Fantasy Football lingo talking about free agents and the waiver wire
What is a free agent?
Free agents can be very valuable to your success as every year some fantasy football stars emerge off the waiver wire. Keep your eye on who’s available all year long but especially towards the end of the season as you will have an opportunity to pick up a guy that may take you deep into the playoffs.
It’s pretty common to have guys start strong and then wither out, Donovan McNabb has been on my team and this has happened to me right before the playoffs and he became almost unusable.
On the flip side, guys like Matt Cassel who come in after one game and have to pick up the remainder of the season because Tom Brady went down is a great free agent pick up.
Free agents are players who weren’t drafted or are dropped from an owner during the week.
Here’s an example of bad free agent decisions by me and a good one by the eventual Fantasy Champion.
Tom Brady was my #1 QB and I picked him up as my #1 player in the draft. He went down in the first game and I didn’t pick up Matt Cassel, that was my mistake.
Towards the end of the year Matt Cassel came on strong, my opponent pick him up in the middle of the season and in our Fantasy Football Super Bowl I had to go against Matt Cassel and I lost.
It’s important to keep track of who’s coming on and getting hot, free agents can make or break your team.
What is the waiver wire?
The waiver wire is basically the concept of adding free agents who either who were dropped by a team or were undrafted at the beginning of the season. The waiver wire is typically handled week to week with the team with the worst record getting a crack at free agents first.
Be very mindful to read your leagues rules on the waiver wire works and how to determine who gets to pick when.
I was in one league where the waiver wire was open at 11am on Tuesday and one guy was always on the trigger of picking up the best players. In my book this isn’t fair and I’m no longer with that league.