Defensive backs are incredibly important in IDP leagues. IDP success rests solely with that position. Your fantasy defense this year will go exactly as far as the defensive backs take it.
This analyst made it about four words into that paragraph before I started snickering. By the third sentence? Full-blown guffaws by the third sentence.
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Defensive backs are what they are. The first is plentiful—now more than ever, since five defensive backs on the field at a time has become the NFL's de facto base defense. The second is unpredictable. Defensive backs are high-variance from week to week, let alone year to year. The list of top-10 defensive backs entering the season in the secondary and the top-10 leaving it are two very different lists.
If you have read my work for any amount of time, you know that I am a steadfast advocate of fading defensive backs in IDP drafts. The elite options may be more consistent (at least by defensive back standards), but that doesn't make them consistent—or worth their asking price in drafts. The value lies in waiting. Targeting upside options late. If they hit, bingo. If they don't, so be it—it's off to the waiver wire to find a replacement.
Maybe something in a nice Nickelback
It actively hurts me that I don't hate that song.
However, just because defensive back is the least important position in IDP doesn't mean that it isn't important. Finding the right safety late in drafts can give your fantasy squad a nice boost. Conversely, overpaying for a defensive back who goes on to fall well short of expectations can sink a season just as at any position.
Just like Defensive Linemen and Linebackers, defensive backs can win IDP leagues—and lose them.
Oh yeah. We're going there again.
League-Winning Defensive Backs
S A.J. Haulcy, Indianapolis
Haulcy was the Colts' third-round pick this year after a 2025 campaign at LSU in which the 6'0" 215-pounder logged 88 total tackles and picked off two passes. That marked the third stop on Haulcy's collegiate journey, but Colts scout Mike Lacy told Mike Chappell of Fox 59 that it's less a bug than a feature.
"Just his drive,'' Lacy said. "His innate want-to to compete at a higher level, and him continuing to do that and produce and perform everywhere he goes. He bet on himself, and he earned a starting job and picked up some accolades along the way. Look at his history. Three schools, going up each time. He started each time, and he's really productive. It's not just like he's starting, and he's just an OK starter. He had 10 (career) picks. You just feel him on the field all the time."
This isn't the first time I have talked up the rookie this summer, nor will it be the last. He's a talented youngster with a skill set that best suits a box safety role for a Colts team that just saw its starting box safety leave for Washington in free agency. Last year, Nick Cross was the AFC's No. 1 safety in The Godfather's Default IDP Scoring in 2025—Haulcy has elite IDP upside in his first season.
S Xavier Watts, Atlanta
Watts was selected late in Round 3 last year by the Falcons, and he wound up starting all 17 games in Atlanta as a rookie. While appearing on the Inner Circle podcast, former Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot (who drafted Watts) said that Atlanta traded up to grab Watts because they knew it was larceny.
"This dude had more takeaways in college football than anyone else," Fontenot said. "And now you get him in shorts, and nothing special about the workout, nothing stands out about the offseason, all the measureables and all those things, but when you go back to the tape, this is a first-round talent at the safety position."
Watts was productive in his first season, logging 96 total tackles, intercepting five passes, and finishing as a top-10 fantasy safety. Veteran Jessie Bates III is a much bigger name in IDP leagues who will go multiple rounds ahead of Watts. But the youngster finished five slots higher at the position last year in fantasy points.
S Jalen Thompson, Dallas
The Dallas Cowboys had the NFL's worst defense last year in terms of points allowed, and the team took a buzzsaw to that defense in the offseason, including bringing in two new starters at safety. One of those new starters is veteran Jalen Thompson, who told the team's website he's eager to help out defensively any way he can.
"A physical safety, a safety that can do pretty much everything. I don't consider myself just a safety, a DB in general," Thompson said. "Nickel, corner, free safety, strong safety, wherever they need me at, that's where I'm playing… Just a player that can bring some wins to the team and can just be versatile. Show the versatility and can help the team out in many different ways."
That statement was made before the Cowboys traded up to draft Ohio State's Caleb Downs in the first round of April's draft—a move that would appear to indicate that Thompson will be the box safety in Big D in 2026. Thompson topped 100 tackles twice during his tenure in Arizona—he could easily add a third 100-stop season to his resume this year, given the questions at linebacker in front of him.
