Fantasy Football Strategy: Dos and Don’ts for Managers in 2024

The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo’s fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points! If you like what you see, you can subscribe for free here.

Just in case you need to brush up on the principles of in-season roster management—the stuff we all originally learned as wide-eyed freshmen at Fantasy U — let’s review some do’s and don’ts:‌

USE all available IR slots. Just like you wouldn’t leave a backup spot vacant, you shouldn’t leave an IR spot empty either. Go get the best IR-eligible player you can find in the free agent pool. For some of you, that’s TJ Hockenson. For others, it’s Kendre Miller or Keaton Mitchell. When you’re offered free lottery tickets, don’t pass them up.

DON’T BURN those flex points on Thursday nightIdeally, you’ll keep your flexes open through Monday, preserving maximum flexibility to cover any injuries, unforeseen absences, or weather-related issues. This may not seem like a big deal on opening week, but it won’t be long before your team’s page is filled with little red Qs, Ds, Os, and IRs.

DO preemptive pick-ups while your match is in progress. Remember that if your league uses Yahoo’s default settings, you’ll be able to remove any player from your bench before Monday night, even after their game has kicked off. Players on your active roster obviously can’t be traded, but substitutes are tradeable. That means, for example, you can bench a backup guard before Sunday’s games just to see if he stands out—and if he doesn’t, you can remove him mid-game in favor of a player involved in a later game. (Private league commissioners who hate this feature can disable it via “lock bench players.”)

DON’T think too much about early season matchups. As a general rule, I’m just going to play my best players in the first few weeks without considering matchups. I realize we’re all pretty confident in our NFL opinions right now because they haven’t been tested in actual games, but we’re about to be reminded that the NFL is incredibly difficult to predict. It’s a league we have to relearn every year. Don’t assume last season’s away matchups will be as difficult in 2024.