The Fantasy Football season has been upon us for weeks now and the fantasy football community has been up in arms. Key players we have all expected to have done well, have fallen short of those expectations. Most of the top ten picks in fantasy football drafts have either underperformed or have been injured to start the season. Owners usually allow this to happen for a week or two before they begin to panic. After a few weeks of duds and goose eggs, the strategy of finding those points that your first and second-round players have failed to deliver to your lineup, are crucial decisions made that can make or break your fantasy football lineup. Some go the trade route as they go search around the league to see which other fantasy owners can be suitors to execute a swap with players to improve their team.
Another strategy could be benching your key players because, let’s face it, you have lost all faith and cannot afford another loss in your league. Whether it is Yahoo, ESPN, Sleeper League, or any other platform that is used, fantasy football owners will try anything to take a win and sometimes the simplest tools are right under their nose. Some of the hardest decisions to make are sitting right there in your lineup and on your bench. However, sometimes the way an owner simply sets up their lineup is creating problematic equations without even knowing it. How to set your lineup properly and with technique is a key factor in creating more points and winning your division. Here is a simple yet extremely effective component to setting your lineup each week, so you don’t make mistakes that are unnecessary.
1 Major Key to Setting Your Fantasy Football Lineup
Set Your Lineup According to Game Times
Lots of owners don’t take into consideration that the timing of NFL games can make a significant impact on your lineup. Let’s start with Thursday Night Football. Thursday Night’s game starts at 8:15 P.M. Eastern Time. Some would ask why that matters and how it has anything to do with your lineup. Placing a player like Alvin Kamara, running back for the New Orleans Saints, in your running back slot, rather than your flex spot, is crucial, and here is why. Let’s say you decide to insert Alvin Kamara into your flex spot of your lineup, while he is playing on Thursday Night Football game. Alvin Kamara has a great game, and all is well. This means that your running back slots are still open. What would happen if one of your running backs became injured from the time of Thursday Night Football to Sunday kick-off at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time, and all you have left are wide receivers, quarterbacks, or tight ends? You would have no player to insert into your running back spot. You are playing with an empty spot in your lineup which could make or break your week. This could be the difference between a win and a loss and ultimately, could be the difference between you making the playoffs or not. By placing Kamara into your first or second running back slot, you avoid these issues. Take care of your lineup by placing your players in the correct positional slots by NFL game times. The earlier the game, the more you want to direct your player into their positional slot. When it comes to more than one player in a position (two Running Backs/three Wide Receivers), set your lineup according to this order of game-time arrangements.
Thursday Night Football 8:15 P.M. Eastern Time
Sunday London, Munich, Frankfurt, 9:30 A.M Eastern Time
Sunday Football 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time
Sunday Football 4:05 P.M. Eastern Time
Sunday Football 4:25 P.M. Eastern Time
Sunday Night Football 8:20 P.M. Eastern Time
Monday Night Football 8:15 P.M. Eastern Time
Always make sure you put the latest played NFL games that your players are in, toward the end of your lineup. The late-night Sunday and Monday Night Football games should be inserted into Flex Positions, that way your team can work around any injury or misfortune your team may have. If you have no players in those games, you would insert any players you have competing in the Sunday 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. Eastern Time games. The earlier Thursday Night Football, International games in Europe starting at 9:30 A.M. Eastern Time and the Sunday 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time games should be the first game times you look to fill in your multiple positional player slots (ex. two Quarterbacks, two or more of running backs, wide receivers, tight End or any other position that has more than one active player slot). This may sound like an extremely tedious strategy to consider but after you do it a few times, fantasy football owners will start to understand how and why this method works with you and can save a fantasy football lineup and possibly solidify a win in some weeks.
Main Image: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
