Written by Gene Zarnick | 18 September 2009

You’ve finished the first week of the fantasy football season and you finally got a sense of how good your team is going to be. You think you know if you need to make a move to get that final piece or if you are lacking in more than one position. Guess what? You don’t know anything yet. Week one hardly means anything to your team; it means a lot more for the other teams in your league. People panic too early or they think they got a championship team already. How many people already scoured the waiver wire to pick up people who they think will change their team? Did you really think it was essential to grab Cadillac Williams, JaMarcus Russell, Devery Henderson, or Benjamin Watson and waste your waiver priority already? Just because your team didn’t do so hot after one week doesn’t mean you have to jump ship with all your players. Most likely some players underachieved, some players had tough matchups, and some players aren’t warmed up yet. On the other hand if your team excelled then don’t get too comfortable because some players may have overachieved or just started out hot. Week one doesn’t mean much to your team, but week two will mean everything.

Week one only matters for one reason; either the other teams in your league will be panicking or will be celebrating way too early. What this does for you is it puts you into position to capitalize off their successes or failures. You need to target guys who have lots of potential, but didn’t look so hot in their first week. You also have to look at your own team and think about the players who played well that probably won’t later on in the season. Week two is when all of this strategy comes into play. Nobody wants to start out the season with two losses, but if that happens to anyone in your league then you know which teams will be looking to make moves. Focus on the winless teams and make moves with them for players who you think will start to get it going and trade players on your team who will drop off. At this point in the season the winless team feels like there’s a death in the family and you got to act like the funeral home director. Tell them it will be okay, give them players that they think will help them get over their grief, and do whatever you can to get their business. Their vulnerable at this point and you can get anything you want from them, while giving them the casket that looks great, but has been sitting there for years. Funerals take their money, you take their best players, and you can give them the guys who are about to croak over soon as well.

So now you know what teams to target, but what players should you target and what players should you trade? The first list shows players that if they have another bad or mediocre second week then you will be able to trade for. The other list shows players that you should get off your team if they play well again in week two. If you can grab any of the targets or trade away any of the get rid of players then you will gain maximized fantasy value.

Players to target after Week 2:
Chris Johnson
Matt Forte
LaDainian Tomlinson
Matt Schaub
Andre Johnson
Anquan Boldin
Steve Smith
Peyton Manning
Steve Slaton
Frank Gore

Players to get rid of after Week 2:
Brandon Jacobs
Ronnie Brown
Eagles D/ST
Joe Flacco
Julius Jones
Jeremy Shockey
Matt Hasselbeck
Todd Heap