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

Big Dog’s Guide to Fantasy Drafts – Types and Strategies:

Having a solid draft is essential to a successful fantasy football season.  You will make many changes to your lineups throughout the season and if you’re smart, you will also be active on the waiver wires and probably also be involved in trades.  However, you most likely will find that if you end up in your league playoffs, many of your your draft picks or advantageous trades you made because you drafted well is the reason you made it that far.  I have made the playoffs in my league three out of the four years I’ve been playing and even though I made lineup changes throughout the season, the key three or four players who led me to the playoffs were players I drafted.

Now, there are 2 main types of drafts.  A conventional draft and an auction style draft.

The conventional draft is where every team owner picks a number out of a hat and whatever number you pick is the order in which you draft.  The team owner who picks number 1 out of the hat has the first pick and the team owner who picks the last number out of the hat picks last in the first round.  However, each round “snakes” around and the team owner who picks last in the first round then picks first in the second round going in reverse order back to the player who picked first and then the team owner who picked number 1 picks first in the third round and each round follows accordingly until all teams have a completed roster of players.

An auction style draft gives every team owner the opportunity to draft all players.  In an auction style draft, each team owner is given a budget of $100.00 and the league commissioner will use a ranked list of the top 200 or 300 players available at all positions.  The commissioner will start with the top ranked player on the list and then move down the list one by one with each team owner able to bid on any and all players available.  However, if you bid too high for individual players and run out of money, you are no longer allowed to bid on players and you have to wait until all team owners run out of money to re-join the draft.  When the time comes where all team owners have run out of money, the draft then becomes a conventional style draft and team owners complete their teams by drawing a number out of a hat and then selecting from the players who haven’t been drafted until their roster is complete.

As far as strategies, in a conventional style draft, there are different strategies which mainly depend on how your league scoring works.  If quarterbacks get 6 points for TD passes, there is more of an advantage to drafting a top quarterback.  Also, if your league rewards points for receptions, there is more of a premium in drafting running backs like Brian Westbrook or Steven Jackson who catch a lot of passes out of the backfield.  However, the strategies below are geared toward standard scoring leagues where quarterbacks receive 4 points for TD passes and there are no points for receptions.

Running backs are the most important positions to draft early in fantasy football!!  That is so important that I should say it again but I think you get the point.  If you look at most expert projections or mock drafts, out of the first 20 selections, at least 15 or more of those players taken are running backs.  In my opinion, your first two selections should be running backs and then your next three players (in no particular order) should be a wide receiver, quarterback and then a third running back.  However, the order in which you pick players 3 though 5 will depend on the level of the players that are available and the selections being made by the other team owners.  This basically means that if there is a run of quarterbacks taken by other team owners in the early rounds of the draft, you may want to take one a little quicker than you had planned to get a highly ranked, more productive quarterback.  Another note on draft strategies is that team defenses and kickers should be among the last picks you make, especially kickers.  You will find that many good defenses and kickers will be available very late in the draft and also be available on the waiver wire throughout the season and you will also find that you will be playing different defenses and kickers in your starting lineup depending on their matchup each week.  Lastly, in my opinion you should only draft one team defense and one kicker because this will give you more roster spots for “skill position” players.  This will give you more options for your starting lineups each week depending on matchups, injuries or byes and it will also give you more skill players available to use in trade proposals.  Also, be aware of player’s bye weeks so you dont draft a number of players with the same bye week.  If you do this, it will leave you with less players to choose from for that week and you may end up with multiple “stud” players on your bench during the same week.

As far as strategies in an auction style draft, the only advice I have is don’t spend too much money on more than one individual player.  In auction drafts, you will find that team owners start throwing away large amounts of money on the top ranked 20 to 25 players.  After that many really good players are available for a lot lower bids as team owners start to get more cautious with their bids because they don’t want to run out of money.  I suggest you make a fairly high bid for a top 10 running back and after that just go with the flow of the draft and try to budget your money to procure a well-rounded team at all positions. I remember in 2003, I was involved in an auction style draft and one of the team owners paid $46.00 for Ricky Williams (in 2002, he led the league in rushing) and $42.00 for Randy Moss (this owner was a huge Minnesota fan) that means he spent 88 dollars on 2 players.  This meant that He had to fill the rest of his roster with lesser players.  Randy Moss ended up missing some games with injuries, so needless to say he had one of the worst records in the league and didn’t make the playoffs.  In turn, I tried to be more balanced and ended up spending $36.00 for Priest Holmes (this was before Larry Johnson), $28.00 for Ahman Green, $8.00 for Brett Favre and $4.00 for Hines Ward.  I spent $78.00 on four “studs” compared to his $88.00 for 2 “studs”.  I did make the playoffs and ended up losing in the championship game, finishing the season in 2nd place out of 12 teams.

Those are my basic draft strategies.  However, you will find that no matter how organized you are in planning your draft strategy, you most likely will find yourself waivering from that depending on trends and selections being made by other team owners.  Go in with a strategy and then make the best decisions for your team as you go depending on the players available when it’s time for you to pick.

Good luck to all.

Written by “The Big Dog” Barry Simon on July 15, 2007.

Fantasy sports has become a phenomenon. Fantasy football has grown to be the most popular of fantasy sports. Millions and millions of football fans are playing fantasy football, with more joining every year. If you are a football fan who wants to add more excitement and be more interactive with your N.F.L. football viewing, here is a step by step instruction guide to the curious fan who is contemplating taking on this endeavor and wants to know what fantasy football is all about.

In very basic terms, fantasy football is a game where you draft a team of actual N.F.L. players. Every fantasy football league is different, but usually you will draft anywhere from 12 to 16 players. This will give you a starting lineup and reserves that are placed on your “bench”. Each week you create a starting lineup and then you are matched up head to head against another team owner and their starting lineup. Each team accumulates points based on the performance of your individual players in your starting lineup. Again, each league is different but most starting lineups consist of :

* Quarterback
* 2 or 3 running backs
* 2 or 3 wide receivers
* a tight end, a kicker
* team defense / special teams

There are points awarded to your team for each individual player’s accomplishments. Quarterbacks score points by touchdown passes and passing yards. Running backs, wide receivers and tight ends score points by touchdowns scored and yards gained by rushing or receiving or passing. Kickers score points by kicking field goals and extra points. Team defenses / special teams score points by sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles and touchdowns scored. Also be aware that in most leagues, points are deducted if your player throws an interceptions fumbles or misses field goals or extra points. At the end of each head to head matchup, the team that scored the most points wins and then moves on to their next matchup.

Most seasons consist of 14 league games and then you have playoffs for the 4 teams with the best overall records for week 15 and a championship game for week 16. Most leagues end during week 16 because in week 17 many N.F.L. teams who have clinched playoff spots rest their best players, which would severely affect your fantasy team’s starting lineup.
To play fantasy football, you must have access to a computer because all fantasy leagues are created and managed through various websites. There are many websites that offer you the chance to join a fantasy football league. For first time players, many of these leagues are free and there are league choices out there that will primarily be made up of other first time players. A few of these websites are:

* yahoo.com
* nfl.com
* cbssportsline.com
* tsn.com
* foxsports.com

Some of these websites also offer leagues that will charge you a fee to join as an individual (usually between $20.00 and $40.00). However, these leagues offer the opportunity to win cash prizes.

Another option is to gather friends together who are also interested in playing and create your own league. If you decide to do this, there is a league fee (usually between $120.00 and $150.00) and most of the websites mentioned above also offer this option to manage your league. You can divide this amount between all of the team owners (which would amount to $12.00 to $15.00 per team owner) or you can also choose the option to charge a higher fee per per team owner and use the excess money after paying the website fee to offer cash prizes to either the league champion or split it up amongst all playoff teams. It is a lot more fun to play fantasy football if you are playing for a cash prize.

I have found that yahoo.com is one of the most reasonable and is very easy to use when creating your own league. Most leagues have either 10 or 12 teams. One player will need to be the commissioner of the league and he basically sets up the league by paying the league fee to the website, holds any extra money and awards it to the team owners at the end of the season and enters all of the team owners, their team names and their individual players selected in the draft on the website by following the easy to follow instructions.

Once you have your team owners in place, the next and most fun part of the process is the draft. If playing on a free website, most drafts are done on-line and instructions are provided to you by the website when you sign up. If you create a league among friends, the best and most fun way to handle your draft is a live draft. In this scenario, all of the league players get together to do your draft live and have a draft party. No matter what type of draft you’re involved with, you need to be prepared if you want to draft a competitive team. My suggestion is to purchase a fantasy football magazine (there are many different ones available). These magazines rank players at every position for every team and also includes rankings and expert insight of the top 200 or 300 players no matter what position they play.

Once you’re ready to start your draft the most fair way to determine the order of selecting players is just to pick numbers out of a hat. Each team owner must select a team name (it’s more fun if you be as creative as possible). Each team then picks their players in the first round in order of how the numbers were picked and when you get to the end of the first round, the draft usually “snakes’ around for the second round. This means whoever picks last in the first round will then pick first in the second round going back down to the team owner who picked first, who will then pick first again in the third round and so on. Each round follows in this manner until all of your individual players are picked. When picking, you will probably want to pick 1 or 2 running backs with your first 2 picks as running backs are usually the highest scoring and most coveted players in the draft, but you need to decide what players you want to pick in what order on your own. You want to try to pick “bench players” as backups to your starting players and also need to look at each individual player’s bye weeks when picking your players as to not pick too many players with the same bye week as that will leave you limited with what players to put in your starting lineup during that week.

Once the draft is over, every individual N.F.L. player that is not selected goes into either the “free agent pool” or “waiver wire” depending on the way your league is set up. Either way, these players are available to pick up and place on your team during the season if you want to replace any of your drafted players that either are not performing up to your expectations or players that may get injured and are not playing due to that injury. a “free agent pool” means that all undrafted players are available to any team on a first come, first served basis. A “waiver wire” means that any selected undrafted player gets put on hold for 1 to 3 days giving other team owners the opportunity to also select this player and then after the hold period, this player is placed on the team with the worst record of the teams who claimed him. in most leagues, you can also propose trades to other team owners or accept trades from other team owners to try to improve your team, but usually the trade must be approved by the league commissioner or by team owners voting for or protesting against the trade to make sure it is a fair trade and not the case of one losing team giving away good players to his friend who is competing for a playoff spot. Each week you have the opportunity to change your starting lineup depending on matchups and players that may not be playing due to bye weeks or injuries.

You will find that one of the effects of fantasy football is as a football fan, you find yourself rooting or cursing individual players (yours or your opponents) rather than rooting for N.F.L. teams and playing fantasy football puts an entirely different spin on how you watch and enjoy N.F.L. football games and makes it an exciting interactive experience.
These are the basics of playing fantasy football and for true football fans, you will find that once you start playing, you will get hooked. Good luck to all that choose to join this experience. You will not regret it.

The “Big Dogs” Guide Fantasy Football for newbies:

Fantasy sports has become a phenomenon.  Fantasy football has grown to be the most popular of fantasy sports.  Millions and millions of football fans are playing fantasy football, with more joining every year.  If you are a football fan who wants to add more excitement and be more interactive with your N.F.L. football viewing, here is a step by step instruction guide to the curious fan who is contemplating taking on this endeavor and wants to know what fantasy football is all about.

In very basic terms, fantasy football is a game where you draft a team of actual N.F.L. players. Every fantasy football league is different, but usually you will draft anywhere from 12 to 16 players.  This will give you a starting lineup and reserves that are placed on your “bench”.  Each week you create a starting lineup and then you are matched up head to head against another team owner and their starting lineup.  Each team accumulates points based on the performance of your individual players in your starting lineup.  Again, each league is different but most starting lineups consist of a Quarterback, 2 or 3 running backs, 2 or 3 wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker and a team defense / special teams. There are points awarded to your team for each individual player’s accomplishments.  Quarterbacks score points by touchdown passes and passing yards.  Running backs, wide receivers and tight ends score points by touchdowns scored and yards gained by rushing or receiving or passing.  Kickers score points by kicking field goals and extra points.  Team defenses / special teams score points by sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles and touchdowns scored.  Also be aware that in most leagues, points are deducted if your player throws an interceptions fumbles or misses field goals or extra points.  At the end of each head to head matchup, the team that scored the most points wins and then moves on to their next matchup.  Most seasons consist of 14 league games and then you have playoffs for the 4 teams with the best overall records for week 15 and a championship game for week 16.  Most leagues end during week 16 because in week 17 many N.F.L. teams who have clinched playoff spots rest their best players, which would severely affect your fantasy team’s starting lineup.

To play fantasy football, you must have access to a computer because all fantasy leagues are created and managed through various websites.  There are many websites that offer you the chance to join a fantasy football league.  For first time players, many of these leagues are free and there are league choices out there that will primarily be made up of other first time players.  A few of these websites are yahoo.com, nfl.com, cbssportsline.com, tsn.com, foxsports.com and many others.  Some of these websites also offer leagues that will charge you a fee to join as an individual (usually between $20.00 and $40.00).  However, these leagues offer the opportunity to win cash prizes.  Another option is to gather friends together who are also interested in playing and create your own league.  If you decide to do this, there is a league fee (usually between $120.00 and $150.00) and most of the websites mentioned above also offer this option to manage your league.  You can divide this amount between all of the team owners (which would amount to $12.00 to $15.00 per team owner) or you can also choose the option to charge a higher fee per per team owner and use the excess money after paying the website fee to offer cash prizes to either the league champion or split it up amongst all playoff teams.  It is a lot more fun to play fantasy football if you are playing for a cash prize.  I have found that yahoo.com is one of the most reasonable and is very easy to use when creating your own league.  Most leagues have either 10 or 12 teams.  One player will need to be the commissioner of the league and he basically sets up the league by paying the league fee to the website, holds any extra money and awards it to the team owners at the end of the season and enters all of the team owners, their team names and their individual players selected in the draft on the website by following the easy to follow instructions.

Once you have your team owners in place, the next and most fun part of the process is the draft.  If playing on a free website, most drafts are done on-line and instructions are provided to you by the website when you sign up.  If you create a league among friends, the best and most fun way to handle your draft is a live draft.  In this scenario, all of the league players get together to do your draft live and have a draft party.  No matter what type of draft you’re involved with, you need to be prepared if you want to draft a competitive team.  My suggestion is to purchase a fantasy football magazine (there are many different ones available).  These magazines rank players at every position for every team and also includes rankings and expert insight of the top 200 or 300 players no matter what position they play.

Once you’re ready to start your draft the most fair way to determine the order of selecting players is just to pick numbers out of a hat.  Each team owner must select a team name (it’s more fun if you be as creative as possible).  Each team then picks their players in the first round in order of how the numbers were picked and when you get to the end of the first round, the draft usually “snakes’ around for the second round.  This means whoever picks last in the first round will then pick first in the second round going back down to the team owner who picked first, who will then pick first again in the third round and so on.  Each round follows in this manner until all of your individual players are picked.  When picking, you will probably want to pick 1 or 2 running backs with your first 2 picks as running backs are usually the highest scoring and most coveted players in the draft, but you need to decide what players you want to pick in what order on your own.  You want to try to pick “bench players” as backups to your starting players and also need to look at each individual player’s bye weeks when picking your players as to not pick too many players with the same bye week as that will leave you limited with what players to put in your starting lineup during that week.

Once the draft is over, every individual N.F.L. player that is not selected goes into either the “free agent pool” or “waiver wire” depending on the way your league is set up.  Either way, these players are available to pick up and place on your team during the season if you want to replace any of your drafted players that either are not performing up to your expectations or players that may get injured and are not playing due to that injury.  a “free agent pool” means that all undrafted players are available to any team on a first come, first served basis.  A “waiver wire” means that any selected undrafted player gets put on hold for 1 to 3 days giving other team owners the opportunity to also select this player and then after the hold period, this player is placed on the team with the worst record of the teams who claimed him.   in most leagues, you can also propose trades to other team owners or accept trades from other team owners to try to improve your team, but usually the trade must be approved by the league commissioner or by team owners voting for or protesting against the trade to make sure it is a fair trade and not the case of one losing team giving away good players to his friend who is competing for a playoff spot.  Each week you have the opportunity to change your starting lineup depending on matchups and players that may not be playing due to bye weeks or injuries.

You will find that one of the effects of fantasy football is as a football fan, you find yourself rooting or cursing individual players (yours or your opponents) rather than rooting for N.F.L. teams and playing fantasy football puts an entirely different spin on how you watch and enjoy N.F.L. football games and makes it an exciting interactive experience.
These are the basics of playing fantasy football and for true football fans, you will find that once you start playing, you will get hooked.  Good luck to all that choose to join this experience.  You will not regret it.

Written by the “Big Dog” Barry Simon on 7/7/07

I am the “Big Dog” Barry Simon. I have a vast knowledge of and love to talk about sports. My specialty is football and I am extremely focused on fantasy football.

So ask me anything you want but in this blog I’ll answer everything fantasy football related. From who the top five defenses are to how to deal with the jerk in your league. I want to hear from you…