Some fantasy managers thrive on insanity. Others throw up their hands and lament what might have been.
At FF4W's core is a love for battling adversity. My book "Fantasy Football for Winners" is a somewhat exaggerated examination of how to win your league. But there are kernels of truth in every chapter: doing hard-nosed pre-draft research, when to cut an underperformer, executing uneven trades that seem fair, ignoring gut feelings, and so on.
My favorite chapter, "Injuries = Opportunities," is the most essential on an emotional level. It's easy to get discouraged when you lose Patrick Mahomes, David Johnson, and Davante Adams in the span of a couple weeks. How are you supposed to function? It's that defeatist attitude that defeats us. Production is available everywhere. We just have to look hard enough, and be willing to take calculated, high-upside risks. In "A Division" of the FF4W Premier League, 10 free agents scored 18-28 points in Week 8. In all, 30 free agents scored in double-digits. That's an insane amount of production sitting on waivers.
Every year I compete just as you do. My observations aren't detached; my recommendations aren't hypothetical. This past week two of my four WRs--Keenan Allen and Adam Thielen--were dealing with hamstring injuries. Thielen was sidelined. Keenan's role was questionable, so I couldn't confidently trust him. Then I learned my third receiver, Odell Beckham, Jr., has been hampered by a groin injury all season. I added Ted Ginn off waivers in the hope of netting 8+ points. He was worse than expected. Had I been savvier, any of 15 available WRs would have fared better.
Imperfection and fantasy go hand-in-hand. We acknowledge it and try to learn from it.
If my entire starting lineup imploded tomorrow, I'd be pissed. Then at the next round of waivers I'd begin rebuilding from the ashes: maybe some combination of Derek Carr, Baker Mayfield, and Daniel Jones at QB; Wendell Smallwood, Brian Hill, and Jordan Scarlett (to pair with Reggie Bonnafon on my bench) at RB; Chris Conley, Darius Slayton, Danny Amendola, and Deebo Samuel or Josh Reynolds (if Brandin Cooks misses time) at WR; Darren Fells, Noah Fant, or Cameron Brate at TE; and any of 10 kickers to stream. Then I'd try to trade my bench RB handcuffs to the managers who have the starters, and then add available handcuffs and potential handcuffs like Wayne Gallman, Bilal Powell, Jalen Richard, and Kalen Ballage. And every day I'd watch for any injury to catapult an unstartable player out of obscurity.
I'm imperfect, but there's one think I know: It's possible to be "good" at fantasy. As some of you know, I've won two DFS tournaments (baseball and basketball) vs. about 20,000 people combined. I've won two national fantasy baseball titles vs. nearly 400,000 people combined. I haven't missed a fantasy postseason since 2012 (at least 12 consecutive league seasons). In the 84-team FF4W Premier League I'm #2 in points scored. Every week I'm hustling. Even in victory, there's never complacency. Who are my guys facing next week? Which waiver guys might be upgrades--or might block my opponent? Which of my opponents' great players are slumping?
Here's one example of the dangers of thinking our team is "good enough." Entering Week 13 last season I had two top-5 RBs (Todd Gurley and James Conner), one of the most dominant midseason RBs (Aaron Jones), a terrific plug-in #4 RB (Tevin Coleman), a solid QB who exceeded 18 points in eight of 11 starts (Carson Wentz), an elite WR (Tyreek Hill), a high-end WR2 (T.Y. Hilton), the #8 TE (Trey Burton), the #3 kicker (Will Lutz), and the #3 DST. Again, this was Week 13, the final week of the regular season. I was staring at a first-round bye--only two wins away from the title.
By the time I reached the title game three weeks later, Wentz, Gurley, Conner, and Jones were out of commission. There was no pouting. There was only rebuilding. I won my semifinal matchup thanks to 14.8 points from desperation QB Nick Mullens and injury replacement Mike Williams (36.5). Had I managed my FAAB (waiver money) more wisely, I could have grabbed a better QB to put me over the top the following week. But poor strategy on that front shouldn't discount the fact that victory was entirely possible despite losing roughly half my starting lineup--and more than half my weekly production. Only a few weeks earlier, I never imagined needing to start Kalen Ballage (6.9 points), Jordy Nelson (14.5), or Robby Anderson (29). And that's the point: sometimes we need to dig deeper, and sometimes those players actually produce.
So the next time you feel cheated by the fantasy gods, don't. The next time you catch yourself in a moment of self-pity, stop. Points can be found at all positions at any time. Maybe your team won't be as good as it was before. But if it's competitive with upside, you've always got a shot.
At FF4W's core is a love for battling adversity. My book "Fantasy Football for Winners" is a somewhat exaggerated examination of how to win your league. But there are kernels of truth in every chapter: doing hard-nosed pre-draft research, when to cut an underperformer, executing uneven trades that seem fair, ignoring gut feelings, and so on.
My favorite chapter, "Injuries = Opportunities," is the most essential on an emotional level. It's easy to get discouraged when you lose Patrick Mahomes, David Johnson, and Davante Adams in the span of a couple weeks. How are you supposed to function? It's that defeatist attitude that defeats us. Production is available everywhere. We just have to look hard enough, and be willing to take calculated, high-upside risks. In "A Division" of the FF4W Premier League, 10 free agents scored 18-28 points in Week 8. In all, 30 free agents scored in double-digits. That's an insane amount of production sitting on waivers.
Every year I compete just as you do. My observations aren't detached; my recommendations aren't hypothetical. This past week two of my four WRs--Keenan Allen and Adam Thielen--were dealing with hamstring injuries. Thielen was sidelined. Keenan's role was questionable, so I couldn't confidently trust him. Then I learned my third receiver, Odell Beckham, Jr., has been hampered by a groin injury all season. I added Ted Ginn off waivers in the hope of netting 8+ points. He was worse than expected. Had I been savvier, any of 15 available WRs would have fared better.
Imperfection and fantasy go hand-in-hand. We acknowledge it and try to learn from it.
If my entire starting lineup imploded tomorrow, I'd be pissed. Then at the next round of waivers I'd begin rebuilding from the ashes: maybe some combination of Derek Carr, Baker Mayfield, and Daniel Jones at QB; Wendell Smallwood, Brian Hill, and Jordan Scarlett (to pair with Reggie Bonnafon on my bench) at RB; Chris Conley, Darius Slayton, Danny Amendola, and Deebo Samuel or Josh Reynolds (if Brandin Cooks misses time) at WR; Darren Fells, Noah Fant, or Cameron Brate at TE; and any of 10 kickers to stream. Then I'd try to trade my bench RB handcuffs to the managers who have the starters, and then add available handcuffs and potential handcuffs like Wayne Gallman, Bilal Powell, Jalen Richard, and Kalen Ballage. And every day I'd watch for any injury to catapult an unstartable player out of obscurity.
I'm imperfect, but there's one think I know: It's possible to be "good" at fantasy. As some of you know, I've won two DFS tournaments (baseball and basketball) vs. about 20,000 people combined. I've won two national fantasy baseball titles vs. nearly 400,000 people combined. I haven't missed a fantasy postseason since 2012 (at least 12 consecutive league seasons). In the 84-team FF4W Premier League I'm #2 in points scored. Every week I'm hustling. Even in victory, there's never complacency. Who are my guys facing next week? Which waiver guys might be upgrades--or might block my opponent? Which of my opponents' great players are slumping?
Here's one example of the dangers of thinking our team is "good enough." Entering Week 13 last season I had two top-5 RBs (Todd Gurley and James Conner), one of the most dominant midseason RBs (Aaron Jones), a terrific plug-in #4 RB (Tevin Coleman), a solid QB who exceeded 18 points in eight of 11 starts (Carson Wentz), an elite WR (Tyreek Hill), a high-end WR2 (T.Y. Hilton), the #8 TE (Trey Burton), the #3 kicker (Will Lutz), and the #3 DST. Again, this was Week 13, the final week of the regular season. I was staring at a first-round bye--only two wins away from the title.
By the time I reached the title game three weeks later, Wentz, Gurley, Conner, and Jones were out of commission. There was no pouting. There was only rebuilding. I won my semifinal matchup thanks to 14.8 points from desperation QB Nick Mullens and injury replacement Mike Williams (36.5). Had I managed my FAAB (waiver money) more wisely, I could have grabbed a better QB to put me over the top the following week. But poor strategy on that front shouldn't discount the fact that victory was entirely possible despite losing roughly half my starting lineup--and more than half my weekly production. Only a few weeks earlier, I never imagined needing to start Kalen Ballage (6.9 points), Jordy Nelson (14.5), or Robby Anderson (29). And that's the point: sometimes we need to dig deeper, and sometimes those players actually produce.
So the next time you feel cheated by the fantasy gods, don't. The next time you catch yourself in a moment of self-pity, stop. Points can be found at all positions at any time. Maybe your team won't be as good as it was before. But if it's competitive with upside, you've always got a shot.