NFL PLAYER INJURIES & BYES CAN BE A KILLER FOR FANTASY MANAGERS

Especially if You Panic
Well, now is when the fun starts in fantasy football. It’s the time when many fantasy football team managers must get creative with their line up due to injuries.

When those injuries coincide with the beginning of the NFL bye week period then its a double whammy, & yes I happen to be dealing with that at the moment.

In one of my 10 team leagues I have three starters, Steven Jackson (injured), Clinton Portis (bye) and Vernon Davis (injured) to replace in my line up.

The byes you can plan for. Unfortunately, the injuries are unexpected. I had my line up all prepared for the byes with a combination of calculated draft picks coordinated with shrewdly planned trades. And then, BAM! it all goes in the toilet on Sunday when my main guy Steven Jackson goes down for at least a week.

Now, when this happens to you, and it will happen to you, ideally you would have a deep enough bench to cover the byes and injuries. Otherwise, the next step is to try to get your injured player’s backup. If someone else picks him up before you get the chance, the only other option is to try to find a productive player on the waiver wire and roll with it.

Now, in my league, Brian Leonard had already been picked up and I had few options because my only running backs other than Jackson & Portis are Ladell Betts, Julius Jones and Derrick Ward. Since Betts is also on a bye and Julius Jones has been less than stellar, I ended up picking up Ron Dayne. My thoughts behind this move is that Ahman green has a bad knee so if he doesn’t play then Dayne would start. Even if Green’s knee is better, Dayne still was getting 10 to 12 carries a game (including goal line). So I can only hope that either Green doesn’t play or plays sparingly due to his injury. Now, Dayne is injured too (ribs) but he sat out week 3 and has been declared healthy and ready to play week 4. My line up will change throughout the week depending on injury updates, but I wanted to have Dayne on my bench so if it is announced that Green isn’t going to play, I already have Dayne ready to fill in.

Sometimes all you can do is cross your fingers & hope it will work out for you because the only other option is to drop a quality player on a bye. To get Dayne I had to drop my Portis handcuff (Ladell Betts). That hurts, because I’ld traded for him week one, but with the byes beginning the odds are I’ll be able to pick him back up later on (or maybe even a starter as those who drafted poorly get hit with the bye week blues through week 10).

Dealing with byes and injuries (especially injuries) is the most frustrating part of fantasy football but if you stay on top of the news updates going on around the league, be active on the waiver wire and be willing to take a chance on a player that has a good matchup, there’s a chance you can still win.

Because of the injuries and byes, this is the line up I am going with at the moment:

QB – Palmer (or Kitna)

RB’s – Ward, J. Jones & Dayne (I am playing J. Jones because of his matchup against the swiss cheese defense of the Rams)

WR’s – Boldin, Holmes

TE – Daniels

K – Reed

Def – Steelers

Now, I still have Berrian & Cotchery on my bench so if Dayne doesn’t start or if I decide to replace J. Jones, I have decent WR’s to replace them with in the flex position. However, I will have to play one of them.

Remember, weeks 6 and 8 each have six teams on byes, so if you haven’t already you better look at your rosters and start planning for those weeks now.

Good luck to all and if you plan early, play the waiver wire and play the match ups you have a chance to get through these times.

Barry “The Big DOg” Simon

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