If Al Pacino is right and football is a game of inches, then fantasy football is a game of clicks.
If you are the kind of player willing to claw with your fingernails for that click, then this strategy is for you.
“We claw with our fingernails for that inch, because we know when we add up all those inches that’s gonna make the fuckin’ difference between winning and losing!”
– Coach Tony D’Amato, Any Given Sunday
A Game of Clicks
Right now, your waiver wire has a few players that don’t quite deserve a bench spot on your fantasy team. However, you would prefer that they were off-limits to competitive owners, especially during their bye weeks.
Therefore, it is strategically optimal to remove these highest-value players from competition entirely.
You can achieve this by providing generously sound fantasy advice for lower-ranked owners. Suggest that they pick up one of these players and advise them who they should drop. Sell them on the move. More often than not, they will accept your add/drop advice as it is legitimately helpful and genuinely improves their team.
And in doing that, you have a slightly, statistically and measurably weakened the competitive teams in your league.
The effect is small but it is real.
In a game of clicks… CLICK.
Why this works:
Bye weeks become tougher. Competitive owners will be forced dig a bit deeper into the waiver wire and start somewhat lower value players.
Owners looking for injury replacements will have fewer good options. Instead of picking up a player like Damien Harris to fill a tough spot, they may find themselves stuck deciding between Frank Gore or Gus Edwards.
Even removing a single WR from the waiver wire might force an owner to acquire a player like Marquez Valdes-Scantling over someone like Hunter Renfrow.
It’s a game of inches.
An example:
Let’s look forward to week 10 when tight ends Travis Kelce, Hayden Hurst and Dalton Schultz are on bye.
Owners will be scrambling to acquire replacement players like Austin Hooper (62% owned), Logan Thomas (14%) or Darren Fells (6%).
Somewhere in your league there is a 1-5 owner holding on to Jordan Howard or Daniel Jones. If that owner were to simply drop Howard and pick up Hooper (a reasonable move), it will create a ripple effect that may culminate in the Kelce owner deciding between Greg Olsen or Tyler Eifert.
In this case, if the Kelce owner is forced to start a terrible tight end in week 10. That isn’t bad luck… it’s strategy.
