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In fantasy football planning is everything. Being a manager consists of proper preparation. You can draft the best team on paper and be left with all types of issues. Poor play, injuries, team inconsistencies that reduces team talent, and the crucial all important bye weeks.

Bye weeks can be your best friend in leagues that managers give up in. It happens all the time. The classic manager that digs her or himself a hole and flat out stops managing the team. You can catch a break with pure luck as the owner hasn’t set his lineup and has two to three players sitting out on a bye week.

That’s a process of pure laziness on those owners behalves. Here are a few simple strategies to pre-plan not having a major hole on those ever-crucial bye weeks.

Know your team
It’s a simple thought but knowing your team shouldn’t catch you by surprise. You don’t want to be coming off a fantasy football win and then figure out on Tuesday that you have two potential starting receivers on bye weeks. You should know this way ahead and bolster your bench positions before hand. If the bye week is week six that gives you a month and a half leeway to figure things out. You can either do that via a trade or managing the waiver wire. Risking a loss in a likely 13-14 game regular fantasy football season can’t be tolerated, especially in a money league.

Quarterbacks and Tight Ends Deserve the Highest Attention
I see this mistake far too often as well. An owner will invest heavily through auction or standard drafts at getting an elite tight end or quarterback. Their plan is a no-brainer and to start that tight end or quarterback all year. This strategy seems acceptable but it’s not. That’s two combined weeks having to use a lower tier non-starter. To make up this ground you need to offset this with favorable matchups. Your current backup quarterback or tight end does not have to be your starter that week. Look at a backup quarterback that’s starting because of an injury. Last year Josh McCown paid huge dividends for fantasy owners and there are countless other examples of this.

Upgrade, upgrade, and upgrade
Do not be a lazy fantasy owner. Take it seriously and find the resources to make your team better. All information is out there to make an improvement for any bye week scenario. Analyze and make the proper moves for those two to three tough bye week decisions a year.

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A summer goes by quick. Football fanatics consider this season their restless time period. Reading up on daily information for fantasy football drafts can only feed their football needs for so long. Trash talking fills the void for a few weeks and then preseason football finally takes over.

One area that can be a temporary look ahead for die-hard football fans is the week one odds that are already out.

It’s crazy to consider that you could place a bet on an NFL game three months from now. But in Las Vegas there are many people that will head to the ticket window and place a bet now. Some are locals that consider the line value worthy of a bet now. Others are tourists in town and figure they’ll make a return trip down the road to possibly cash out.

I’ve never been one to look ahead on lines because of sudden injuries and lackluster performances from teams of a year ago. But this year may be different. A lot of NFL teams haven’t changed the nucleus of their teams as in years past. Many coaches remain and the format is there to anticipate possible line value.

Here are just a few games that I believe there lies value on in week one.

St. Louis Rams vs Minnesota Vikings
This current line sits at -6 in favor of the St. Louis Rams. Teams that looked awful to conclude seasons typically roll that over into the next. Minnesota was one of the worst teams to finish out the second half of the year. Part of that had to do with their unsettling situation at quarterback. Freeman-Ponder-Cassel. None proved to be worthy of the starting job. Thus the Vikings drafted Teddy Bridgewater to hopefully solidify their quarterback issues. St. Louis on the other hand started to look like a true contender to be reckoned with as the season waned. Especially at home where they blew out teams such as the Bears and Colts. Jeff Fisher has this team primed to excel. Who knows who the Vikings will roll out as starter week one.

One can assume that it will be Matt Cassel. Veterans with average talent tend to struggle looking over their shoulder. That will be the case for Cassel as his days as starter will be numbered for Bridgewater. With a new coaching staff most players will be on a short leash. There just is too many roster moves the Vikings will be overhauling while the Rams have their teams intact.

Total San Diego vs Arizona of 44.5
Last year San Diego was one of the dreadful teams to watch offensively. They had a methodical way of doing things that sometimes won games and others caused problems. Due to the NFL’s high rate of scoring this line is basically at the median average. Simple enough to likely not attract eyes in June or July. Being formerly from Arizona I know enough about this Cardinals team to know they are a slow starting team.

Both of these teams have sound defenses, and veteran offenses. That should equate to simplistic offense in hopes of winning the game in the fourth quarter. One should know not to trust either Carson Palmer or Philip Rivers in September. This game should have the biggest shift in opening spread differential to gameday.

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