September Article: Fantasy Football IDP early season advice: Avoid the PANIC MODE!!!
By: Robert Kirlin

The IDP Guru Another Fantasy Football IDP season is upon us, and once again all is right with the world. Many of us have already completed our drafts, had a couple of weeks to analyzer things and now comes “PANIC MODE”. We are overanalyzing our teams thinking we have to go out and make a fantasy football trade right away for the player we most covet. Yes, you drafted strong in one area, and are lacking in another, and you see that another owner has an overabundance of players at a position that you need, and you in turn, have what they need. Of course right away, you want to be the first person to make the trade that will put you over the top, hence you are in Panic Mode and you just made your first mistake. Look, everyone is doing the same thing, they are looking to make the big trade, but as I have learned, you can’t win Week #1 until that weeks games have been played. Okay, so maybe you lose Week #1, or even Week #2, or Week #3, it happens, trust me, it happened to me last year, I lost the first 3 games of the season, yet I won 10 in a row and won my fantasy football division and went on to the playoffs and the championship round.

Oh, what’s that, did I make any trades along the way? Well of course I did, but I did it by being patient, and letting the other owners come to me. By not going into Panic Mode, I was able to secure better players in the trade and probably a little more than the other guy was willing to give up, we went back and forth for 2 maybe 3 weeks before finally agreeing on a trade, and in the end, my patience paid off. One other thing I did not do when I did not go into Panic Mode, I did not get frustrated with the lack of wins for my fantasy football team, I continued to put my best lineups in each week, first off because I wanted to win, (honestly, was beaten 2 weeks in a row by the owners who scored the highest points that week in the league while ending up with the 2nd and 3rd best points in each of those weeks).

The second reason, and probably the most important reason that I never gave up is that from an integrity standpoint its important to keep competing at the highest level so that the other league owners have a chance to catch the guy who I may have been playing that week, and he needed me to win, by the same token, I would expect nothing less from them so I might have the chance to move up in the fantasy football IDP standings.
Remember, you cannot make the playoffs in the first week of the season, you need to put your best fantasy football lineup in every week so that when you’re playoffs are nearing, you have a chance to be there.
This is also very important to new members of a league, especially if you want to be invited back the next year. Good Luck to all participating this year, and I hope you all win your fantasy football IDP leagues. (Unless of course you play in mine and then you can finish a close second)!!!