Week Six: Bye Week Hell Oct 10, 2007 | More

Welcome to the Bye week hell. If you haven’t felt the bye week crunch, this may be the week you do. Between this week and another bye hell in week 8, a lot of owners are going to scramble to fill holes. Injuries are mounting faster then you can put in a waiver claim and it seems everyone wants to offer you a trade for the only healthy productive players you have. What should you do? Honestly, you should take a step back, relax and read up on all the players that are available. If you are putting in waiver claims, I would wait until the last day to look over your options. I wait until about a few hours before the waiver deadline to analyze the players available because things change during the week. Players get injuries in practice, recover in time for the next game or get benched. I’ve found myself changing my mind several times on who to pick up and if you act to fast, you may get stuck with a player you can’t really use.

Did you draft the Ravens or Bears defense early and now are short? Although the Bears are 3^rd in Shark League scoring, they haven’t put up monster stats. The Ravens are 15^th in Shark League scoring. There are plenty of owners that are struggling because they pulled the trigger early on these defenses and they have yet to reap the benefits. Cut bait if you can by trading them to someone who would like to own them or pick up a second defense and then the Ravens or Bears can be played when they have the best match-ups.

There is a large amount of trading in leagues this season which is good for Fantasy Football but some of the trades I’ve seen go down have been down right ugly. Not only are some owners shipping away their prized early round picks for temporary fixes for the time being but they are also setting themselves up for disaster down the road. I’ve seen teams trade for players that are not even healthy enough to start. Another trade problem I’m seeing deals with the bye weeks. Owners are either neglecting that the players they are getting have an upcoming bye week right away or they trade a player after their bye week for a player going into their bye week leaving them two weeks with out that starter. My advice to you is don’t jump on trades right away. If it’s you get a trade that is ridiculous by all means shoot it down fast. If you can take some time, let that owner know that you’re considering it. If they sense your desperation they will offer you less. Also, boost up your trade side by providing stats showing the strength of your player. Show that person you know the value of your team and he won’t take you for a sucker. I like to let them know that I am getting inquires from other owners on the players they want. Sometimes you can get more from the trade if they want to beat out “other offers”. Beware of the “Two for one” trades. These are trades people will offer you more players but the value of these players are still not worth your stud.

Let’s look at the players not available and what players you can use to fill the void.

QBs on Week Six Bye:

The list for this week includes, Payton Manning , John Kitna, Jay Cutler, Ben Roethlisberger, Trent Edwards and Trent Dilfer, . That is a fairly considerable amount of good QBs off this week making the Back up situation very shaky. So who can you turn to in week 6 to try and stay afloat? Cleo Lemon, Brian Griese, Derek Anderson, Phillip Rivers or Kurt Warner can fill in. Do you see a theme here, most of these guys weren’t drafted.

RBs on Week Six Bye:

This list includes Joseph Addai/ Kenton Keith, Kevin Jones/ Tatum Bell, Travis Henry/ Selvin Young, Willie Parker/ Najeh Davenport, Marshawn Lynch, and Frank Gore. If you avoided to have players on the list of inactive QBs then your next challenge is the RBs that are off. Chris Brown, Adrian Peterson, Reggie Bush and Correll Buckhalter (if Westbrook can’t go).

WRs on Week Six Bye:

This includes Marvin Harrison/ Reggie Wayne/ Anthony Gonzales, Roy Williams/ Calvin Johnson/ Shaun McDonald, Javon Walker/ Brandon Marshall, Hines Ward/ Santonio Holmes and Darrell Jackson/ Arnez Battle. Are you getting a little panicked? Try to take a deep breath, slowly now. Ok. If the majority of your team is off this week, you might have to suck it up and take the lose rather then dumping players on the waiver wire or trading them for less productive players just to fill in one week. Remember there is still 11 weeks left in the season after week 6. Some receivers you might look for to play are Wes Welker/ Donte Stallworth, Dwayne Bowe, Nate Burleson/ Bobby Engram and Chris Chambers/ Marty Booker.

TEs on Week Six Bye:

This list includes Dallas Clark, Heath Miller, and Daniel Graham. I don’t think anyone has TEs from the Lions, Bills or 49ers on their team. Some good starts this week are Alge Crumpler, Chris Cooley, Desmond Clark/ Greg Olson, Donald Lee and Owen Daniels.

DEFs on Week Six Bye:

This list includes Colts, Broncos, Lions, Bills, Steelers and 49ers. This is also a good list of starting defenses that will be unavailable. Teams to play are Seattle, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, New York Giants and Arizona.

The Golden Mug Award

Awarded to the fantasy player who came through for their team.

Kenton Keith - Hopefully Addai owners had him stashed for an emergency. If you didn’t, someone else benefited from Keith’s 121 yds rushing, 2 TDs and 37 yds receiving performance.

The Urinal Cake Award

Awarded to the fantasy player who you would like to, well you know.

Jon Kitna - Kitna’s performance left me high and dry this week. I needed just one little TD from him. Just one and he let me down. I would have been 5-0 in both my money leagues putting serious distance on my division foes. As it turns out, his 106 yds and 2 INTs left me and probably a few other owners short.

Note: Injured players never make this list.

MATCH-UPS

The match-ups I like this week for QB’s:

Matt Hasselbeck against the Saints. The Saints just aren’t having a good season. They had a winnable game last week and didn’t take the opportunity to get it done. Hasselbeck had a bad game last week but should perform nicely against the Saint who rank 29^th in the league in points aloud.

Cleo Lemon against the Browns. The Browns are playing better then most people expected but they are still giving up a ton of big plays. Hopefully if you have to rely on Lemon, this will be the only week you would need him. The Browns are 30^th in the league with 30.4 points a game and last in the league with 424 yds a game! Money in the bank.

The match-ups I like this week for RB’s:

Willis McGahee against the Rams. Maybe the Rams will play better but with Baltimore’s defense, they will use the run to control the clock if they jump out to an early lead. St. Louis is 28^th in the league in run defense giving up 146 yds a game and a league high 8 rushing TDs.

Jamal Lewis against the Dolphins. Normally I would never start Lewis. I don’t own him in any leagues and think he isn’t a player you should count on for big points. On the other hand, with so many people on a bye you need to look at players you might not use on a daily bases. This may be Lewis’s time to shine again. Miami is 31^st in the league in rushing defense giving up 174.2 yds a game. They are the other team besides the the Rams to give up 8 rushing TDs this year.

The match-ups I don't like this week for QB's:

Matt Schaub against the Jaguars. The Jaguars are only giving up 178 yds per game and have only surrendered 2 passing TDs. Schaub is running out of receivers to throw to and last weeks game showed how much he needs Green and Johnson to return.

Drew Brees against Seattle. I just don’t know how the Saints are going to bounce back this year. they haven’t been consistent at all. The bye week didn’t help them. Even though the Seahawks are middle of the pack against the pass having given up 215 yds per game and 3 TDs, the Saints haven’t taken advantages of games like Atlanta and Carolina where they could have performed better. The Seahawks are also only giving up 14.8 points a game.

The match-ups I don’t like this week for RB’s:

Ernest Graham against the Titans. Graham has the whole backfield to himself now that Pittman is sidelined for a few weeks but last week he came up short. He faces a stingy Tennessee defense that only gives up 72.2 yds a game. We still have to see if he can carry the full load.

Cedric Benson against the Vikings. Benson has been bad for most of the season. Benson is averaging 60.6 yds a game and 3 yds a carry. He did score last week but Minnesota is only giving up 62 yds a game and have not let anyone rush for a TD.

Side Note: Now that the Yankees are eliminated, I have nothing to distract me from Fantasy Football.

Week five’s brew of choice was Sam Adams Seasonal Brews/ Pumpkin Ales. I like to try new beers every now and then and this year it seems everyone has a Pumpkin or Spice type micro brew so I’m trying some to see which I like the most. Now as always drink responsibly and don’t drink and drive.