Fantasy Football Advice: How to Handle the Second Half

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At this point in the season, you’re inevitably one of three types of managers: The acclaimed mastermind who is sitting high atop his league basking in his glory, the proverbial middle-child who isn’t out of the race yet, but has already had enough stress to raise his/her blood pressure a couple of notches, or you’re these guys.

But for those of you struggling to remain competitive, or those of you ready to call it quits, there are plenty of options for you to discover.

Let’s take a look:

The Middle Child Syndrome

Tell me if this sounds familiar: Your start the season in surprisingly successful fashion, you trash the competition in your first three games, and you head into week four as confident as can be—then reality rears its ugly head.

You start losing games out of nowhere—and I’m not talking about losing because the other guy’s team was much more talented. I’m talking about the types of games where you do all the research, you pick the best player matchups, you study the competition, but in the end the game you were absolutely supposed to win turns out to be an embarrassing loss to some guy named CaptainAwesome26. And he was winless before beating you by one point!

Then it begins.

Another loss, and then another, before you wake up one morning and realize your all-impressive 3-0 start has just been relegated to mediocrity as you occupy fifth place at 3-4.

For the newbies out there, the next predictable move is to start hitting the panic button.

You stew over your team’s recent sub-par performance, and decide to devise a diabolical plan to do a complete overhaul of your team.

Don’t be that guy.

One of the biggest mistakes a manager makes is going into rebuild-mode just because of a couple of losses without ever evaluating his team first, or analyzing the missed trends he should’ve been following.

There will always be one or two of those befuddling losses in any given season, but a total overhaul with a team built heavily on waiver guys will give you nothing more than a team that is only half as good as your original. After all, most guys who are still left are there for a reason.

Following trends is one of the biggest keys to success. If you notice that one of your star running backs has been declining in total touches, yards, and receptions in an anemic offense—Marshawn Lynch anyone?—you make sure to keep him on the bench until a better, more consistent option comes your way. Consistency wins games.

Another fine way to consider breaking the shackles of mediocrity is to have as many facts as possible.

Injury reports after Friday. Sunday morning updates. Knowing your competition’s lineup as good as your own. These all go towards helping you find the best possible player matchups—the name of the game.

If you read on a Thursday, that player-X feels fine and is ready to go, make sure you check back the next day after 4 p.m. when the official injury list comes out; A lot can happen in 24 hours.

But what if you’re already out of the game, or facing certain elimination? Is it reason enough to quit and wait until next year?

To be honest, no!

Being out of the race doesn’t give you any reason to quit whatsoever if you really want to compete in Fantasy Football every year, and eventually rise to the top.

Just like an NFL

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