Fantasy Football is Won on Tuesdays

Keep playing the system, we are in the thick of things.

One question that
arises is what if you have a bench spot to play with and there is no one worth grabbing (based on the FFIWOT System)?

FFIWOT Rule: Serving up the Reactionaries. When a bench spot is open and there is no one worth grabbing, claim the One Week Wonders (OWW Pronounced OOOOOO this week and Ow as in an expression of pain the next week when they put up a goose egg) and offer them in trade to the reactionaries for some slumping good players or players with potential down the road.

A Reactionary Owner: One who drops a player as soon as they have a bad week and picks up another player because they have had 1 good week. Reactionary owners live in this week only and don’t track trends, potential or match ups but only see the fantasy point output of the last game played.

These folks are easy to spot. Pull up the transaction history for your league. They will be the ones with a lot of transactions and the ones who dropped people after weeks 1, 2 and 3 who are now doing well or better.

They are the ones who picked up Austin Miles (WR Dal), Brandon Lloyd (WR Chi) and JL Higgins (WR Oak) after OWW performances in week 3

Reactionary Owners may be willing to trade some diamonds in a slump for some of these OWW’s. Even if they are ahead of you on the waiver list there is enough here that you should be able to grab one to then dangle in front of them.

Reactionary Adds
DeAngelo Williams (RB Car)
K Faulk (RB NE)
Bernard Berrian (WR Min)
Sinorice Moss (WR NYG)

In my experience, the Reactionary owners are very focused on WR, RB and QB. There have been many times where I picked up a OWW and traded them to upgrade my Defense or Kicker . The funny part is seeing the OWW you traded be dropped in one or two weeks as the Reactionary chases their tail again.

These same Reactionary Owners will be dropping the following players because they had a bad week. These folks should have never been picked up to begin with.

Reactionary Drops
M Pittman (RB Den)
Rudi Johnson (RB Det)
Amani Toomer (WR NYG)
K Walter (WR Hou)
Derrick Mason (WR Bal), who they just picked up last week.

Good luck and remember to do two things that Reactionary owners don’t do, see past this week and be patient.

-Chris

The first three weeks are past us now and we have uncovered some sleepers like Aaron Rogers (QB GB) and complained about some superstuds putting up superdud numbers like Derek Anderson (QB Cle). He have seen Tom Brady (QB NE) go down and we have sung Kombayah until we can sing no more.

Week 4 is where we start to separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, the goats from thee sheep, the notes from the noise, the rice from the hulls, the peanuts from the butter, the pretenders from the contenders and where the FFIWOT strategy starts to kick in full throttle.

Suddenly, this morning, millions of fantasy football players logged in to see where they sit in their league. To the horror of many as they pulled up their roster and they suddenly discovered that 2 of their running backs have a bye next week and the third is injured! [insert scream here]

This is where our preparedness pays dividends. The guy who wouldn’t have traded his Kyle Orton (QB Chi) for your Peyton Manning (QB Ind) just a week ago will suddenly jump and an opportunity to get a Jason Campbell (QB Was).

FFIWOT Rule: During Bye weeks only offer trades that both solve the other players dilemma while upgrading your roster just enough to not send up warning flags.

If you have decent receivers on your bench and there are people with empty wide receiver slots because of byes and injury then for god sake don’t just sit there make an offer. People will trade the like of Ryan Grant (RB GB) for the like of a L Coles (WR NYJ) coming off his first and only touchdown. Now in week 12, when the Packers are looking toward the playoffs and the Jets are are scratching their heads wondering why in thee world they brought a 72 year old QB into a new system on a new team and expected miracles to happen, which of the aforementioned player do you think will be more valuable? This assumes you have a Wide Receiver to spare to make the trade to begin with…

Remember, even if this guy is desperate you still have to get this trade past the rest of the league. The goal is to be the problems solver for other players and in return for this community service you charge a small player upgrade fee. These upgrades compound during the bye weeks until you come out the other side a much more fordable team.

FFIWOT Rule: During bye weeks, offer at least one trade option for every problem you can solve and when possible, offer several versions and let them pick.

Throw as much spaghetti at the wall as you can and some will certainly stick.

FFIWOT Rule: Be willing to trade or add a player that will win you games down the road even if you have to leave a slot empty and loose a game early in the year.

Example: For a guy needing a to fill a running back slot, a Pierre Thomas (RB NO) is a life saver and worth the M Colston taking up space on his bench. He’s worried about right now and you’ll be thinking about the second half of the season when suddenly you find you have a healthy top shelf wide receiver and he has a guy averaging 22 yards per game and occasionally stealing a goalline touchdown.

FFIWOT Rule: Every year they say that the running back position is no long the most important because of early season apparent shortages at wide receive and/or quarterback. Every year it is the player who stocked up on running back talent who has a better team at the end of the year.

Pick up the young guys like the J Stewarts (RB Car) and the Steve Slatons (RB Hou) and take chances on guys like R Mendenhall getting his first start this weekend.

FFIWOT Rule: Every other year they talk about the emergence of the Running Back By Committee and they sing the death knell of the primary back and every year the majority of the RBBCs see a dominant back emerge. Backing the right guy early can be the difference down the road.

The two headed monster is not a myth. They exist but there just aint as many that last the whole year as it seem there will be in week 1. If I had to pick some good candidates from some of the RBBC teams out there I would look at S Young (RB Den), C Johnson (RB Ten), J Stewart (RB Car) and maybe L McClain (RB Bal). These are not locks but if you hedge your bets and pick wisely then toward playoff time you can have this year’s Ryan Grant (RB GB) or E Graham (RB TB) who both emerged from these kind of situation to be late season superstars.

-Chris