Fantasy Football is Won on Tuesdays

Wow, the waiver wire is looking pretty bleak as far as potential goes. A couple notes.

Michael Bennett, (TB-RB) Grab him if you can. A piece of paper and 1 2/3 cups of water makes him an instant starter in Tampa Bay. He has some outstanding games during his time in Minnesota and is worth a shot.

Chris Chambers, (SD-WR) Thats right, Miami has now traded their top receiver for draft picks. Nothing like giving up after six weeks. Granted, I’m not a fan. I think he is in the TO mold of top physical gifts but hands of stone minus the hype.

I predict that half the people will think this makes him a better fantasy prospect and half the people will think that makes him a worse prospect. If you have him, try and find one of the former group and TRADE HIM NOW. Can you tell which camp I’m in.

Earnest Graham, (TB-RB) One game does not end a career but he had his chance and they picked up Bennett. This ship may have sailed

PLAYERS ON A BYE FOR WEEK 7

I know you have your bye house in order. Look for opportunities with owners who have these players and no good replacement. If you don’t need them this week it’s a good time to trade for any of these players as well.

Carolina

S. Smith, (Car-WR)
V. Testaverde, (Car-QB)
D. Carr, (Car-QB)
D. Foster, (Car-RB)
D. Williams, (Car-RB)
J. King, (Car-TE)
D. Carter, (Car-WR)
K. Colbert, (Car-WR)

Cleveland

D. Anderson, (Cle-QB)
B. Edwards, (Cle-WR)
J. Lewis, (Cle-RB)
K. Winslow, (Cle-TE)
J. Jurevicius, (Cle-WR)
J. Wright, (Cle-RB)
J. Harrison, (Cle-RB)
T. Carter, (Cle-WR)

Green Bay

B. Favre, (GB-QB)
G. Jennings, (GB-WR)
D. Driver, (GB-WR)
D. Wynn, (GB-RB)
B. Jackson, (GB-RB)
V. Morency, (GB-RB)
J. Jones, (GB-WR)
D. Lee, (GB-TE)
B. Franks, (GB-TE)

San Diego

L. Tomlinson, (SD-RB)
P. Rivers, (SD-QB)
A. Gates, (SD-TE)
V. Jackson, (SD-WR)
C. Chambers, (SD-WR)
M. Turner, (SD-RB)
C. Davis, (SD-WR)

Wednesday: Make your trade offers today.

Review: Your trade strategy should revolve around multi-player trades for two reasons:

1) With bye week at hand you need to clear some space on your bench or else you will end up dropping a guy you would rather keep or accept a zero on a slot where your starter is on a bye. Its better to trade and get some value now than drop them and get nothing later.

2) Chances are you you have a couple guys at RB and a couple guys at WR on your bench that could break out and then again could be a bust. An example in this category might be rookie Calvin Johnson for Detroit. Perhaps you have some under performing veterans like Fred Taylor or dark horses hampered by injury like Vernand Morency. Its better to bundle these guys and upgrade one position than to keep them all and never win a game for having them.

What you want to do is find their needs and give perceived value. Print out a roster grid of your league and note the following in different colors:

1) Highlight all players with a bye
2) Highlight injured players
3) Highlight good players coming off a poor performance or having a slow start.
4) Highlight average players on your own roster coming off a big week

Ones and two’s identify needs and therefore opportunities for a trade. Threes identify players to trade for and fours players to trade. You are basically identifying an ideal market and then buying low and selling high.

Here are some players that fall into category three that would be worth trading for for their upside later in the year:

Alexander, Shaun RB SEA

Johnson, Larry RB KC

Johnson, Rudi RB CIN

Ward, Hines WR PIT

Harrison, Marvin WR IND

Walker, Javon WR DEN

Moss, Santana WR WAS

-Chris

It’s waiver wire day:

Upcoming Byes: Buffalo, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco

Some good Pickups:

Davenport, Najeh RB PIT
Graham, Earnest RB TB
Young, Selvin RB DEN
Taylor, Chester RB MIN

Warner, Kurt QB ARI

NO ROOKIE QBs RULE

I know there are some youngsters out there but my personal rule is to NEVER go with a young QB

Both of these are calls from the gut:

Stallworth, Donte’ WR NE
Williams, Roydell WR TEN

Just after the first bye week its time to change the strategy up just a bit. Its a hard time to find diamonds in the rough and there is more competition now that people have to fill vacancies created by bye weeks.

Week 5 Byes: Philadelphia, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Cincinnati

You still want to search the waiver wire but it should be for bargains, not out of desperation, right? You have a bye week plan for the next few weeks right? If not, get that done now!

If you have taken care of business, then you probably have a bench full of guys that could break out of could bust. You don’t want to drop them but someone will have to go eventually during the bye weeks so now is the time to trade.

Find the guys on your bench that are hot enough to get noticed but not hot enough to start. Offer them in trades to guys desperate because they did not plan for the bye and now with the slew of injuries…. opportunity

A couple examples from one of my benches: Greg Jennings WR GB and Earnest Graham RB TB. They guys are tradeable and in combination may allow you to upgrade at a key position.

Look at your waiver wire, especially if you are 1-3 in line but spend your real time on Tuesday Trade offers.

Just in case you do need to fill a bye hole this week here are a couple guys to look at:

Quarterbacks:

Anderson, Derek QB CLE: Good luck getting now.

Campbell, Jason QB WAS: Great match up this week with Detroit

Carr, David QB CAR: This is a decent gamble. I know he has looked like crap but if Delhomme goes under the knife this may become his team and he had some very good fantasy games in Houston when he had some time to throw.

Brees, Drew QB NO: The stock can only go up from here. He is better than this, get him now.

Morris, Sammy RB NE: He has certainly capitalized on his part time role

Fargas, Justin RB OAK: Maybe not

Pittman, Michael RB TB: Will be the yardage and receiving head of the monster

Graham, Earnest RB TB: Will be the goal line touchdown scoring head.

Crayton, Patrick WR DAL: Apparently he learned how to catch this week. Don’t count on it every week. If I picked this guy up it would be to turn around and trade him on his hype

Porter, Jerry WR OAK: Seems like every year there is a time when it looks like Porter has arrived and then it and he go away. See Crayton above

Davis, Andre WR HOU: Taking advantage of the PT

Williams, Roydell WR TEN: I think he will become Young’s guy if he isn’t already

Northcutt, Dennis WR JAC: Showed some promise if they can get him the ball

-Chris