It feels like it was forever ago that both the college and NFL seasons came to a close. Back then it felt like the next season was lightyears away. That feeling is completely gone now. Both college football and the NFL are rapidly approaching and it’s time to get into the final preparations that you need to make for your Campus to Canton dynasty fantasy league. By the end of this, you’ll know how to monitor player performances, how to make game-day adjustments, a reminder to lock in your Week 1 fantasy lineup, and what players might be important to keep an eye on throughout the first few weeks of the season. Let’s dive straight in.
Final Roster Adjustments
The days are ticking down before the regular season finally starts, and there is no better time to make your final roster adjustments than right now. Whatever it is that you were hoping to do before the season begins, do it now.
Last-Minute Waiver Wire Moves
Many people prefer to wait until just a few days away from the regular season to make last-second waiver wire moves. While it isn’t normally a good thing to delay your waiver wire aggression, it can be a good thing to scout out the entire preseason for the NFL, along with other news that may come out of college campuses. It gives you the most amount of time possible to scout and take in information before sticking with a decision and picking a player up.
Top Waiver Wire Targets Leading Up To Kickoff
For the NFL, some of the top waiver wire targets ahead of kickoff could be Dontayvion Wicks from the Green Bay Packers, or Jordan Whittington from the Los Angeles Rams. Both are young players in talented offenses that aren’t rostered by the majority of teams. If you’re able to get your hands on one of them, throwing a waiver in could be a great idea. Over in the college football land, there are a ton of deep sleepers to at least look into. For example, it could be wise to check out the situation regarding Mareyohn Hrabowski, a player out of Western Michigan. Another player would be Quian Williams, the wide receiver from Buffalo.
Importance Of Making Final Roster Tweaks
It can be very easy to forget about the roster that you’re currently fielding due to the anticipation of the season beginning. However, that is when you can fall behind the quickest. When the season nears, depth charts start to become set in stone, and certain hints are given away about where players are lined up. If you’re quick enough, this could help you snag a few sleeper players on the waiver wire who can wind up having big seasons. If you’re not looking over your roster and making those final tweaks, it allows everyone else in the league to take those players for themselves and hold an immediate advantage.
Starting Lineup Decisions
Another thing that you can make sure to do in the final days before the season starts is to make your starting lineup choices. This is the best time to lock in the players that you want to start in Week 1, for both the college and NFL sides.
Tips For Setting Your Optimal Lineup For The Opening Week
Everybody is going to be different when it comes to setting their lineups for the opening week of the season. However, this is probably one of the few times that it could be best to rely upon consistent talent rather than a player with inconsistency on the field and sky-high potential. Week 1 in both the NFL and college is always unpredictable. You never know who might break out or underperform, so it’s okay to try some new stuff while also sticking with your known veterans who have always gotten you good points. Think of this more as an experimental week to scout and identify positive trends without thinking too hard about how players will perform if they’re on a new team or situation.
Importance Of Matchups And Current Form
With that being said, the matchups in Week 1 are equally as important. As I stated earlier, nobody knows how good an opposing team might be before the season starts, but you’d usually have a solid guess on the matter. When you’re setting your lineup, it could be a great idea to check your players’ opening matchups to see if there’s an opening somewhere. Let’s say in the NFL, one of your players is set to go up against the New York Giants in Week 1. And you later hear that the Giants gave up the most points to wide receivers in the league in 2023. That would be a good indicator to try and start that player for Week 1.
Game-Day Strategies
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do on game day when a fantasy matchup kicks off. There are certain things that you can do to prepare for the upcoming week and adjust though, which is what we’re about to dive into here.
In-Game Adjustments
If you decide on your starting lineup, those players will be locked in the second that their game starts on Week 1. You won’t be able to change your mind in the middle of a game if a certain player isn’t doing well. This might lead you to believe that there are no adjustments to make when the day starts. That is not correct. Perhaps you have four players who are scheduled to play later in the day, who haven’t been locked in yet, and you get some last-second news that they could have a huge day. It’s not too late to throw them into the lineup and try to secure a win in the opening weekend. You can also make in-game adjustments on the waiver wire, perhaps if you’re noticing somebody overperformed.
Tips For Making Real-Time Adjustments During Games
One tip that I’ve always found useful is to simply be satisfied with the roster that you’ve set up for the opening week. You should always take your time and ensure that you’re confident and satisfied with the lineup decisions that you’ve made, and this helps falling into overthinking and making mistakes as a result. So, don’t get too crazy making adjustments to your lineup during games (when possible) if you happen to be losing and begin to overthink. Take your time and trust the players that you started. Another tip would be to constantly scout the waiver wire and listen for any news about a player in your lineup who might be playing later in the day. If you pay attention to the players who haven’t played yet, you could catch important information early, such as if they get ruled out with an injury.
Importance Of Staying Flexible And Responsive
At the end of the day, it is incredibly important to remain flexible and responsible in your starting lineup, but it isn’t okay to overthink your decisions and constantly try and shake things up. Patience is equally as important. If you can combine all three of these things together, then you might not ever have a lineup problem in your Campus to Canton fantasy league.
Monitoring Player Performances:
Now we get into the actual games. The best advice that I can give for monitoring player performances is to watch all of the games that you possibly can. The NFL usually offers RedZone, which gives you nothing but scoring chances and drives from active games across the league. Just checking in with how your team is performing and the opportunities they are being given throughout the first week are very important. The box score, stat sheets, and fantasy football points can help you figure out how a player performed on any given week.
How To Track And Evaluate Player Performances In The Opening Week
There is nothing crazy that you have to do to track player performance. Evaluating is the tricky part. You want to take into consideration everything that happened during the game. The matchup that the player faced, the touches that they got, the targets that they received in the passing game, how often they were subbed out for another player if they did well in the blocking game, and so much more. Watching the games usually makes this significantly easier, though the box score afterward can help provide solid insight.
Key Matchups To Watch
There are many key matchups to tune into during Week 1. Some of them highlight big-name teams with big-name players. Others highlight lesser-known teams who might be in the middle of competing for a championship and rebuilding the roster entirely.
Highlighting Important Games
In the NFL, there are so many important games coming up regarding fantasy football. So, how do you pinpoint which are more important than others? Well, that’s mostly up to you. It is likely best to focus more on the players that you currently have on your roster, and who they’re playing against. Learning the teams that your players occupy is the best indicator of how they might perform against certain teams. You can also look at your opponent’s team and see their players’ matchups for the week. For example, Josh Allen plays the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 and could be in for a monster week. That would be an important game for you if you’re playing Allen in the opener, or if you have him on your roster.
Key College Football Matchups To Watch
In the college football world, there are so many upcoming games that are already being highlighted to keep an eye on. During Week 0, there are a few that might be important to watch such as Florida State going up against Georgia Tech. During the official Week 1 slate, you can be sure to try and check out the battle between Clemson and Georgia, as well as North Dakota State going against Colorado. I mention Colorado because there is significant hype around them, checking out if they can live up to that will be important, as their roster might have heavy fantasy implications this year.
Players To Keep An Eye On For Future Weeks
With so many players looking to start their new season off excellently, there will be many that don’t. However, this doesn’t mean you should give up, or avoid paying attention to them entirely from that point on. These are the players that you keep an eye on, to see if it was just a fluke or an eerily scary trend. Some college players that you should keep an eye on for a while is UNLV receiver, Ricky White. He had a phenomenal season last year and it’ll be interesting to see how he follows that up early on. Another great player to watch is LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. Now that Jayden Daniels is gone, Nussmeier will be given the keys to the offense with the perfect chance to show the world what he is capable of. And finally, Oklahoma receiver Nic Anderson. Anderson averaged 21 yards per catch last season but only had 38 receptions. It would be interesting to see how he handles this new season and how much target volume he receives in the first few weeks.
Conclusion
That is all that we have for you today as we anticipate the beginning of the new season. To wrap everything all together in a neat bow, it is best that you set your lineups before the year begins, prepare yourselves to make real game-day adjustments to your rosters, if necessary, monitor player performances as the week progresses, and keep an eye on a few players who might be league breakers by the time the year comes to a close. With all of that being said, remember to thoroughly enjoy the upcoming season and never fall asleep at the wheel when it comes to your fantasy roster. A good fantasy manager is an attentive one.