How to take advantage of bye weeks in NFL Fantasy Football

Bye, weeks. We love to hate them in the fantasy football world. We have to make tough decisions to make our lineup work, and it can be stressful, especially on those weeks when several teams have a bye week. Heading into Week 5 of the NFL, we’ve got four teams on a bye: Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Seattle Seahawks.

This presents quite a dilemma for many owners with some of the top players on those teams. But don’t fret. This can also be a great time to start re-assessing your team. At the beginning of the season, you choose your players, and all seems pretty well. By Week 5, you’ve got injured players still sitting on your bench, and changes needed to be made anyway. So what better time to make them than now? Here are some tips to make the best of the bye weeks in fantasy Football.

Take advantage of trading

Let’s say you have your eye on a certain running back, and that said, the running back is on a bye this week. You could ask to trade for him now when his fantasy owner is scrambling to find someone to replace him. If you have someone else to offer, they may be forced to take the bait to get a needed win this week.

Use this time to assess your team

On the other hand, you may want to consider making trades or seeing who’s available on the waiver wire based on your lineup issues. Maybe your should-be star turned out to be a dud, or maybe your running back had two explosive games before getting injured and missing several games or even the rest of the season. Whatever the case, now is an excellent time to take another look at the problem areas on your roster and make some moves. Consider trading with the teams sitting towards the bottom of the standings and/or look for the team with the opposite of your problem. Maybe you are running thin on receivers and have plenty of depth at running back. If so, look for the team with players to spare at receiver but struggling at the RB position and see if you can negotiate a trade there.

In summary: Make your roster moves on the bye weeks. Use these weeks to look at your own and see what needs changing and who you can negotiate with. Heed this advice again next week, too, as Week 7 has the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and Los Angeles Rams on bye.