Injuries are always part of the game – ask anyone who used a first-round pick on Nick Chubb – but there are times when your best players won’t be available to you by design.
Starting in Week 5, the NFL will do its annual attrition of available teams with bye weeks. While most savvy fantasy managers make sure they don’t box themselves in on draft day with too many players on bye at the same time, once roster moves start taking place, all that draft prep goes out the window.
Between Week 5 and Week 14, eight weeks will have byes, including four with four teams sitting and two weeks with six teams down. The best advice for your new-look roster is to plan ahead for the weeks that you’re going to be potentially crippled at a position and look in advance for a player who may be available to pick up and stash for a week or two to keep yourself from making a desperation waiver wire pick when everyone else panics. Sometimes forward thinking before the rest can pay dividends.
