Don’t bite on bad offers
NOW THAT your fantasy football drafts are complete and Week 1 of the NFL season has officially begun, your real work as a general manager is just getting underway.
League championships are not won on draft day. You may get off to a strong start, but fantasy football championships are won on the waiver wire and on the trade front. But it isn’t just identifying high-end players to target via free agency and trade, it also is about knowing which pitfalls you must avoid.
Meet the owner of Mark Ingram. In the wake of Le’Veon Bell’s holdout and Jerick McKinnon’s torn ACL, the owner of the Saints running back is now shopping his guy around the league in the hopes of getting someone to overpay out of desperation. If you’re struggling with your backfield, the prospect of having Ingram return from suspension in Week 5 and for the duration of the season seems pretty enticing. Or does it?
Ingram is nothing more than fool’s gold in the fantasy realm. Ingram’s owner will tout him all day, but what he won’t remind you of is that the Saints have a Week 6 bye. He won’t appear in your starting lineup for five of the first six weeks of the season. Is that returning value on the high-end wide receiver you give up to get him?
To make matters worse, the Saints’ schedule after the bye looks horrendous — matchups against the Ravens, Vikings and Rams. A Week 9 matchup with the Bengals probably won’t be a walk in the park, then come the Eagles in Week 10.
You will have traded productive talent for a bulk of the season for a guy who may not be a viable starter until Week 11, and even then you have to wonder if he is someone you can trust with your fantasy playoffs on the line.
Fantasy football leagues are filled with wolves in sheep’ s clothing, they’re just looking to fleece you and leave you for dead. Your draft prep was just the beginning of your research. Don’t think because you know last year’s stats and watch this year’s highlights that you can’t be sold a bad bill of goods.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 4-6 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy sports advice, NFL player rankings.