Yes, my friends we have entered…BYE WEEK SEASON!
In the words of good old J.R.,
The same thing happens every year with fantasy managers all over the globe. They start getting concerned with their rosters and they beat themselves up about how they didn’t draft players back in August with bye weeks in mind and now half their roster is unavailable for this upcoming week’s matchup.
R.E.L.A.X.
It’s OK!
In the words of Tom Arnold in Austin Powers, “We’re going to get through this!”.
Also if you don’t know the scene I’m talking about just watch it here. It’s. A. Classic.
We told you back in August when you were getting ready for your fantasy football drafts, you win your league by drafting well in the later rounds. The same type of reasoning applies to navigating your bye weeks in that you survive your bye weeks by searching for talented, consistent fantasy point producing players on your waiver wire.
In both scenarios, you look for lesser-known players who’ve shown an ability to produce consistent fantasy point production from week to week. You don’t need flashy, you need consistency. During bye weeks, picking up players on the waiver wire who have boom or bust potential is a recipe for disaster as you can never properly gauge when those particular players are going to have a big game. With consistent players, you’ll at least be able to maintain a steady floor at a particular roster spot from week to week.
That all being said here is a list of players I believe will help you during the first bye week of the 2019 fantasy football season as well as just in general.
Quarterback: Kirk Cousins will return to form against the Bears
Kirk Cousins is
- 28th among all quarterbacks who’ve played this season in passing attempts.
- 28th in passing yards with 502.
- 24th in TDs with 3
- 28th in fantasy points per game with 11.9
How can this be?! He was never this bad in Washington. The fact of the matter is that the reason he’s so far behind in terms of quarterback and fantasy point production than other quarterbacks this season is because the Vikings’ offense hasn’t NEEDED him to make big plays. They’ve just handed the ball off to Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison and let them go and do their thing in the running game.
This week Minnesota is facing 5th best run defense in the Chicago Bears. If you don’t think Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano isn’t installing a game plan to take away the running game for the Vikings then you got another thing coming. The Bears are only 13th in terms of defensive coverage versus receivers which puts all-pros Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen in great positions to excel as well as for Cousins to be successful. After all, they let Case Keenum put up 332 passing yards against them on Monday night.
Cousins > Keenum, therefore trust in Captain Kirk this week!
Running Back: Frank Gore to the rescue
That’s right, Le’Veon Bell managers, Frank Gore will help you get through you bye week this week despite playing against the New England Patriots. On the season Gore has averaged 11.1 fantasy points per game (in 0.5 PPR scoring) and seeing as he’s the running back receiving a majority of the volume in the Bills backfield Gore is in a great position to provide a decent floor on Sunday. But why you ask?
The Patriots have a history of taking away a team’s best offensive weapon and forcing them to find another way to beat them. With all due respect to Frank Gore, he’s not the Bills best rushing weapon. Quarterback Josh Allen is. And as long as the Patriots stay focused on Allen, Gore will be in a great position provide you with solid, low-double-digit fantasy point production this week. He won’t win you your matchup but he won’t lose it for you either. And seeing as he’s probably the best option at running back on the waiver wire in most leagues I’d say he’s the best, most consistent option you can go with in week 4.
Wide Receiver: Scary Terry and D.J. Chark must be added to your starting lineup
If you were up at 6:45am this morning, read our tweets, and made your waiver-wire claim already….kudos to you.
If you weren’t kudos to you for reading them now.
Both WRs get plenty of volume, they’re their team’s primary receiving option and most importantly have been CONSISTENT in terms of fantasy point production this season. Start them both this week with confidence.
Tight End: Will Dissly is in line for a big game
It’s become clear that Will Dissly is the primary receiving option at tight end for the Seattle Seahawks, and this week he’ll face a Cardinals team that’s given up the most fantasy points to tight ends the past two weeks.
Mark Andrews in week 2 against the Cardinals:
- 9 targets
- 112 receiving yards
- 1 TD
- 21.2 fantasy points
Greg Olsen in week 3 against the Cardinals:
- 7 targets
- 75 yards
- 2 TDs
- 22.5 fantasy points
Noticing a trend here?! Now, the Cardinals face a Seahawks team who just traded away Dissly’s competition at tight end to the Steelers on Tuesday night all but ensuring him ALL THE VOLUME at the tight end position.
SIGN. ME. UP.
To all you George Kittle managers….go get Dissly!
IDP-LB: What’s with people forgetting about Jayon Brown?!
- 15 solo tackles (22 total tackles on the season)
- Back-To-Back weeks of 9 total tackles or more
Jayon Brown has been the model of consistency in recent weeks at the linebacker position. The Titans offense is bad. Like, really bad. All that translates to more time on the field for the Titan’s defense which means more opportunities for Brown to continue producing quality tackle numbers. He doesn’t have his bye week until week 11, so he’ll be the gift that keeps on giving for those of you in IDP leagues this season. Pick him up!
That wraps up my 4-EYED PREVIEW for WEEK 4!
Be sure to read our 4-EYED ASSESSMENT on Thursday and our HEROES & VILLAINS article on Friday!
ALSO, our week 4 preview podcast will be dropping this Friday morning as well!
Make sure to follow us Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram as well as reach out to us to get your personalized fantasy football questions answered!
Thanks for visiting Fantasy In Frames!
*Stats provided by FantasyData.com and ProFootballFocus.com
