Fantasy Football: How to Win Your League With Waiver Claims

October 4, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals former quarterback

acknowledges the fans during the first half at the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams defeated the Cardinals 17-3. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

3) POSITION DOESN’T MATTER

When panning for fantasy gold, don’t pay attention to position. You’re looking for unexpected producers that no one has on their roster. That is the factor that takes precedence. Don’t pass up a good candidate in favor of plugging a bleeding hole on your roster.

The classic example of this mistake is when I passed up adding a then-unknown Kurt Warner early in the 1999 season. I was hardly hurting at the QB position. I had a young Peyton Manning and Jeff George (who had one of his rare good years playing for the Vikings) at quarterback. I passed on Warner because of his history as an Arena league player and the fact that the Rams played a cupcake schedule early on.

I dismissed Warner’s early numbers as something of a fluke that would end once the league caught up to him.

I passed up the top fantasy breakout of 1999, I also missed on a future Hall-of-Famer.

Genius!

When panning for fantasy gold, don’t pay attention to position. You’re looking for unexpected producers that no one has on their roster.

Now, I won my fantasy league that year due to a stable of wide receivers (including 2 plucked from the bone pile). Guess who finished second? The guy who claimed Warner, and the league went down to the wire.

I realized my mistake the first time I actually watched Warner play.

In many ways, however, that is beside the point. The reasons I passed on Warner were 1) my stacked QB roster and 2) my desire to fill a roster hole at WR with a waiver claim.

I would have been much better off with Warner, even if I never played him. First of all, I could have prevented anyone else from claiming him. Second, I COULD HAVE TRADED HIM.

When it comes to panning for fantasy gold, you WANT THE PROSPECTS WITH THE BEST CHANGE OF PUTTING UP BIG NUMBERS. You can always deal that player, or one of your more “name” producers, to fill your roster holes.