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)

NFL Week 4 is the first Bye week. Is your team ready? Tennessee, New Orleans, Washington and Jacksonville get the early bye. If you haven’t already, you need to check your teams and make sure you aren’t left with a hole at a position because 3 of your 4 wide receivers play for these teams.

Week 4 Games:

Baltimore at Cleveland
Chicago at Detroit
Denver at Indianapolis
Green Bay at Minnesota
Houston at Atlanta
Kansas City at San Diego
NY Jets at Buffalo
Oakland at Miami
Philadelphia at NY Giants
Pittsburgh at Arizona
Seattle at San Francisco
St. Louis at Dallas
Tampa Bay at Carolina
New England at Cincinnati

Your best bet is to offer out a few trades. Be careful of a straight A to A trade as unless you are willing to downgrade that position, why would the other owner bother? A 2 for 2 trade works best where you can try and get equal value for the primary player and give them some value on the other.

An example: Lets say you have Frank Gore, Clinton Portis and Maurice Jones-Drew. You are banking on Jones-Drew improving and you know you can’t get much for him now so you shop Portis on the trade blocks.

Maybe the guy who has Willis McGahee is stacked and RB and start 2 backs with him. Because it is a fairly even trade you will need to sweeten the pot with the other player in the deal. Lets say you add Braylon Edwards (assuming you are Ok at wide receiver without him) for his Jerry Porter.

Make some trades if at all possible because if you have to drop someone for the scraps left on the waiver wire you will be loosing value. You don’t want to be one of those guys who didn’t pay attention to the byes and have to decide to lose a game or lose a decent player.

If you absolutely have to pick up some players, here are a few options that may be available and could stand to have a decent week 4.

Quarterbacks
Green, Trent QB MIA
Losman, J.P. QB BUF
Grossman, Rex QB CHI

Running Backs
Morris, Maurice RB SEA
Foster, DeShaun RB CAR
Griffith, Justin RB OAK
Pittman, Michael RB TB

Wide Receivers
Booker, Marty WR MIA
Avant, Jason WR PHI
Jones, James WR GB
Horn, Joe WR ATL

Defenses
Raiders, DST DST OAK
Dolphins, DST DST MIA

-Chris

Sorry about the title. Anyway it is imperative that you get a spreadsheet or piece of paper or whatever and map out who on your team has a bye for each week up through week 10.

You need to spot the weeks where you are screwed now so you can do something about it. There is no reason to have a week where you leave a slot empty. This is a cardinal sin in my book. I’m not saying it has never happened to me as sometimes crap happens but it if you can avoid it then by all means you must.

Make your list and identify your week positions and fix them.

-Chris