04-23-2024, 01:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-24-2024, 08:34 AM by ProdigalSon. Edited 1 time in total.)
As a high school football star, which DSFL team should you commit to? (Defense Edition)
Let’s imagine that each player who chooses to go to a team is actually choosing their team, as if they were committing to a college. If you’re a high school player at each position, which DSFL team has the best chance of turning you into a pro ready, and beyond that, star pro player?
This article is a follow-up to the offense side of the question, which you can find here: Where to Commit [Offense Edition]
This ended up taking me way less time to write than I thought, I had all the data already, so it was easy to clean it up! Should have been a single article I guess haha.
Oof, immediately this chart doesn’t look so hot, well, not for Norfolk and Portland, London is looking amazing here, and Minnesota has a lot of green in exchange for a couple of red spaces.
TPE/S Breakpoints:
Top of the 1st: 160 TPE/S
Bottom of the 1st: 147 TPE/S
Top of the 2nd: 126 TPE/S
Bottom of the 2nd: 114 TPE/S
It’s rare to find these stratified tiers, but we’ve got one here with Portland being the absolute best place to come out of if you’re a Defensive End. We’ve got Dallas in Tier 2 but even within Tier 2, London is quite a bit behind.
If you’re looking to commit, Tijuana and Bondi Beach are the last places where you’d feel confident in getting that training and coaching necessary to get noticed at the ISFL level.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S41 1.06 - Bruce White (toofpete) - 189.14 TPE/S
S30 2.10 - Rocco Blade (Accka) - 187.29 TPE/S
S28 1.04 - Xavier Walls (xtitanxvmp) - 177.71 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Rex Havoc - London Royals (218 TPE)
Cleetus Beauregard - Bondi Beach Buccaneers (207 TPE)
Carlos Marx - Portland Pythons (191 TPE)
And on the other half of the Defensive Line we have our Defensive Tackles! Defensive Tackle is a touch dire on this TPE/S front, but it is a position that does require less TPE overall.
Dallas and Tijuana lead the DTs with 167 TPE/S and that’s an amazing clip. Going to London or Minnesota if the top DTs are off the board isn’t a bad plan either, you’re going to get very solid earning on the DL from those schools as well.
Kansas City is the one place you want to avoid, they’re just not off to snuff, and yet better than their DE counterparts from the same school.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S34 1.13 - Solace Avenger (MobiausGrander) - 200.86 TPE/S
S36 3.04 - Charles Chapman (Charple) - 198.14 TPE/S
S43 1.10 - Crasher Wake (ZodiacEXE) - 182.17 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
GCBWRNW Princess Donut - Bondi Beach Buccaneers (239 TPE)
Juan Carrasco - London Royals (219 TPE)
Lheorvine Adebisi - Kansas City Coyotes (198 TPE)
Three Tier 1 schools for Linebackers! Not super surprising, a lot of top users choose the LB position on the defense, and we’ve got Dallas, Bondi Beach, and London all securing the killers at the position.
You could waffle on if Minnesota is Tier 2 or 3, but I put them in Tier 2 because they have a significant difference than the later two schools in the Tier 3 Kansas City and Tijuana.
Even our pair of T4 schools of Portland and Norfolk turn out pretty respectable players, although you might wait in the second to pick one of them.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S40 1.01 - Liv Elsathelookout (Bayley) - 210.57 TPE/S
S38 2.07 - Bridge Burner (BOOM) - 204.86 TPE/S
S32 2.07 - Kalam Mekhar (ZootTX) - 203.14 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Robot Sunfish - Norfolk Seawolves (240 TPE)
Adolin Collins - London Royals - (238 TPE)
Willeh Strong - Portland Pythons (223 TPE)
Mac Mannheim - Norfolk Seawolves (222 TPE)
We’ve got a whole lot of green on the CB list and that means a couple of things, London absolutely crushes it on CB development and you should try and get yourself a spot there, and also, Portland, Dallas, and Tijuana really need to step up their game on this position group.
Minnesota, Bondi Beach, and Kansas City make up Tier 2, and Norfolk is noticeably behind in Tier 3.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S47 2.04 - SkibidiGyat OhioRizzler (Cloud) - 187.00 TPE/S
S42 1.12 - Luigi Numberone (ztarwarz) - 178.57 TPE/S
S44 2.08 - Gajeel Redfox (AJay887) - 167.40 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Jet Larsen - Minnesota Grey Ducks (220 TPE)
Tyler Oles III - Minnesota Grey Ducks (210 TPE)
Widdle Warrick - Portland Pythons (200 TPE)
And our other half of the secondary! Notably, the Safety position results in a much weaker overall class of player. All the top top earners seem to find their way to Cornerback, taking more of that important alpha position.
London and Minnesota are the top schools for a safety prospect to declare for, but Norfolk, Dallas, Bondi Beach, and Portland are all within bounds for a Safety to do well in the ISFL.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S36 1.11 - Quendyn Quarterstorm (Twenty6) - 223.71 TPE/S
S36 1.08 - Aleksandr Milescu (Alikh) - 11.86 TPE/S
S44 2.01 - Scott Junior (JoeSteel) - 177.00 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Alexandros Sotiris - Tijuana Luchadores (203 TPE)
Leonardo Da Pinchi - Minnesota Grey Ducks (194 TPE)
Rocket Ride - Portland Pythons (180 TPE)
I know that this isn’t a defensive position, but hey, that’s what we’ve got going right now. I’m sure a ton of DSFL kickers picked in the top 2 rounds swap, but I think we’ve got a healthy amount of earnings too, including an absolutely outstanding 225 TPE/S from London. Any guesses on who that might be?
After London we come back down to earth with Dallas and then a three way Tier 3 in Tijuana, Bondi Beach, and Kansas City. Notably, Norfolk has a kicker hit rate of a measly 22 TPE/S.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S35 1.10 THE Swantavius King (Maglubiyet) - 224.43 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Cameron Oswald-Newton - Minnesota Grey Ducks (131 TPE)
We’ve got a combined Tier List for schools here, one on Defense and one that combines with the Offense for a composite score!
London Royals (34) - The Royals pull a Minnesota and absolutely run the tables on the Defense side of the ball. London comes in with a Tier 2 on the OL but an absolutely elite core from the LBs to the secondary.
Minnesota Grey Ducks (32) - Minnesota falters on the defensive side of the ball by failing to develop any meaningful talent in the DE and KP positions. While any commit should be happy to go to Minnesota, DE and Kickers beware!
Dallas Birddogs (29) - Not quite in either tier above or below, Dallas comes in to pack a strong front 7 on the defense, and is a great choice for any commit, except for the Cornerback.
Kansas City Coyotes (24) - This tier isn’t sorted in any way, and of the Tier 3 schools, we’ll start with Kansas City. Kansas is carried extremely hard by their offense. They’re uniformly mediocre on the defense, and while they’ve had a few notable Cornerbacks, their ranking there is more a carry by a player or two more than anything else.
Tijuana Luchadores (24) - For as long as I’ve been in the ISFL, the Luchadores have been excellent, but it looks like they may not have the best development cycle. Tijuana DTs thrive, but you’re better off looking at Minnesota, Dallas, or London if you play at a different spot.
Bondi Beach Buccaneers (24) - Coming back from a deficit on the offense side of the ball, Bondi Beach is buoyed by their strong development of Linebackers and Cornerbacks, but are just “fine” at the other spots on the depth chart.
Portland Pythons (22) - Very close to sneaking into Tier 3, or Tier 5, depending on your point of view. Portland leads the party with top DEs developed, but is that worth having no development to speak of on the Cornerback end? I don’t think so and overall Portland historically has been a bit imbalanced with their development.
Norfolk Seawolves (19) - Norfolk comes in with a failing grade, especially on the defense. Their highest ranking is Tier 2 for safeties, and while it’s
good to have a school that produces good safeties, London and Minnesota both produce better.
Forget the second round, let's talk about the first rounders. We all know the prestige that comes with being a first rounder, the Dotts card and extra first rounder cash (don't tell the non-first rounders). If you know you’re great, and that you can make your way to the ISFL and be a star, college coaches be damned, where do you come out of?
We’d expect our tier list to roughly line up with the first rounders that come out of each school, but what we see is that Bondi Beach jumps all the way to the lead with 44 first rounders! Bondi Beach truly is the team with the greatest vibes, finding the stars in our hearts!
There isn’t a correlation between tier points and first rounders, so maybe there’s something to be said here with a correlation between average DSFL draft position and conversion to first round picks? It’d be interesting if we had some data like that…? Well, not for the DSFL, but if you’re interested in ISFL x DSFL draft picks, TPE/S conversions, and Draft Capital x TPE/S x xTPE/S, you’re in luck, that’s coming out next!
Let’s imagine that each player who chooses to go to a team is actually choosing their team, as if they were committing to a college. If you’re a high school player at each position, which DSFL team has the best chance of turning you into a pro ready, and beyond that, star pro player?
This article is a follow-up to the offense side of the question, which you can find here: Where to Commit [Offense Edition]
Position Groups x DSFL Team
This ended up taking me way less time to write than I thought, I had all the data already, so it was easy to clean it up! Should have been a single article I guess haha.
Oof, immediately this chart doesn’t look so hot, well, not for Norfolk and Portland, London is looking amazing here, and Minnesota has a lot of green in exchange for a couple of red spaces.
TPE/S Breakpoints:
Top of the 1st: 160 TPE/S
Bottom of the 1st: 147 TPE/S
Top of the 2nd: 126 TPE/S
Bottom of the 2nd: 114 TPE/S
=== DE ===
It’s rare to find these stratified tiers, but we’ve got one here with Portland being the absolute best place to come out of if you’re a Defensive End. We’ve got Dallas in Tier 2 but even within Tier 2, London is quite a bit behind.
If you’re looking to commit, Tijuana and Bondi Beach are the last places where you’d feel confident in getting that training and coaching necessary to get noticed at the ISFL level.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S41 1.06 - Bruce White (toofpete) - 189.14 TPE/S
S30 2.10 - Rocco Blade (Accka) - 187.29 TPE/S
S28 1.04 - Xavier Walls (xtitanxvmp) - 177.71 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Rex Havoc - London Royals (218 TPE)
Cleetus Beauregard - Bondi Beach Buccaneers (207 TPE)
Carlos Marx - Portland Pythons (191 TPE)
=== DT ===
And on the other half of the Defensive Line we have our Defensive Tackles! Defensive Tackle is a touch dire on this TPE/S front, but it is a position that does require less TPE overall.
Dallas and Tijuana lead the DTs with 167 TPE/S and that’s an amazing clip. Going to London or Minnesota if the top DTs are off the board isn’t a bad plan either, you’re going to get very solid earning on the DL from those schools as well.
Kansas City is the one place you want to avoid, they’re just not off to snuff, and yet better than their DE counterparts from the same school.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S34 1.13 - Solace Avenger (MobiausGrander) - 200.86 TPE/S
S36 3.04 - Charles Chapman (Charple) - 198.14 TPE/S
S43 1.10 - Crasher Wake (ZodiacEXE) - 182.17 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
GCBWRNW Princess Donut - Bondi Beach Buccaneers (239 TPE)
Juan Carrasco - London Royals (219 TPE)
Lheorvine Adebisi - Kansas City Coyotes (198 TPE)
=== LB ===
Three Tier 1 schools for Linebackers! Not super surprising, a lot of top users choose the LB position on the defense, and we’ve got Dallas, Bondi Beach, and London all securing the killers at the position.
You could waffle on if Minnesota is Tier 2 or 3, but I put them in Tier 2 because they have a significant difference than the later two schools in the Tier 3 Kansas City and Tijuana.
Even our pair of T4 schools of Portland and Norfolk turn out pretty respectable players, although you might wait in the second to pick one of them.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S40 1.01 - Liv Elsathelookout (Bayley) - 210.57 TPE/S
S38 2.07 - Bridge Burner (BOOM) - 204.86 TPE/S
S32 2.07 - Kalam Mekhar (ZootTX) - 203.14 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Robot Sunfish - Norfolk Seawolves (240 TPE)
Adolin Collins - London Royals - (238 TPE)
Willeh Strong - Portland Pythons (223 TPE)
Mac Mannheim - Norfolk Seawolves (222 TPE)
=== CB ===
We’ve got a whole lot of green on the CB list and that means a couple of things, London absolutely crushes it on CB development and you should try and get yourself a spot there, and also, Portland, Dallas, and Tijuana really need to step up their game on this position group.
Minnesota, Bondi Beach, and Kansas City make up Tier 2, and Norfolk is noticeably behind in Tier 3.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S47 2.04 - SkibidiGyat OhioRizzler (Cloud) - 187.00 TPE/S
S42 1.12 - Luigi Numberone (ztarwarz) - 178.57 TPE/S
S44 2.08 - Gajeel Redfox (AJay887) - 167.40 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Jet Larsen - Minnesota Grey Ducks (220 TPE)
Tyler Oles III - Minnesota Grey Ducks (210 TPE)
Widdle Warrick - Portland Pythons (200 TPE)
=== S ===
And our other half of the secondary! Notably, the Safety position results in a much weaker overall class of player. All the top top earners seem to find their way to Cornerback, taking more of that important alpha position.
London and Minnesota are the top schools for a safety prospect to declare for, but Norfolk, Dallas, Bondi Beach, and Portland are all within bounds for a Safety to do well in the ISFL.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S36 1.11 - Quendyn Quarterstorm (Twenty6) - 223.71 TPE/S
S36 1.08 - Aleksandr Milescu (Alikh) - 11.86 TPE/S
S44 2.01 - Scott Junior (JoeSteel) - 177.00 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Alexandros Sotiris - Tijuana Luchadores (203 TPE)
Leonardo Da Pinchi - Minnesota Grey Ducks (194 TPE)
Rocket Ride - Portland Pythons (180 TPE)
=== KP ===
I know that this isn’t a defensive position, but hey, that’s what we’ve got going right now. I’m sure a ton of DSFL kickers picked in the top 2 rounds swap, but I think we’ve got a healthy amount of earnings too, including an absolutely outstanding 225 TPE/S from London. Any guesses on who that might be?
After London we come back down to earth with Dallas and then a three way Tier 3 in Tijuana, Bondi Beach, and Kansas City. Notably, Norfolk has a kicker hit rate of a measly 22 TPE/S.
Notable alumni here from our first place Tier 1 team are:
S35 1.10 THE Swantavius King (Maglubiyet) - 224.43 TPE/S
Draft candidates to watch:
Cameron Oswald-Newton - Minnesota Grey Ducks (131 TPE)
DSFL School Profiles
We’ve got a combined Tier List for schools here, one on Defense and one that combines with the Offense for a composite score!
=== Tier 1 ===
London Royals (34) - The Royals pull a Minnesota and absolutely run the tables on the Defense side of the ball. London comes in with a Tier 2 on the OL but an absolutely elite core from the LBs to the secondary.
Minnesota Grey Ducks (32) - Minnesota falters on the defensive side of the ball by failing to develop any meaningful talent in the DE and KP positions. While any commit should be happy to go to Minnesota, DE and Kickers beware!
=== Tier 2 ===
Dallas Birddogs (29) - Not quite in either tier above or below, Dallas comes in to pack a strong front 7 on the defense, and is a great choice for any commit, except for the Cornerback.
=== Tier 3 ===
Kansas City Coyotes (24) - This tier isn’t sorted in any way, and of the Tier 3 schools, we’ll start with Kansas City. Kansas is carried extremely hard by their offense. They’re uniformly mediocre on the defense, and while they’ve had a few notable Cornerbacks, their ranking there is more a carry by a player or two more than anything else.
Tijuana Luchadores (24) - For as long as I’ve been in the ISFL, the Luchadores have been excellent, but it looks like they may not have the best development cycle. Tijuana DTs thrive, but you’re better off looking at Minnesota, Dallas, or London if you play at a different spot.
Bondi Beach Buccaneers (24) - Coming back from a deficit on the offense side of the ball, Bondi Beach is buoyed by their strong development of Linebackers and Cornerbacks, but are just “fine” at the other spots on the depth chart.
=== Tier 4 ===
Portland Pythons (22) - Very close to sneaking into Tier 3, or Tier 5, depending on your point of view. Portland leads the party with top DEs developed, but is that worth having no development to speak of on the Cornerback end? I don’t think so and overall Portland historically has been a bit imbalanced with their development.
=== Tier 5 ===
Norfolk Seawolves (19) - Norfolk comes in with a failing grade, especially on the defense. Their highest ranking is Tier 2 for safeties, and while it’s
good to have a school that produces good safeties, London and Minnesota both produce better.
Forget the second round, let's talk about the first rounders. We all know the prestige that comes with being a first rounder, the Dotts card and extra first rounder cash (don't tell the non-first rounders). If you know you’re great, and that you can make your way to the ISFL and be a star, college coaches be damned, where do you come out of?
We’d expect our tier list to roughly line up with the first rounders that come out of each school, but what we see is that Bondi Beach jumps all the way to the lead with 44 first rounders! Bondi Beach truly is the team with the greatest vibes, finding the stars in our hearts!
There isn’t a correlation between tier points and first rounders, so maybe there’s something to be said here with a correlation between average DSFL draft position and conversion to first round picks? It’d be interesting if we had some data like that…? Well, not for the DSFL, but if you’re interested in ISFL x DSFL draft picks, TPE/S conversions, and Draft Capital x TPE/S x xTPE/S, you’re in luck, that’s coming out next!
S42 Getting Defensive Podcast - New Player Silver Medalist
S47 Ultimus
S46 Ultimus
S46 ISFL Most Dedicated Member
Gemini Awards: S42 Best Article (Series), S44 Best Article (Limited), S46 Best Author
S42 DSFL Most Dedicated Member
S45 ISFL All-Rookie Team: WR1
DSFL Offensive Player of the Year: S43
DSFL First-team All-Pro: S43, S44
DSFL Pro Bowl: S42, S43, S44
S43 R1.01 - Arizona Outlaws
S42 R1.04 - Minnesota Grey Ducks
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