Fantasy Football Suggestions for a reluctant newbie

In My Humble Opinion
1

Many hardcore (US) football fans and fantasy football junkies who I work with who know that I know less than nothing about football invited me to join their league “because they needed a 12th member.” Since no cash changes hands in this league and they assured me it would require minimal time on my part in order to finish last, I agreed to join.

My first goals were to:

  1. Not draft anyone who was retired or who plays a sport other than US football.

  2. Not start anyone on his “bye” week.

  3. Not start an injured player.

As it turns out, the draft was automated and the website tells you who has a bye week and who is injured, so I should succeed in acccomplishing my initial goals.

Then yesterday the guy in the league who I face this weekend made a few suggestions to me for some roster changes. Having no time to reasearch, I concluded that no matter what the guy said, doing the opposite would probably be in my best interest.

This morning another guy picks up Cade McNown on waivers and offers him to me straight up for my Jeff Garcia. Sounds like a terrible deal, but what the hell do I know? I heard Cade McNown’s name on the radio a lot when he was with the Bears and it was seldom anything good.

Two new strategies: do not accept advice from anyone in the league and refuse all trades.

Given my lack of time for research and lack of knowledge, what would be the best tack to take? I think the way the league is set up, too much is left to chance to really spend a lot of time trying to win.

I could just coast each week, starting who the computer recommends and just see where the chips fall. Or I could accept everyone’s advice and trades and try to finish last, but that would be too easy.

What thinks thee?

2

Well, based on your trade offer, don’t trust anyone in your league. Cade McNown is out for the year for surgery, and in any case he was Garcia’s 3rd string backup.

I’d suggest going to the weekly Football thread here, and listing your roster and asking for advice on who to play. Ditto any trade requests.

Each week all the football nuts like myself would happily throw our opinions at you, and probably heckle one another choices. Clean fun for all! Good Luck.

3

Get the Packers defense. That’s my recommendation.

And yes, I would suggest avoiding any of those trades since it sounds like you are playing with a bunch of bastards. Cade McNown for Garcia?? Tell me you didn’t accept that deal…

4

I did not accept that deal.

5

Try using The Sporting News for real quick lookups of what is happening to players. Go the team page and then click on a players name to see what the latest is on that player.

I would recommend:

A) Not making any trades
B) Checking every Thursday or Friday to see if anyone is injured
C) Every other week checking to see what players may be available to pick up

The football nuts in here, including myself, would be more than willing to help, I’m sure, if you were looking for help on which players to start.

6

I’d recommend checking the schedules every Thursday monring so you don’t forget to submit a lineup on those frequent weeks when there is a Thursday night game.