Buffalo Bills Fantasy Defense; Breaking down the numbers
By Dennis Amo
Sep 23, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Buffalo Bills cornerback Leodis McKelvin (21) celebrates after making an interception against the Cleveland Browns during the fourth quarter at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Buffalo defeats the Browns 24-14. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
When considering fantasy players and defense, there are limited players on the Buffalo Bills that would be considered to even be drafted onto your team. The Defense being on of them. Last year, the Bills defense was drafted in 3% of the leagues through yahoo sports. They were ranked overall at 26th out of 32 teams with 101 points. Chicago topped the league with 226 points. Not the greatest if your trying to win your league, especially when defense could make or break your win/loss column.
Lets look at last year and were they ranked in the different categories and see where they could be.
For points allowed they were in the bottom 4. The allowed 423 points/game and average of just over 26 points per game. This is the biggest point loser when it comes to fantasy. Seattle was the leader in points allowed at 231; an average of just over 14 points per game.
As for sacks the ranked 19th overall with 36 sacks and tied for 2nd overall with 1 safety. They had 12 interceptions and 9 fumble recoveries which put them in the 21st spot overall for both categories. Buffalo did lead the league in blocked kicks with 5. As for TDs the defense came away with 1 TD and 3 Return TDs.
If Buffalo can average their points allowed to 20 points per game they will come away with 1 fantasy point per game. They had 36 points in sacks as 1 sack equals 1 point. This came with a defense that was not known for attacking and an injured front line. If they can add 9-10 more sacks that will leave them in the 45 sack range and 45 points. Blocked kicks got them 10 points last year and 18 points with fumble recoveries. Interceptions provided 24 points and TDs covered 24 points as well. Not counting the points factor the extra point getters brought the Bills a total of 114 points with the 2 points for the safety.
Now if you remember the total fantasy was only 101 meaning they had a couple of big game loses to get negative points. Now if the Bills did nothing more with the extras and limited their games to 20 points per game they would come away with 130 points. 114 for the extras and 16 points for the score allowed. Moving from 26th spot all the way up to the 16th spot. Green Bay held the 16th spot last year for fantasy defense and were held in 84% of the league with Atlanta at the 15th spot and the Jets at the 17th spot. Something to shoot for.