Fantasy 4-1-1 advice for mid-season

Entering week seven of the season, fantasy owners are beginning to deal with a new obstacle — player bye weeks. One minute you feel like your team is great, and the next minute you realize two of your star players have the upcoming week off and you panic. That’s one problem that faces almost everyone, and it’s what happens when you don’t keep track of your respective player’s bye weeks when your draft happened or when you picked your players up off of waivers.

Here’s a word of advice. Don’t cut good players on your team to fill a position you are short on one week. If anything, drop a backup defense or even go without a kicker for a week and sign a solid player on waivers. If people in your league are smart, they’ll pick up the good players you drop the second they hit the waivers. Adjust your roster weekly. Don’t worry about what a player you’re thinking of picking up will do in the next four weeks if you are only going to use him for one week. Find a free agent with a good matchup, sign him, get your points and then cut him if you don’t need him the next week. Again, it’s all about adjusting.

Tip of the Week – Check your lineup for the next few weeks and make sure you don’t have an overload of players on bye weeks on the same week.

Start ‘Em

Quarterback – Matt Hasselback – Hasselback is still unsigned in a lot of fantasy leagues. Against a Houston defense reeling from the loss of Mario Williams, he could get good points.

Wide Receiver – Pierre Garcon – Garcon and quarterback Curtis Painter have developed quite the chemistry the past few games, and they’ll throw often against New Orleans.

Running Back – Darren McFadden – Multipurpose backs have had solid games against the Chiefs so far this year, and McFadden is heating up.

Tight End – Jimmy Graham – His combination with Brees is unstoppable. Start him every week.

Defense – Baltimore – The Ravens face the Jaguars, who are scoring less than 12 points a game this year.

Kicker – Jason Hanson – The Lions kicker has been as accurate as anyone in the league, and he should have a good chance for points in an intense match against the Falcons.

Sit ‘Em

Quarterback – Donovan McNabb – It’s surprising he’s still the starter at quarterback, and don’t expect his stats to improve at all against the Packers defense.

Wide Receiver – Devery Henderson – With Marques Colston back, it means less targets for the streaky Henderson.

Running Back – Mike Tolbert – Tolbert is losing carries to Ryan Mathews, and the Jets are a tough defense to start against regardless.

Tight End – Todd Heap – Heap missed the Cardinals’ last game with an injury, and coming back against the Steelers will be a rough matchup.

Defense- Tennessee – The Titans defense has been inconsistent this season, having great weeks followed by terrible ones. Don’t risk starting them against high-scoring Houston.

Kicker – Ryan Longwell – Longwell’s Vikings face the Packers, who aren’t giving up many points to kickers this year.