Quarter Season Assessments

By Joe Goodwin

How has your season gone so far?

Are you 4 and 1, cruising with the most points in your league? Or, are you 1 and 4 assessing all of your previous decisions leading up the this point?

Well, both positions can be tricky, and I hope to navigate you through each situation.

I'm 4- 1 and cruising…

For this team, I advise you to monitor the waiver wire carefully.   A team may bail on a player that has under performed as they look to revamp their roster mid season.  In this situation, look out for: Cam Akers, KJ Osborn, Kyle Pitts, Darren Waller, etc.  These types of players are great stashes on your bench.  You don't need them to start.  And you can afford to have them on the bench in hopes they return to form or meet those pre season expectations.

 For this team, I would also advise on monitoring your depth.  You could be making all the right decisions on start/sit (hopefully following myself and Bob Miller), but those decisions may be reversed if you are not so lucky.  Make sure you have the necessary bench players to cover a possible hit to a current starter.  This might include you packaging multiple bench players to beef up a primary bench spot that may need to start in a pinch.  Think Aj Dillon and Brandon Aiyuk for AJ Brown (or Derrick Henry).  In either of these cases, you are looking to trade from your strength to a team that might benefit from two players that could start for them.

This team has started strong.  Don't sleep on it.  A Championship team needs to monitored every week.  You never know when a trade or waiver claim may even improve your ability to maintain its current trajectory later in the season.

I'm 1 and 4 and sinking fast…

This team has obviously under performed and your frustration level is high.

With this team, you may need to make tough choices on players you thought would be vital to your team.  Players like: Russell Wilson, Chase Claypool, Antonio Gibson may need to be cut.  

Instead, you should be targeting players that have the opportunity to become fantasy contributors soon.  That list may include: Brian Robinson, Randall Cobb, Noah Fant, Daniel Jones.

I get it is difficult to move on, and the pain of seeing one of those players getting hot in week 10 is a gut punch.  However, you can't wait that long with only 1 win so far.  You need to be bold and look for players that can have big weeks now.

This team also may not have a lot of "big time" scorers, so you should look to bundle a few of your middling players to try and obtain a "splash" player. Think TJ Hockenson and Mike Williams for Dalvin Cook.  

In these examples,  it always takes two teams to tango. You may think nobody will ever make that trade.  The thing is…you never know.  And, you know your league best.  Take advantage of that!  If another manager is a big fan of the Ravens, see if that person would over pay for JK Dobbins.

So whether you are 4-1 or 1-4, this season is not over.  Keep working!  

Check in next week as I will analyze the teams sitting at .500.

Playing fantasy football is supposed to be fun.  So, let's keep it that way and fight till the end!