Defense Wins Championships - Even in Fantasy?

Seldom, if ever, do you hear fantasy analysis regarding defensive players. They don't score us fantasy points and are thus thrown to the side to focus on the good stuff - offense. If you do hear defensive analysis, it is nearly always about specific star players, or a defensive unit that is extremely strong or weak against a certain position group.

Defensive analysis should go further than this. For the purposes of this article, let's focus on wide receivers and cornerbacks. We all understand that different wide receivers have different skillsets; Tee Higgins and Ladd McConkey are both great in their own unique ways. However, nobody ever seems to talk about cornerback's skillsets. In our minds, CBs are either good or not, but the game of football is so much more nuance than that. Certain cornerbacks will be better against different route types, in the slot vs outside, in different coverages etc.

We should be analyzing these types of strengths and weaknesses for WRs and the CBs covering them, seeing who's game may have an edge in a given week. If a certain WRs strengths match up against another corners weaknesses, we may have an edge nobody else is talking about. There is a reason Marshon Lattimore used to lock down Mike Evans more than other star WRs. Additionally, simply looking at defensive units grades against certain positions ignores injuries.

I do not currently have access to the data to properly analyze this concept, but believe that comparing a WRs route success rate and route run percentages at Matt Harmon's Reception Perception, and corresponding cornerback data (which I am hoping to gain from PFF) could help to begin a new, more complete type of fantasy football analysis. Defense is half of football, and we should treat it as such.

I apologize for not having specific analysis to present regarding the topic, but want to get the idea out while I navigate a way to complete this analysis.