Best bye bargains at WR

AS WE head into the next f ive weeks of the fantasy football season, your knowledge of the player pool and matchups will be tested more than ever.

Twenty-four teams will have a week off over that span, with two of those weeks seeing six teams idle at a time. Fantasy teams will be short-handed and playing the waiver wire will become tougher than ever. With the running back and tight end positions such a mess, fantasy owners are going to need to dive deep into the wide receiver pool for help.

Checking a player’s total points or even projected points only scratches the surface. Simply picking up the guy who is projected for the most points rarely works out, as there are a number of intangibles algorithms ignore.

Willie Snead, Kelvin Benjamin and Tre’Quan Smith are perfect examples of players who don’t sit atop the points leaderboard, but should be highly considered for this week.

Smith, the rookie Saints wideout, is going to be a hot ticket — not just for this week, but for weeks to come. The team put Ted Ginn (knee) on injured reserve, and Smith should step in as the new No. 2 receiver. We saw what he did when given such an opportunity two weeks ago — 3-111, two TDs.

Snead not only sees about seven targets per game for the Ravens, but he also has the revenge angle. While he was with the Saints last year, a threegame suspension for violating the league’s drug policy coupled with a hamstring issue opened his season, and he never matched his 100-target expectation. You know he has had this date circled on his calendar.

Benjamin is more of a dart-throw. With Josh Allen hurt and Nathan Peterman benched, the Bills turn to veteran Derek Anderson, who played with Benjamin at Carolina. When Anderson was a starter for a handful of games in 2014, he threw five touchdown passes, three to Benjamin. A long-shot four years down the road? Maybe, but it’s the bye weeks, so where else are you going to find help?

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.