Don’t overthink your fantasy draft

By Kelly May  |   Thursday, August 21, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

Fantasy Football
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Should you be overly concerned about where the bye weeks fall for your fantasy football players? What happens if everyone on your roster has the same bye week? Is that even possible? Should you avoid drafting a second-tier running back in the third round because his bye falls the same time as one of your starters?

So many questions! The answer, however, is infinitely simple: Don't worry about the bye weeks during your draft. Relax, take a deep breath and pick the best player on your board when your selection comes up.

Once the talent starts to dwindle, you should definitely keep track of where the bye weeks are for your starters; however, don’t be overly worried.

Let’s take the worst-case scenario: Three of your first five picks in your draft are LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates. Whether you’re a Chargers fan or not, you could get chided by your fellow owners for picking too many guys on the same team -- and on the same bye week.

As the draft goes on, you pick two more starters who all happen to have the same bye as the Chargers. All told, you have five starters out of the lineup in Week 9. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen, but you’re really ensuring that your roster will be close to intact for the vast majority of the season.

While Week 9 would surely be tough under these circumstances, your fellow owners will be scrambling for a backup every game from Week 4 through Week 10, and you’ll be relatively stable each week.

This isn’t to say that you should seek out players all having the same bye week. It just simply means that bye week paranoia is responsible for a lot of failed fantasy drafts.

Other key aspects of the over-thinking fantasy owner is the drafting of a defense or kicker in the middle rounds; the picking of a fifth running back before you take your first receiver; and choosing a backup RB too high because you read somewhere that handcuffing your rushers is an absolute must – no matter what.

The bottom line is that drafting is only the beginning. Once the dust settles, that’s when you really have to mold your team from the giant lump of clay you just grabbed.

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