Can I Fix a Bad Fantasy Football Team?

Here's a good post about how you can fix a bad fantasy football team. The main point of the article is know your fantasy football league's rules and scoring style.

Fantasy Football Trading Strategy

While not as easy as using waivers, making fantasy football trades can be a key element in your arsenal of ways to improve your team.  Trades are especially good for correcting imbalances on your team, such as being loaded at running back but thin at wide receiver.  In such a case, you would try to unload a RB for a WR.

Here are four excellent articles that discuss in detail strategies for being successful at trading in fantasy football:

1. Fantasy Football Trade Advice
2. Fantasy Football Trading
3. Keys to Fantasy Football Trading
4. Lets Make a Deal

50 Tips for Winning Your Fantasy Football League

Here's a great article at Football Babble that lists 50 best practices for the fantasy football owner who wants to win their league.

List of Great Free Fantasy Football Tools

David Gonos provides a list of 13 free and useful tools to help you with your fantasy football draft. 
Many of the tools he lists aren't useful only during the draft.  Things like depth charts, strength of schedule, player news, and the consistency calculator will benefit your fantasy football team all season long.

Minimize Your Fantasy Football Team's Risk

Though this article at the NY Times' NFL Blog the Fifth Down focuses on the fantasy football draft, I think the general principles apply also to your in-season team management.  So read the article and don't get too lost in the names mentioned.  Instead, remember the tips for your next draft and keep them in mind while managing your roster., When making trades, you'll want to minimize risk since you are giving up assets.  When signing off of waivers, though, swing for the fences.  Just don't give up a very valuable asset to sign one with upside that's yet to be realized; instead, give up the marginal, disappointing, or those with very low ceilings.

5 Things to Look for When Choosing a Fantasy Football Defense

There are few things to keep in mind when selecting a fantasy football defense:

1. Health of the Defense:  Think twice before selecting a defensive unit missing key players.
2. Strength of Schedule:  It's advantageous the have favorable games vs. weak offenses -- especially those that are prone to giving up turnovers and sacks.
3. Weather:  Late in the season, bad weather may assist your defense by making things more difficult for opposing offenses.
4. Defensive Team's Offensive Prowess:  If your defense plays for a team with an offense that holds the ball and puts together long drives frequently, your D is unlikely to give up as many points, as the opposing offense will have less time of possession, and thus less opportunity to score.  They are also less likely to tire out and give up late game points. On the other hand, less time on the field means less sacks and turnovers forced.
5. Special Teams:  If your defensive scoring also includes special teams (D/ST) then you will benefit from teams with a strong kick return game.

In addition to keeping the above in mind, you may want to check out this great article at Razz Ball called Getting Defensive: How to Choose or Not Choose a Defense in Fantasy Football. It's definitely worth reading because it explains a statistical analysis you can use to identify fantasy football defenses that score consistently. While geared toward the fantasy draft, the principles the author mentions are effective all season long.

Which Fantasy Football Positions are Most Crucial?

As you manage your roster throughout the fantasy football season, you should always be looking for ways to improve it.   Here's a breakdown of which positions deserve the most attention:

Running Backs 

Pros: They touch the ball the most frequently of any position. 

Cons: They are the scarcest important position.  They get injured frequently.  Often production is spread among several RBs on the same team.

Strategy: Hoard 'em.  Grab as many with any potential as your roster limits allow.  Your excess RBs will help when you get hi with injuries, go through bye weeks, or want to make a trade to help another position.