special teams touchdowns) are the most exciting plays in football. The fact that they are rare is part of the reason, too. Sacks and interceptions alter drives, swing momentum, and cause fans to jump out of their seats (be it at the game or on the couch). They should be scored appropriately to display their rarity and the excitement of the play. 

Touchdowns

40 IDPs scored touchdowns in 2024. Some are names only their fanbases and sicko IDPs know, like Tarheeb Still, Jaylen McCollough, Nate Wiggins, and Chamarri Conner. However, that is 40 TDs that can boost an individual defensive player’s scoring. And with it being so rare, allocating more than six points is not only a great idea, it’s logical. 

It is rare for an IDP to score a touchdown, ask Matt Judon, who scored his first TD last year against the New York Giants. It was his 129th NFL game. To score two in one season is reserved for a special list of IDPs. 2024 saw four IDPs do just that, and three of them were on the defensive line. 

Nik Bonitto, Andrew Van Ginkel, Taron Johnson, and Derek Barnett all scored 2 or more touchdowns. Van Ginkel and Bonitto finished in the top five of defensive line scoring, and Johnson was the sole defensive back to achieve this.

Safeties

There were only nine players to earn a safety in 2024, making it one of the rarest defensive statistics to achieve. To put it another way, in 9 games out of 544, there was a sack. That is 1.65% of the games, break that down into snaps… and we are talking about a fraction of a fraction. Jared Allen, inducted into the 2025 NFL Hall of Fame, is the co-leader of all-time safeties… with four. Rewarding a safety with 10 points is not a crazy idea, nor is it to reward an IDP achieving a statistic that is more difficult to achieve than a touchdown… and most of them never earn a touchdown.

The nine players are: Sam Hubbard, Harold Landry, Dre'Mont Jones, Zach Allen, A.J. Epenesa, Alex Wright, Byron Young, Zach Harrison, and Kamari Lassiter. Lassiter did it against Derrick Henry, too, impressive.

 

 

 

How To Use Stats For 2025 Fantasy Football Draft Prep

2024 IDP stats are a guide to your fantasy football 2025 team’s success. An individual defensive player who is on the same team, with the same defensive coordinator, and several of the same team members from the previous year is likely to replicate his numbers.

There are 11 new defensive coordinators in 2025, and the influence on their teams is dynamic. New terminology, new schemes, new personnel, some players will be affected positively, some will be affected negatively, some may be cut, and new players are a guarantee… even if only through the draft. Those teams are: Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Utilizing the stats is a good base for your 2025 IDP projected scoring. For example, four of the five top solo tackle leaders are on the same team as last year. Of those four, three have the same head coach and defensive coordinator. So the expectation is for Franklin, Baker, and R. Smith to have great tackle volume once again. 

The same is true for assisted tackles, and most of the time, sacks. Although there are always edge pressure guys that have career sack years, and were not on the list the previous season. Bonitto and Jonathan Cooper of the Broncos are examples of this last year. But football is a team sport, and there is an inverse relationship between offensive and defensive statistics. And both are dependent on special teams.

A poor offense that has trouble putting together drives is naturally going to cause IDPs to play more snaps. Higher snap counts lead to more opportunities, opportunities lead to more stats, stats lead to more points, and points are what win fantasy football championships! For example, the Cleveland Browns had the worst offense in the NFL last year; they averaged just 15.2 points per game. Myles Garrett was second in sacks with 14, Denzel Ward led the league in passes defended (19), Jordan Hicks had 78 tackles and 2 sacks, and DeAndre Carter was ninth in return yards (479). 

It’s also not a coincidence that three of the top four sack leaders came from the AFC North, a division that has quarterbacks who pass often and hold onto the ball late. There are telling stats for each division, which are forced to take on each other's identity. Why did the Broncos get two players to crack the top 15 in sacks last year? Because they have dealt with a guy called Patrick Mahomes for almost a decade, and must also deal with Justin Herbert for a foreseeable decade. Those two must be stopped in order to beat them, so an emphasis is put on pass rush. 

Where are the good running backs, where are the good quarterbacks, where are the offenses that like to run several snaps, where are the bad defensive lines, where are the best secondaries, which schemes have proven successful, how long has a defensive coordinator been there… These are the questions you must ask in addition to looking up stats to earn your 2025 IDP fantasy football championship. 

 

 

 

Best Scoring Formats For IDP Leagues

There are several IDP scoring formats that are popular that aren’t the standard settings. Fantasy football 2025 allows for several combinations of scoring options. Some of the most popular are leagues with more points for tackles (with 10+ tackle bonuses), high points for sacks (which were shown to be rare), varying point bonuses by position, counting return yards, and heavily rewarding turnovers.

In 2025, the best IDP scoring formats are leagues that make IDP roster positions as valuable as offensive players. One way to do this is to account for as many IDP stats as possible. That, in turn, will force fantasy football managers to think about when they should draft their first IDP. If the highest scoring linebacker is scoring 70 or less than the highest scoring WR or RB, then there is value. That is a four-point per game difference, and the IDP scoring has forced value on the position.

Now the question becomes how many roster spots each league should have. The answer is dependent on the league, but the standard should be six roster spots. It could be difficult for some to juggle so many new positions at first, but adjustments will settle, and people learn quickly. This number works quite well, even in large 16-team leagues, and leaves plenty of weekly talent on the waiver wire. 

The logic being that every week, 96 individual defensive players are capable of producing valuable points. The second part comes from combating the offense. If a league has a QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, TE, and FLEX roster setting, then there is only one more requirement of offensive players compared to IDPs. Add a kicker, and there are equal amounts of non-offensive players. Which is the true value in a fantasy football setup?

The roster spots can vary, too. It could be an all ‘Flex IDP’ set up, so positions aren’t as important as results. It could be a strict 2 DL, 2 LB, 2 DB format, forcing much more strategy, or it could be my personal favorite of DL, LB, DB, 3 IDP Flex. This allows fluctuation, especially important in bye weeks with several teams out. 

Ultimately, there is no wrong way to incorporate IDPs into a fantasy football league. The emphasis should always be on creating relative importance in the spirit of competition and logical management. The NFL penalizes any team with over 11 players on the field for a reason, but it is rare to see a team march out with 10 against the other team's 11. Putting equal amounts of offensive and defensive players in a league adds a new element of strategy by putting equal value to the roster spot, and giving out appropriate scoring. 

Remember to come back next week for the second article in our IDP series, How Coaching Impacts Offensive Trends and IDP Fantasy Football Drafting.
 

Bet Smart, Be Lucky - Iggy -