Fantasy Football Week 5: 5 Ways to Turn Your Season Around

We're one month into the 2011 fantasy football season, and while some teams are sitting pretty at 4-0 or 3-1 and others are treading water at 2-2, there are those unfortunate or unlucky souls that find themselves on the brink of the abyss at 1-3 or 0-4.

If you count yourself among that motley crew, fear not, for all is not lost. I've seen more than a few fantasy teams recover from bad beats, bad luck and slow starts to make the playoffs, and here are a handful of tips to help you turn things around before it's too late.

1. Don't Panic

So you drafted Peyton Manning, Jamaal Charles and Kenny Britt, and things haven't exactly worked out like you'd planned. Now isn't the time to get freaked out, throw your hands up in the air, swear off fantasy football forever and go antiquing with your girlfriend.

Take a deep breath, get those wagons circled and let's get down to business.

2. Work the Waiver Wire

Odds are if your fantasy football team's in the toilet, then you have a high waiver priority, and now isn't the time to "hold" it waiting for that perfect acquisition to come along. These are tough times, and steps must be taken.

Scour that waiver wire and see if you can't pick up a player like New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley or New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, guys who can help dig you out of the hole sooner rather than later.

3. Make a Trade

This one can be tricky, because you're selling in a buyer's market. The other owners in your league know full well that your team is reeling, and they're apt to make counteroffers accordingly, so don't be surprised if they come asking for your Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice in exchange for a flex-type back and that quarterback you so desperately need, even though it's their backup.

However, now isn't the time to worry about overpaying or getting the better end of a deal. If you've got a hole to plug, then make an effort to plug it by any means necessary (within reason of course).

It may sting a bit, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

4. Go for Broke When Setting Your Lineup

The time for the safe play is done.

Sure, you may think that Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub will post a decent stat line against the Oakland Raiders, but if you think that Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell may actually have a shot at a better stat line trying to keep up, then he's who you start, regardless of the fact that Campbell's a much riskier play.

If it blows up in your face, so what? The last thing you can afford to worry about at 0-4 is going 0-5. Shoot for the moon, even if you end up shooting yourself in the foot.

5. Change Your Juju

This one may seem a little silly, but in a game that involves as much luck as fantasy football, sometimes you have to change yours up, and it's amazing how quickly the ludicrous becomes perfectly rational when you're grasping at straws.

Change your team name, change the logo, change the computer you use to make waiver claims on, anything and everything that might get the fantasy football gods to look favorably upon your squad and bless you with a big day from New York Jets running back Shonn Greene.

OK, now that's crazy.