Different fantasy teams will have different experiences each season. Some will have injuries every week, while others will be blessed with a healthy lineup most of the year. Some owners seem to face the top-scoring team each week, while others always catch their opponent when they're down. Each year brings new variables, and new fortunes.
Except one. All fantasy teams deal with bye weeks. And how you manage them often determines if you'll still be playing a few weeks from now.
I know the season isn't over, but we're officially past the part where players get a week off. You still have work to do, but I think you should also take a look and see how you weathered the storm that all teams face. While every owner has a plan (sometimes called "I'll deal with it when I get there,") how those plans actually shake out determine wins and losses.
I think the very worst plan is to pretend you have it all figured out on draft day. QB2 will fill in for QB1 in week 8 and you're set there. RB3 (maybe RB4) is ready to step in weeks 10 and 12, respectively. You even made sure there are good matchups for them!
All that sounds great, until around week 3. Then injuries start to change the landscape. Players don't perform as you expected. That great matchup doesn't look so great, either. And then you're scrambling to make it by the bye.
Some owners choose to spread out their bye weeks so they don't get hit too hard in any one game. Sounds great, until plans change. Then your starters actually do have the same bye weeks, and you weren't prepared for it. And it still feels like you're missing someone valuable every week.
Not that preparation guarantees anything. This year I was happy to have most byes in the same week. I figured I'd take one big hit and be stronger for the majority of the season. And who knows? Maybe I'd get lucky and win that week, too. But at least I'd be at full strength, or close to it, for most weeks.
I can say that I was prepared for it. What I wasn't prepared for was losing some close games so I really needed to win that bye week. I couldn't just take the loss. Add in a couple of injuries, and I had to jettison some valuable depth just to cover the bye. I made it through, but I'm thinner at a few positions with no guarantee to make the playoffs. And even if I get there, I don't know if I have the players to take me far. I actually won that week somehow, but I lost at least two viable starters that I might very well need later in the year. And I'm holding on to some injured guys who might never play another down for me. So did I really win, or did I simply cement a loss later?
I'm not sure you can find a formula that will definitely work next year, especially while you're still playing this year. But I think this is the right time to identify what didn't work while it's fresh in your mind. For me, the "dominate all the other weeks and suffer through one rough week" didn't really work. I didn't have the bench space to accommodate injuries and changes. If they had been more spread out, I could have kept the depth I might still need.
If you know something really didn't work for you, identify it now. Later, after a full offseason and a thousand other things to consider, you might not recall how tough things really were. And while making a mistake is bad, repeating it is much worse. You can evaluate your overall GM performance in a month or so. But you can see how you weathered bye weeks right now, and consider whether there's a better way to tackle it next season. Good luck this week.
What grade would you give yourself regarding bye weeks this season? Do you approach them with a specific strategy, or deal with everything as it comes? What came up that you weren't expecting, and what will you change next year? Share your thoughts below.