This is one of the biggest missed opportunities I see in all of fantasy football. Whether it’s a lack of effort or a lack of knowledge, people consistently miss an opportunity to add another key breakout player at the very tail end of your roster. If I told the average fantasy gamer they could have another bench spot, 99% of them would fill it immediately. Yet I routinely see players NOT taking advantage of IR spots when they have them. And they don’t even think about the handcuff possibilities with TWO standalone games on Wednesday and Thursday night this year.

In this article, I’m going to show you exactly how to not only avoid being one of those players and MAXIMIZE your upside. As part of that, I’ll give you a quick step-by-step guide on how to check the injury and bench settings on Yahoo but it should work similarly for most sites. Then I will provide a list of players that we can potentially focus on as part of this strategy with our last bench spot to give ourselves some “free looks” at breakout candidates. If it all works according to plan, we can potentially beat the waiver wire. 

If you are a commissioner who takes these leagues seriously, I would strongly encourage you to set up your league with these settings. That way, you can take advantage yourself. 

Why Stashing Players In Week 1 Matters

It’s not a big secret, but it’s worth reminding folks that the biggest changes to the rankings and, often, the best waiver wire adds, happen in the first couple of weeks of the season. Going from having zero data to having a full slate of NFL data is obviously a jarring change compared to one random week in the middle of the season. If you know who to target, you might be able to get ahead of the waiver wire. And if you construct your roster correctly, you will have someone you can drop. 

 

 

 

What Kind of Players To Stash - Lottery Tickets vs. Scratch Tickets

There are two kinds of bench stashes for me.

  • Lottery Ticket - With real-life lottery tickets, you need to wait for the numbers to come in. It’s a slow play. Same goes for fantasy football lottery tickets. With running back handcuffs, for instance, you are waiting for an injury. That can take time. Same with rookies developing. You have to stash and hold someone like Colston Loveland last year while his role grew. It is a long-term play.
  • Scratch Ticket - With a scratch ticket, you get an answer immediately. You can buy it and scratch it right there at the counter. We have these in fantasy football too. With some position battles, we will find out in Week One who is playing or not. We throw a guy on the bench and, if he hits Week One, then great; if not, we drop him for the next guy. Greg Dulcich is a good example this year. This is a sixth-year veteran; he’s not a developmental play. We are not waiting for something to happen. He either gets a good role in Week One or we drop him. 

The distinction is important because we want to have lottery tickets, but we also like to use our LAST bench spot on a scratch-ticket-type player. That way we actually have someone to drop for the hot waiver pickups. There’s no sense drafting Zach Charbonnett if you are just going to drop him in the first couple of weeks on the waiver wire - you won’t hold him long enough for him to come back. That is, unless you have an IR spot. 

Best Fantasy Football League Settings For Injury Stashes

IR spots can be insanely valuable - especially if you have the right settings. Here is a quick guide on what to look for to see if you have them and if they are the ideal settings for our strategy. 

First, you need to check to see if your league has actual IR spots. At the top of your league home page on Yahoo, hover over where it says League to show the drop-down menu, then click Settings. Scroll down to where it says Roster Positions to see if there are IR spots listed after the bench.

If you have IR spots and you have already drafted, you can actually move both Alec Pierce and Zach Charbonnett to an IR spot right now because they are still on PUP. Other guys, like Jordyn Tyson and Alvin Kamara, you will be able to move to an IR spot the moment they are ruled out for Week One, so be ready to do that right when their designation changes. If you were smart, you moved George Kittle to an IR spot and added someone already, as he’s no longer eligible, but you can still leave him in here until you need to make a waiver move. 

Now, this next part isn’t 100% necessary, but it makes it MUCH easier to take advantage of IR spots. Go down to where all the waiver items are listed and check to see if you are allowed to add injured players directly from waivers to an IR spot.
 

This is important because, if this is on, you can actually add guys straight from the wire to an IR spot. That is awesome once guys get ruled out for Week One or put on short-term IR, as you can potentially add them directly to that IR spot off the wire. Otherwise, the injured guy needs to first be in a bench spot; then you need to move that guy to the IR spot from there. The problem with that is, if there is an injured guy on waivers, you need to drop someone to add them, and you run the risk of not getting the player you dropped back after you move the new guy to IR and open your bench spot.

The last super underrated setting when it comes to maximizing the IR spot is the Locked Bench Players setting. If this setting is yes, players on your bench lock when their game starts so that you can’t drop them. If this setting is no, you can actually drop players AFTER they play. This allows you to potentially add players to your bench, see if they do well (or, with handcuffs, see if the starter gets hurt), then drop them right from the bench after they play. This setting allows us to execute the strategy below for Wednesday and Thursday Night Week One Stashes. 
 

Wednesday and Thursday Night Week One Stashes

If that last setting is available to you, the one about locked bench players, you are eligible to take advantage of one of our favorite loopholes. Since you can drop players from your bench who have already played, you can get a “free look” at the guys who play on Wednesday or Thursday night. Just drop your kicker, defense, or worst player to add whoever you like. If they hit, then great, keep them. If they don’t, drop them to add back your kicker before Sunday’s slate.

For this strategy, we focus on two types of players. Scratch tickets, who will either hit or not in week one. Or handcuffs, in case someone gets hurt. Obviously, Blake Corum is rostered in over 80% of leagues, but in shallow leagues, that is your best bet. Here are the other players we are looking at.

 

 

 

New England Patriots @ Seattle Seahawks Wendesday Night Stashes

George Holani, RB, Seattle Seahawks

This is by far my favorite one. Zach Charbonnett is early on most likely. Emmanuel Wilson has also missed pretty much all of training camp. That leaves rookie Jadarian Price (who also just missed five padded practices) and George Holani. What if Holani has a meaningful role early on? What if Jadarian Price gets hurt? This is easily the most meaningful player from this game. Bonus points if you have Zach Charbonnet, move him to an IR spot, then add Holani off the wire. That gives you two-thirds of the stabs at this backfield. 

Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots

There isn’t much to stash on the Patriots side as most meaningful players are rostered. Both Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson are being drafted, as well as AJ Brown and Romeo Doubs. Hunter Henry is probably the third fiddle on the team, which caps his upside, but you can stash him to see if a WR gets hurt - or if he’s more involved than Doubs. 

Rashid Shaheed, WR, Seattle Seahawks

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the top dog for Seattle. After that, it’s actually pretty open. Cooper Kupp is more of a “player-coach” and part-time player at this stage, so the speedy Shaheed is the guy to target for the Seahawks WR group. They just gave him an extension this offseason. Tory Horton is banged up, and Jake Bobo is now out for a season, so it’s thin over there. 

Elijah Arroyo, TE, Seattle Seahawks

We really do not love the profile for AJ Barner as an inline tight end who is asked to pass block often. It’s actually Elijah Arroyo who we believe has the bigger upside if things break right. With a 40-50% snap share, he could be the Dalton Kincaid to Barner’s Dawson Knox. Or, if things break REALLY right, Arroyo could be this year’s Colston Loveland or Harold Fannin. Or Arroyo might hardly play, and then neither TE is really that interesting to us. Arroyo is rostered in only 1% of leagues, so even in the deepest of leagues, he’s out there.

San Francisco 49ers @ Los Angeles Rams  Thursday Night Stashes

De'Zhaun Stribling, WR, San Francisco 49ers

He’s one of the hottest picks in fantasy right now, so he might be rostered in your league. But he’s still sitting at 60% on Yahoo, so in 40% of leagues, he’s out there. The 49ers made him the first pick of the second round and, following the Ricky Pearsall injury, he’s in play for the WR2 chair. The 49ers use a fullback and multiple TEs, so that WR3 chair is not a great one. Mike Evans is the WR1, so it’s Stribling vs. Deebo Samuel, and it’s worth the bench spot to see how that shakes out. 

Terrance Ferguson, TE, Los Angeles Rams

This is such a great stash that we wrote about him in our article on Contingent Upside Picks. Check that out for the full write-up, but the idea is that he COULD have some standalone value with the Rams using a lot of 12 and 13 personnel. But the real upside could be unleashed if one of Puka Nacua or Davante Adams gets hurt because he’s basically a WR you can start at TE. That makes him a handcuff for TWO players that could go down Week One.

Kaelon Black, RB, San Francisco 49ers

This one is more of a “pick your poison” between Kaelon Black and Jordan James, as we don’t know for sure who the RB2 is. But Black has been getting the most hype this offseason and, as the rookie third-round pick, he’s simply more exciting as a “mystery box”. With Christian McCaffrey’s injury history, including some tightness these last few weeks, this is as good of a stash for this strategy as any.

 

 

 

Other Week One Stashes and Waiver Adds For Fantasy Football

If you have not gotten your Fantasy Alarm membership yet, NOW is the time. If you use promo code WIN, you can get 50% off your first month, which will not only give you access to our rankings for your draft but also to our rankings for the first three weeks of the NFL season, given the timeline. My rankings make sure to prioritize the late-round players I believe could have massive upside.

Also, as a member, you will get access to all our waiver wire content, including our Week Zero waiver wire article early in the Week before the first game kicks off. That article is going to have an even bigger list of our favorite players to scoop up right before kickoff in order to beat the waiver wire, so become a member today and don’t miss out!