NFL Week 2 Fantasy Football Focus: Resist the Urge

By Scott L. - SL Sports Staff

As we prepare for Week 2 of the 2024 National Football League season, our mantra is "resist the urge." This is advice we repeat for our own good as much as to help our followers.

Heading into Week 1, we advocated that fantasy managers not overthink their lineups. Why let all the time and effort we put into our drafts go to waste by trying to get cute and look for the hidden gems or under-the-radar home-run hitters? Boom or bust often leads to bust in Week 1, so it simply doesn't make sense to not play the proven best players on whom we spent valuable draft capital.

The goal for any week is to maximize the odds of scoring the most points we possibly can. For Week 1, trying to figure out which players will break out or play bigger roles after hardly playing in preseason games is just conjecture and doesn't carry a high probability of success. So, to maximize the odds of putting up the best possible number for the first week of the season, we should resist that urge and stick with the proven players we know.

We preached patience for the opening week of the 2024 NFL season, and that doesn't change for Week 2. Frankly, it won't change much for Week 3 either. By Week 4 we should have a pretty good understanding of players' roles, what systems have been installed by coaches and coordinators, which players are primed for big or breakout seasons and which newcomers may be able to help us dominate late in the season or in the playoffs.

Resist the urge. We did. We resisted the urge to write the same waiver-wire pickup article managers probably have seen on 20 different websites this week.

Why? Well, obviously everyone posts that type of article, so the information is readily available and we always pride ourselves on being a little different. Also it's pretty obvious who the top waiver targets were: Isaiah Likely, Jordan Mason, Justin Fields, Brandin Cooks, Baker Mayfield and Bucky Irving, etc. etc. etc. Just because those guys were available and had a good opening week doesn't mean we automatically should have picked them up.

In fact, there may be other players who had little or no role in Week 1 and are buried much farther down the list of available who may be poised to step into larger roles right away because of injuries suffered last week. Those players may be about to assume larger and more consistent guaranteed roles than the the upstarts who flashed during Week 1.

Would you rather have Jordan Mason or possibly Jaylen Wright or Jeff Wilson?

Certainly, if Christian McCaffrey continue to miss games, Mason is a player who can help pretty much any fantasy team. But by all accounts, McCaffrey is working hard to get back on the field this week, and we've seen what it means for the San Francisco backups when he's healthy and in the lineup.

Wright and Wilson, on the other hand, are behind two running backs with a history of injuries, so not only might they have a decent workload this week but also there could be recurring opportunities on a consistent basis. And Raheem Mostert isn't getting any younger, so if one of the backups performs at a high level there's always a chance that the older player might be phased out.

By not writing about who managers should pick up, we reinforce to our followers - and to ourselves - to resist the urge. While it's important to scour waivers weekly in hopes of finding ways to improve our teams, it's often just as important to not claim players just for the sake of claiming them.

If we have the top waiver priority in a league, we want to be sure to use that all-important first pick for someone who can either be a game-changer or to deal with an extreme emergency situation. We don't want to waste that opportunity and just take a player because se can. At some point during the first month, a player who can help lead us to a championship is likely to show up on waivers, and that's an opportunity we simply can't miss.

Likewise, it's not smart to use part of our valuable free-agent budget (FAAB) to overspend on a player just to grab him because he had a big first week. The reasoning is similar to what we discussed for those with the top waiver priority. Week 1 waivers tend to offer up overachievers and one-hit wonders who often disappear in subsequent weeks. Later in the season, however, there will be opportunities to snag real difference-makers off the wire, and we want to be in a position to do that.

Throwing a few bucks down to see if the other managers in the league are sleeping is fine and might lead to a bargain windfall. But we don't want to commit a large chunk of our budget or give up the top-priority spot after a one-week sample size. And no matter what, if we make a claim or put in a bid, it's essential to take a long look at who we are going to have to give up to get a player. There's nothing worse than helping a rival win a championship because we made an emotional, knee-jerk decision following a lousy Week 1.

At this early juncture there really are only two reason to aggressively pursue a player who is on waivers. One is if a key player on your roster has been hurt and appears to be headed to inured reserve for an extended period. The other is if depth is severely lacking in one position because of a lousy draft or a draft in which a manager placed a premium on running backs or wide receivers at the expense of other positions.

That's it. Otherwise, we are much better off resisting the urge for the next few weeks.

The same goes for early-season trade offers.

If another manager offers a player that was high on our draft list and who we just weren't able to get - and the trade is even and won't leave us short-handed at another position - it's fine to consider that offer. Theoretically, we did the pre-draft research and are certain that it's a player we really want and who can make a difference for us.

Even if the deal is accepted, however, it's always important to be 100-percent certain that making the trade won't leave us vulnerable at another position.

Some people throw potential trades around right from the start of the season or feel like they need to seriously consider every offer they receive. No matter what part of the season it is, the only trades that should be made are the ones that improve our team without depleting another position or that fill a pressing need that will help our team compete.

This isn't real life, no matter how seriously we take our fantasy leagues. A player isn't benefitting from a change of scenery by coming to our team.

In a perfect world, a well-constructed trade benefits both sides because each team is dealing from a position of strength in one position and can afford to move someone to fill a need. The problem with fantasy sports in 2024 is that most managers are trying to fleece their fellow owners by offering a lopsided trade when an opponent is struggling or adding a few less-valuable players he or she doesn't want to the deal to make it seem less lopsided.

Some managers will give in to the pressure if they receive trade offers constantly, while others may feel like trades should be a big part of the fantasy-sports experience and get antsy when they haven't made any deals. Those are the people the aggressive managers prey upon. They keep pushing and pressuring until someone gives in and makes an unwise decision that alters the balance of the league.

Don't be that person. Don't win championships for other teams. Resist the urge, especially early in the season.

The NFL season is an 18-week marathon, and championship fantasy owners must survive at least 17 of those 18 weeks to capture a league title. Emotional, knee-jerk early season decisions probably have a better chance of helping a competitor win a championship than they do of helping our own teams.

Let's allow the the season to start taking shape while giving the players we drafted every opportunity to perform as expected and checking waivers every week in search of the bad decisions made by other managers.

The people described in this article exist in every league, and they will help us win championships as long as we don't help them first.

Resist the urge.