Every single league has someone with Christian McCaffrey on their team. Every league has someone with Josh Jacobs as well. And a few have snakebit managers who have both.
Okay, I’m talking about me. I’m the snakebit manager, along with many others across the country. Teams that had to play without Dalvin Cook understand that feeling, too. We could throw up our hands and blame it on a curse, or karma, or never getting a break. Or we could roll up our sleeves and work that bench we built up in the later rounds on draft day, and maybe even some waiver wire pickups.
It’s time to look to the backups, and even if you don’t have any of those guys, your time might be coming. You’d be smart to evaluate your roster as well.
And by “evaluate” I don’t mean look at the roster and determine if a second McCaffrey is there (he isn’t). I don’t mean shaking your head at a bunch of players who don’t belong in a lineup. I mean taking every spot seriously, and determining if the person taking that spot is your very best option. Is the “worst” player on your bench better than the best player on the waiver wire? Do you have extra depth where you feel thin? Do you have guys who have some semblance of a prayer of performing well if called into duty?
I realize that most waiver wires look like deserts, but you need to look for that rare oasis. Granted, the best-case scenario is that you already had a great draft, maybe secured the best backups and can roll into the coming weeks with your bases covered. But whether you had a strong draft or a weak one, you can always try and improve your roster.
Some fantasy players scour the waiver wire when they need someone immediately, or have to replace a player due to injury. But, in my opinion, the smart players are the ones who are always looking at the waiver wire. Every week, no exceptions. Even if they love their team, and can’t see any dead weight, they still look every week. Just as NFL teams bring players in just to update their emergency lists, I think you should do the same.
Now, let’s face it. Most of us do not completely love our team. We see the weaknesses, we didn’t have perfect drafts and the waiver wire isn’t going to help much. In that case, it’s time to say hello to your bench. It’s the bed you made, and it’s time to lie in it. Maybe it’s the price we pay for not drafting the right guys, or enough depth, or too much depth in a different area, so we don’t have what we need right now. Even if we complain about bad luck with an injury or two, it wasn’t luck that made us pick dud after dud in rounds 9-12, or select a backup tight end we didn’t really need. If we missed the boat on late-round steals, that’s not fate. That’s failure to execute.
And hey, that’s part of the game. So, like an episode of “Chopped,” we’ll have to make a meal out of the ingredients we have. And we’ll keep an eye on the waiver wire in case an upgrade is available.
Just keep in mind that the waiver wire changes every week. To pick up a player, a team has to ditch one. And maybe it’s that guy, the one someone discarded for their waiver selection, that helps your team. I remember many weeks when I didn’t find someone I liked when waivers first ran, but I definitely wanted someone else’s castoff. And many times I got them, because some fantasy teams get their guys for the week and then stop looking at the waiver wire until the following week. So there’s a smaller pool of competition for a player that was probably taken on draft day. That selection might help your team overcome an injury.
Or maybe not. This game is an unpredictable as a hamstring. All you can do is try and stay prepared and hope for the best. But at some point, all fantasy teams have to turn to their bench. It might be week 10, or week 8, or, for many of us, week 4. Let’s hope we find our answers there. Good luck this week.
How prepared are you for a big injury? How happy are you with your bench right now? How often do you evaluate the guys you never expect to use? Share your thoughts below.