Bye week strategies

I’ve been writing about bye weeks, including how to prepare for them and how to use them to your advantage in leveraging a trade. There are many different perspectives on bye weeks and how to handle them.

Some pundits will tell you to plan for bye weeks before the draft so that you won’t be caught short. Others will tell you to forget about them and even take a loss on a week where you have a bunch of players out.

My strategy falls somewhere between these two extremes. I’ve said previously that I don’t plan around bye weeks on draft night. It’s crazy enough trying to draft the best available players to worry about that.

On the other hand, ignoring bye weeks completely and taking an automatic loss, or even two, is foolish. If you’re 8-0 or 7-1 heading into week 9, you can afford to take a loss. But what if you’re 4-4, or 3-5?

My bye week strategy was developed early in the season, long before the first bye week occurred (week 4). Before I traded for a player, acquired a player from the waiver wire, or dropped a player, I considered bye weeks.

The bye week problem is most acute in the “thin” positions, like quarterback, tight end, defense/special teams and kickers. You probably only have one defense and one tight kicker on your team, so you must plan for it.