With week 7 under our belts, fantasy football owners are past the midpoint of their regular season. The playoffs are still in sight for most, and decisions are being made to prepare for the playoffs.

If you are rocking along strong at 7-0, 6-1, or 5-2 then keep doing what you are doing, and start keeping an eye on week 14, 15, and 16 matchups. You want to be careful and not mess up a winning strategy, but if you have a starter with a horrible matchup in the playoffs, then start looking for a trade that gets you someone with a great matchup. Fantasy championships are won by paying attention to weeks 14-16.

If you are mid pack at 4-3 or 3-4, then continue to battle and tweak your team as needed, but the mantra here is “just win”. You have to keep battling because with these records you will be on the playoff bubble either just in or just out. Don’t take your eye off the future weeks, but you can’t afford a loss right now. Remember-Just win now.

If you are 2-5, 1-6, or 0-7 (I hope not 0-7 for sure) then you are in trouble. In all honesty, unless you have had horrible luck, then your team is probably pretty bad or you have a lot of injuries. If you are 1-6 or 0-7, then you are probably done. Even running the table doesn’t do a lot, but can put you back in play for a final playoff spot by week 13. If you are 2-5, it isn’t quite over, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is an oncoming train. If you are 2-5, then with the right breaks you can still have playoff hopes. Closing out 5-1 or maybe 4-2 gives you a shot at a final seed playoff spot. Even if it looks bad though, don’t give up and don’t stop submitting a lineup. There is an etiquette to fantasy football and starting the best team possible is one unbreakable rule.

Whatever your current fortunes, keep on fighting, and keep on reading. Good luck this week.

Week 8 Starts and Sits

Starts:

Chad Henne – Start Henne this week against Cincinatti. Many teams have Henne as a backup and with all the byes this week, then this is the week to use him. Matt Ryan just had a great game against the Bengals and Henne should also see success.

Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones – Facing the Bills this week, expect the dynamic duo of Charles and Jones to continue to have success. Owners of both will continue to hope that their back will get more carries, but the timeshare appears in place until one back falters.

Frank Gore – This probably goes without saying, but Gore looks like a super start against Denver. Look for a big game here.

Randy Moss – Something makes me think he is going to want to have a big game against the Patriots. Roll the dice.

Sits:

Michael Crabtree – With Alex Smith out, and the weak Denver rush defense on tap, expect to see a lot of running and not as much passing. Crabtree will not show as much progress this week as recent weeks.

Drew Brees – With some rough recent games under his belt, and the stout Steelers defense on tap I would be putting Brees on the bench. I know that you aren’t supposed to do this, but this week all things look bad.

That is all for now. As always, send in via comments or Twitter with your fantasy football start or sit questions.

With six teams on a bye in week 8 and injuries starting to stack up even higher finding some good value on the waiver wire is becoming more and more important each week. We have two solid WR’s and two good QB pickups for those of you who either lost Romo to injury, or just lost one of the solid QB’s on bye this week (Ryan, Flacco, Eli Manning, Vick/Kolb).

Teams with a Week 8 Bye: Falcons, Ravens, Bears, Browns, Giants, Eagles

Steve Johnson, WR, Bills – A hot WR pickup on the wire, Johnson has caught TD passes in each of his last 4 games. With improved QB play for the Bills in recent weeks, Johnson has become a serviceable starter for fantasy owners. He is starting for The Legend this week as a bye week fill in who has the capability to take over a spot in the lineup.

Kenny Brit, WR, Titans – Wow. After that performance last week who can argue with this one. Anytime a WR puts up an over 200 yard performance, then he should be owned in all leagues. Put him on your team for a spot starter.

Matt Cassel, QB, Chiefs – Lose Romo? Need a solid backup or starter? Then get Cassel. He isn’t a superstar, but is solid and the Chiefs appear to be for real. He has a solid running game to support him and he is starting to connect with Bowe.

Jon Kitna, QB, Cowboys – Another lose Romo candidate. Kitna is going to take the helm of an offense with a lot of talent that is fighting for its life. He could be a mid season fantasy gem of a pickup and if not, then is at least a good bye week pickup.

Now get out there and work the wire! Get your team ready to win in week 8.

Questions about who to pickup? Who to trade? Comment on this post or send me a message on Twitter.

Week 7 Starts and Sits
Start:
Matt Ryan – Look for a good game from Ryan at home this week. Jenkins is back and in combination with Roddy White will provide a lot of targets. Add in the fact that the Bengals defense is dealing with the absence of key players and you have a great matchup for Ryan to produce.
Joe Flacco – Another great start for a quarterback by committee player. Flacco versus Buffalo is a nice spot for Flacco to do some damage.
Both Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles – Look for the Chiefs two for one punch to run all over the Jaguars. It is always a little concerning to start a member of a pur committee like this, but expect good numbers from both [...]

Returning to our weekly waiver wire recommendations, we continue to find mostly slim pickings, but we have four options, one of them a solid prospect for a starter, and the others ranging from bye week fillers to guys with a lot of upside.
Teams with a Week 7 Bye: Lions, Texans, Colts, Jets
Chris Ivory, RB, Saints – With Pierre Thomas out, Ivory is set to carry most of the load in New Orleans and can make a solid pickup for a bye week or injury replacement at the RB position.
Patrick Crayton, WR, Chargers – With V-Jax out, Floyd injured, and even Nanee ailing, Crayton is likely to be the Chargers #1 WR this week and for the near future. If he plays well, holding [...]

A huge trade went down this week that impacts both real life NFL and fantasy football. Randy Moss was traded from the New England Patriots to the Minnesota Vikings. For our purposes, we are concerned with its fantasy football impact.
First, let’s address the impact to Moss himself. Moss’ value should remain relatively unchanged although it may increase some as the Vikings struggling offense will likely try to get Moss involved early to get some juice into the passing game. If you have Moss and were starting him, then continue to do so.
For Brady, I believe this will be a significant impact to his value. Moss was a big physical receiver who could win jump balls and stretch the field. Drawing regular double coverage Moss [...]

The pickings on the waiver wire seems slimmer this week than in past weeks. I am finding it hard to recommend many pickups this week especially for immediate help. As the bye weeks keep coming and the injuries keep piling up then digging deep on the wire is important, so let’s see if we can find a few waiver wire gems for our fantasy football team.
Teams with a Week 5 Bye: Dolphins, Patriots, Steelers, Seahawks
Sam Bradford – If bye weeks or injuries have left you with a hole at QB, then Bradford could help your team. While a rookie QB isn’t what you hope to be left with, Bradford has played well in his last few starts and faces a 49ers defense that is [...]

It will be nice to have a week where the Monday Night Football game is just something to watch for fun and not a matchup that determines win or loss for that week’s fantasy football matchups. The MNF game always seems to magnify the pain or pleasure of a loss or win in that week’s fantasy game.
For the third time this year, a big game hung in the balance for The Legend and something had to either happen (or not happen) in order to win the game. Once known as the king of Monday night for a solid streak of luck, this year MNF isn’t being as kind with a 1-2 record on Monday call outs including painful losses of 2 and 5 points. [...]

Dear Coach Norv Turner,
First, let me get this out of the way and say congratulations on your home win today to get back on track in a big way after the embarrassing loss to the Seahawks last week. Great defensive performance that us fantasy football owners love to see when we own that defense in one of our leagues.
However, Norv, we have got to talk about the horrible travesty that we saw today in regards to the usage of Ryan Mathews. Norv, it brought me to tears. Here we have a 1st round draft pick coming off an injury in a game that could be used to establish him as the team’s primary runner and you give him the rock 9 times! Only nine carries [...]

Week 4 gives us our first bye week to contend with in fantasy football and some regular starters are resting up early and fantasy owners are trying to determine who to replace them with. Lets get to a few notes on some starts and sits for week 4 in Fantasy Football to help remedy this situation.
Byes for this week: Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Start of the Week:
Ryan Mathews – Fantasy owners please prepare. This is the moment that all Mathews owners have been waiting for. That being a rested and healed Mathews ready to lead a fired up and embarrassed San Diego team back to the victory circle this week. Facing the terrible Cardinals run defense expect to see [...]