How to Survive Bye Week Hell in Your Fantasy Football League (VIDEO)

At this point in the fantasy football season every team is faced with the same problem. There is no avoiding it. There is no hiding from it. There is no paying someone else to deal with it for you. I'm talking about Bye Week Hell.

Bye weeks give players a chance to rest their aching bones. For them, bye weeks are an essential part of the season. For fantasy players they are worse than knowing your mother-in-law is visiting the entire time the kids are home during Christmas break.

The mistake that a lot of fantasy players make when it comes to bye weeks is thinking that they can do without a player for a week. That is almost as dumb as walking into an Eater's Anonymous meeting and saying, "Hey—who wants cake?"

Nothing sucks more than losing a game by one or two points, something even the worst defenses or kickers can provide. So recognize who your expendable teammate (because you are going to drop him) is and follow these simple steps:

Quarterbacks:

Strategy: You want someone who can compile yards and/or score touchdowns.

What to do: This is one is really tough because all the guys that can do both are going to be on someone's roster already. All is not lost! It will just take more to find the diamond in the rough!

Finding a replacement quarterback requires a few different steps. First, figure out who the worst teams in the league are overall. If the guy playing for one of them is available take him; chances are strong the man is going to have a great day because he'll always be passing in a vain attempt to catch up.

If they are not available, look for the teams that have the worst pass defenses. Once you have that figured out, go to the schedule and see who is playing that team. If the QB is taken, work your way up the list till you find one that isn't.

Running backs:

Strategy: You want someone who gains yards either on the ground or through the air and scores TDs (or at least one of those).

What to do: This one is tougher since there are so many teams that utilize multiple running backs per game. Your best bet is to check out the standings and schedule and see who is playing the worst team in the league.

If whoever is playing them has a second string guy that is available, pick him up. Once the score gets out of hand, they are going to start running the ball to kill the clock. Rather than risk the main running back getting injured, they'll let the back-up get most of the carries.

(Every league has one of these guys...)

Wide Receivers:

Strategy: You want someone who gets lots of catches for lots of yards, and scores touchdowns; preferably all three, but at this point in the season any combination of is okay.

What to do: There are a few things you can do here. First, you want to look at teams that pass the ball like crazy (i.e. New England, Dallas, New Orleans, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Houston, NY Giants, Philadelphia, San Diego).If they still have a No. 2 receiver listed as a free agent take him. He may have had a bad week last week (or the last couple) but he is likely to rebound soon.

You are okay going with most of the No. 3 receivers for these teams as well. Those guys are often deep threats whose stats are usually great or suck, but for a bye week you can't ask for much more.

Kickers:

Strategy: You want someone who kicks a lot and hopefully makes most of them.

What to do: Go to your league's free agents stats and click on the link for field goals attempted (usually FGA). This will put the available kickers in order according to who has attempted the most kicks. You want the guy who has made the most attempts within the top five. Go lower than that and you might get a guy who makes his kicks, but gets few chances (meaning few points).

Defenses and Tight Ends:

Strategy: You want someone who scores points.

What to do: If your fantasy league requires you to have a tight end I can tell you that all the good ones are already taken. So when it comes to them just pick up whomever the best one available is.

For defenses you will likely do the same thing. The only exception will be if the defense of the opponent of one of the worst teams is free. If they are, you want to take them.

(In case you need help with your trash talk...)