Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001

All you need is a little patience

Making transactions for the sake of change won’t work in the long run, and these three fantasy teams prove it

By Andy Hanacek, Associate editor

There’s no question, in fantasy football at least, that patience typically pays off. When you combine patience with personal confidence in your strategy, you have a better chance, in my opinion, of earning the respect of fellow owners and, even better, being a playoff contender. Consider the following:

Early on, things didn’t look good for three of my fantasy teams, yet, here they are, in the playoffs or on the cusp.

In one league (basic scoring, few yardage bonuses), my team, Plantar Fascitis, started the year 1-2. Plantar struggled through the scoring droughts of RB Jerome Bettis and QB Kordell Stewart and the inconsistency of RB Corey Dillon. Even WR Terrell Owens struggled. Did I panic? No, but I was close. I believed my strategy had been a solid one, and aside from tinkering most of the first half of the season with the second WR spot, I left my team alone. The only "major" changes I made were benching TE Freddie Jones and WR Peter Warrick for TE Marcus Pollard and WR Laveranues Coles. At quarterback, I tried to stick with Stewart, but ended up giving in to Jay Fiedler when the matchups seemed right. My drafting proved to be good when, finally, my star players woke up. Plantar went on a six-game winning streak on the road en route to the best record (10-3) and top seed in the playoffs. Even better is the fact that I have a bye this week, when Bettis faces the Ravens and Dillon faces the Jets.

In the league I run (combo scoring, three points for a receiving TD), the Battlefield Generals were a disappointment early on and have been inconsistent week in and week out. Yet, they squeaked into the playoffs as the third wild card with a miserable 6-7 record. Through the team’s big-time ups and downs, my patience did pay off. After the Generals started the season 1-3, I thought it would be more of the same languishing near last place for me (my team has contended just once in the five years of the league). But I didn’t make any changes, partially because this is what I call a "franchise league" — we keep 10 players of a 17-man roster. Well, the Generals rattled off three victories in the last four weeks to stay in the hunt, and a loss by my brother’s team, the Beer-Blitzed Bears, secured the Generals’ place in the playoffs.

Finally, in a league I’m in with some old neighborhood friends (scoring and heavy bonuses), patience has proven to be very, very helpful. In this eight-team league for most of the year, about two games separated first from last place. It was parity in all its glory. Only recently have teams fallen out of the playoff race (we’re entering the final week now), and only two teams are mathematically out of it. My team, Expert Opinion?, has bounced all over the charts, but imagine my dismay when Expert Opinion? started out 0-3? Talk about embarrassing. But I sat tight and Expert won six of the next seven games. Of course, I had my playoff destiny in my own hands at that point, but Expert went on to lose three in a row and needs a win and some help to get into the playoffs. I actually made one major trade just prior to the trading deadline two weeks ago. It wasn’t a panic move, though it looked like one because of the timing. I had grown tired of choosing a second starting running back from the likes of Shaun Alexander, Eddie George, Warrick Dunn and James Jackson. Plus, I believed Alexander would fall into a backup role once Ricky Watters returned in Seattle. So I packaged Alexander, George and QB Tim Couch in a lopsided but helpful deal for RB Stephen Davis. Under this strategy, I’d simply start Curtis Martin and Stephen Davis every week, no questions asked. It made things easier, but it hasn’t helped much yet. So the jury’s out on that trade.

If your team is stuck in last place or out of the playoffs and you’re wondering why, take a look at your post-draft strategies. Look at your transaction log and what your team was doing at the time. If you notice possibly panic moves or just transactions for the sake of change, then you need to sit yourself down and rethink your strategy for next year. Patience is the key. It doesn’t always pay off, but most of the time, if you’re confident in how you drafted, it will pay off.

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