Fantasy Mashup

Wk3: Big questions, big games

Think it's too early to get urgent about crucial personnel decisions on your fantasy team? Don't kid yourself: only NFL coaches should be committed to the players on their rosters in September. Fantasy success is based on making intelligent (or lucky) assessments of NFL situations and talent before those assessments become common knowledge.

Sometimes that assessment wisely tells us to do nothing; other times it tells us to trade a player while he still has value. In any case, what you do should be a decision, not just an accident.

The important (though unofficial) deadlines for making these assessments are Week 3 of the preseason (draft prep), the fourth week of the regular season (roster adjustment) and Thanksgiving, when a lot of leagues set their trade deadlines and fantasy teams that are still in the hunt retool for their stretch drives. This means you're coming up on some make-or-break decisions, and we've got the questions after the jump...

Guys I like: Receivers

Wide receivers are plentiful, which means there's always SOMEONE on the waiver wire with a decent matchup. Of course, spotting that free agent player each week is a bit of a psychic trick.

My approach this year? I'm focusing on the receivers that are available in the first four rounds, and I want at least two of them. A nice third receiver would be a bonus, but beyond that? They're mostly roster fillers, to be swapped out with waiver-wire pickups as the season progresses.

Guys I like: RBs

Running backs are generally considered the Kings of Fantasy Football, which is nice for them, since with the pounding they take, your average fruit fly has a longer career. But there's a flip side: With the emphasis on acquiring RBs, their draft price stays extremely high in most leagues. Which means you'll be tempted to over-pay for them, and a flop can be extremely costly.