You’ve done your prep. You’ve drafted. Now is the time to sit back and relax and wait for September 4th right? Wrong Kemosabe! Here are four things you need to be doing while you wait for kickoff.
1. Gauge Your Team
The after draft euphoria has worn off, and it’s just you and the draft board. How you feel at this moment is very personal. Feelings can range from transcendent jubilation, to ground shaking despair. But, no matter your feelings, it’s important to take an objective look at your team. Do you have high injury risks? Are your wide receivers not up to snuff? Did you end up with two kickers thanks to auto draft? It’s better to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team early, rather than finding out in Week 4 that your two main running backs are not going to be enough to carry you through the season. Once you address this, it will be easier to exploit your strengths and remedy your shortcomings.
2. Check Out Your Opponents
Just as it’s important to evaluate your players, it is equally important to know the teams you will be competing against. Understanding the needs of your opponents will better enable you to trade players in the future, and dominate the waiver wire. For instance, if a team only has one quarterback, and that quarterback has a bye week in Week 7, you can presume that they will be picking up a quarterback around week 5, 6 or 7. This is important if during your analysis of your team, you decided that you would need a back up quarterback in that time frame. You will know that to get the top rated waiver wire player, you will need to make a move before your opponent. Also, matching the needs of your team with another is beneficial for trading. If you have a weakness at WR, and another team has a plethora of WR talent, clearly that can be someone to target for a trade in the future.
3. Flag Plant On The Waiver Wire:
Flag planting is the act of claiming ownership, or in this case, marking players that you’re interested in. Why is this important? Knowing you have a wide receiver weakness, you can check out the waiver wire and mark four or five players that you think have play making ability and can provide value to you. Suddenly, you are in Week 4 and one of the few good wide receivers you have goes down with an injury. Having these players marked throughout any point of the season makes finding value much easier. Your opponent may be looking at those same players, however, so timing is everything.
Many people think they can win just with their draft, but that simply isn’t true. You could be saying, “Psh, I don’t need the waiver wire. I’ll just roll with my original team. My drafting is on point!” Well, let me me throw some data at you that may change your mind. Last season, Julius Thomas was picked up off of the waiver wire by many a savvy fantasy footballer. and he finished as the third-best tight end in standard scoring leagues. Game changer. Charles Clay was another great pick up finishing seventh among his fellow tight ends. Want a comparison to see how important the waiver wire is? Rob Gronkowski was selected in the fourth round, and finished 14th overall. Think that his injury makes that example irrelevant? Well, when your starting player is injured, where are you going to turn for a replacement? That’s right, the waiver wire.
You want some other great waiver wire pickups that were available in less-competitive leagues in the 2013 season? Here you go: Nick Foles, Zac Stacy, Rashard Jennings, Julian Edelman and Alshon Jeffery. The waiver wire is filled with plenty of value.
4. Research Your Players
This isn’t just relevant between draft day and kick off, it’s constructive throughout your entire season. Check twitter, watch ESPN, use Google, subscribe to Your Fantasy Football Coach (a great place for up to date and helpful info in my humble opinion). With the amount of information available, there’s really no reason to not have a general idea of the health and well being of your players. All it takes is a little time, and determination, which you will need throughout the entire season.
To sum everything up, I leave you with a quote from the great Vince Lombardi: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You dont win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.”
Draft well, enjoy the long hours of research and may the odds be ever in your favor my fellow fantasy football players. Until next time, Cheers!
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Categories: Fantasy Football
Your Fantasy Football Coach 
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