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Bye Stacking? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter dkp993
- Start date
tone1oc
Footballguy
I personally never really worry about byes unless I'm picking up a late round backup QB/TE or maybe as part of a tiebreaker between two guys. I'd rather have the talent I want and worry about that bye when I get to the bridge, or something like that.
EDIT: I forgot to add I had never heard of Bye Stacking before this thread, very interesting.
EDIT: I forgot to add I had never heard of Bye Stacking before this thread, very interesting.
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wickster33
Footballguy
Depends on the talent level of your picks. All things being equal, I like the strategy. Being at full strength for 12 weeks more than cancels out your one sure loss
Sabertooth
Footballguy
Nah. Trying you are eliminating a lot of potential value by trying to pigeonhole everyone into a certain bye week. Seems like a recipe for disaster. Of course I make a lot of roster moves so I just deal with the bye weeks as they come.
Raiderfan32904
Footballguy
Bye stacking? Let me get this right. Is this the strategy where you purposely choose your squad to avoid bye week issues? Seems like a poor strategy. For one, I'll move so many players, whether it's waiver add/drops or trades that my week one roster is almost unrecognizable by the time the playoffs start. It's a recipe for disaster to attempt to think that far ahead. I go so far to completely ignore the bye weeks when determining my ADP and where I assign my values within each tier. My QB's for instance, Luck and Rivers both have the same bye week and I'm rolling into the season with no worries. I'll make plenty of moves later to find a viable week 10 replacement somehow. It takes a leap of faith to ignore bye week issues, but your team will be stronger.
LittlePhatty
Footballguy
Sabertooth
Footballguy
That's a recipe for 6-7 and missing the playoffs.
JFS171
Footballguy
It's one of those things that I don't mind if it happens, but I certainly don't set out to accomplish. As others have said, I draft the best talent. I certainly don't look at two guys available with my pick (one from tier one, and the other from tier two) and select the lesser guy because he doesnt' have the same bye week.
I've had some teams in the past where it just happened to work out that 3 or 4 of my best players shared the same bye. That week was rough, but it was great having them for the rest of the season.
Don't think I'd ever employ it as a strategy though...
One of my squads this year has Roddy and Julio both... so week 9 I'm missing two big weapons. Hypothetically, though, it wouldn't stop me from trying to acquire Aaron Rodgers, who shares that same bye, or Eddie Lacy, or Matt Forte...
I've had some teams in the past where it just happened to work out that 3 or 4 of my best players shared the same bye. That week was rough, but it was great having them for the rest of the season.
Don't think I'd ever employ it as a strategy though...
One of my squads this year has Roddy and Julio both... so week 9 I'm missing two big weapons. Hypothetically, though, it wouldn't stop me from trying to acquire Aaron Rodgers, who shares that same bye, or Eddie Lacy, or Matt Forte...
chickensoup
Footballguy
He's asking about the opposite. As in you have 2 keepers (say Forte/Rodgers) and purposely target Julio, Roddy, and Sankey. You stack your players onto week 9 (almost guaranteed loss) so you have a full strength roster the rest of the year.
FUBAR
Footballguy
I'd either go for it or spread the byes depending on how the first few rounds shake out. Worst thing you can do is have three weeks where your key players are on bye. Especially if your lineup doesn't have much flexibility and you end up with holes in various positions throughout the year.
Raiderfan32904
Footballguy
Stack them...spread them out..... best strategy is ignore them and take best value. the rest sorts itself out.
Grigs Allmoon
Footballguy
Agreed. And, like Raiderfan said, your roster is bound to look a lot different even a few weeks into the season due to busts/injuries/WW, etc.
This. It's not something I'll do intentionally, but if during the course of the draft I notice I naturally started stacking a bye, I might use it as a tiebreaker going forward.
The key is either stack a single bye or spread them out. If you have all of your QBs on bye on one week, all of your RBs on bye on another week, and all of your WRs on bye on a third week, then you're looking at three likely losses without getting the "full strength" benefit the rest of the time. If you have all your QBs, RBs, and WRs on bye on the SAME week, though, there's nothing wrong with that. The gains every other week offset the single punted game.
dkp993
Footballguy
Thanks for the feedback all. Just something I'm considering as part of my pre-draft prep. It's a keeper auction league and by chance my keepers (DT, Stacy, Christine Michael) have the same bye. I am VERY much a value guy so almost never target specific players but looking at the byes with my keepers I could target AJ, lynch and Julius and have a pretty legit core all with week 4 bye.
Lynch (Michael handcuff)
Stacy
AJ
DT
Julius Thomas
Lynch (Michael handcuff)
Stacy
AJ
DT
Julius Thomas
chickensoup
Footballguy
I would personally only do it with late bye weeks because of how fast the NFL landscape changes within a year. You have at least a chance of pulling a win out of your rear end the more weeks you have to comb waivers. I would also only do it if something like 3 of my first 4 picks ended up with the same bye
GregR
Footballguy
Not something I would do intentionally.
A good draft strategy should have you locating the players who are available later in the draft than they should be, and then figuring out how to stock your team where your needs during the draft are aligning well with those players when they fall to your picks. If you restrict yourself just to players on the same bye I think the amount of potential value you lose from that is probably significantly more than the amount you gain in those other bye weeks.
Also Raiderfan makes the excellent point about how much a roster changes during the season due to trades and waiver moves. Are you going to neglect acquiring a better option to hang onto a worse player with a a matching bye during the season? If it isn't worth doing in season, was it worth much more doing it in the draft?
A good draft strategy should have you locating the players who are available later in the draft than they should be, and then figuring out how to stock your team where your needs during the draft are aligning well with those players when they fall to your picks. If you restrict yourself just to players on the same bye I think the amount of potential value you lose from that is probably significantly more than the amount you gain in those other bye weeks.
Also Raiderfan makes the excellent point about how much a roster changes during the season due to trades and waiver moves. Are you going to neglect acquiring a better option to hang onto a worse player with a a matching bye during the season? If it isn't worth doing in season, was it worth much more doing it in the draft?
Hoss Style
Footballguy
I tried it one time in a free league because my buddy had been blabbering about how it would be the "ultimate strategy". It sucked. You are so focused on getting the same byes that you have to draft around a lot of talent.
I could see it working out if the cards fell the right way, but I hated it.
I usually draft to talent for my starters, and look at bye weeks when I'm drafting my bench.
I could see it working out if the cards fell the right way, but I hated it.
I usually draft to talent for my starters, and look at bye weeks when I'm drafting my bench.
ebsteelers
Footballguy
I will say week 9 could be an auto bye with out reaching our losing value
if your picking late in round 1
1) Julio week 9
2) marshall week 9
3) rodgers week 9
4) CJ Spiller week 9
5) Kendall wright week 9
6) Bishop week 9
7) Joqiue bell
etc
week 4 and 9 (lions, bills, falcons, bears, packers, titans) seem to have a lot of potential for auto losses and to be at full strength the rest of the year
if your picking late in round 1
1) Julio week 9
2) marshall week 9
3) rodgers week 9
4) CJ Spiller week 9
5) Kendall wright week 9
6) Bishop week 9
7) Joqiue bell
etc
week 4 and 9 (lions, bills, falcons, bears, packers, titans) seem to have a lot of potential for auto losses and to be at full strength the rest of the year
Run It Up
Footballguy
I guess I should clarify, I don't go out of my way to draft one guy over another because they have the same bye. What I do do however is not avoid a guy because they have the same bye week.
Examples from this year being Week 10, 9, 7 and 4 being several of the best offenses bye weeks.
QB: Brady (10)
RB: Mccoy (7)
RB: Vereen (10)
WR: C. Patterson (10)
WR: VJax (7)
TE: Gronkowski/Julius (10/4)
Flex: Welker (4)
QB: Wilson (4)
RB: Forte (9)
RB: Spiller (9)
WR: P. Harvin (4)
WR: A. Jeffery (9)
TE: Cameron (4)
Flex: Welker (4)
Examples from this year being Week 10, 9, 7 and 4 being several of the best offenses bye weeks.
QB: Brady (10)
RB: Mccoy (7)
RB: Vereen (10)
WR: C. Patterson (10)
WR: VJax (7)
TE: Gronkowski/Julius (10/4)
Flex: Welker (4)
QB: Wilson (4)
RB: Forte (9)
RB: Spiller (9)
WR: P. Harvin (4)
WR: A. Jeffery (9)
TE: Cameron (4)
Flex: Welker (4)
slackjawedyokel
Footballguy
This should be a secondary strategy to simply drafting a solid team. Don't overthink it... you will always have a way to work through the byes if you are on the waiver wire and making trades.
All else equal I like it.
All else is rarely if ever equal.
As I am drafting my team if my first picks are different bye weeks I will, as a tie breaker, try to split up later bye weeks. However, if I get the same bye week on 2 of my first 3 picks, as a tie breaker I'll take the option of stacking more onto that week as I go.
Don't let it keep you from taking the player you want.
(in my main league I may stack a bunch of week 9 byes, lots of guys on bye that week...CHI, DET, GB, ATL, BUF, TEN)
All else is rarely if ever equal.
As I am drafting my team if my first picks are different bye weeks I will, as a tie breaker, try to split up later bye weeks. However, if I get the same bye week on 2 of my first 3 picks, as a tie breaker I'll take the option of stacking more onto that week as I go.
Don't let it keep you from taking the player you want.
(in my main league I may stack a bunch of week 9 byes, lots of guys on bye that week...CHI, DET, GB, ATL, BUF, TEN)
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GregR
Footballguy
There is a huge difference between being able to do it without making absurd reaches, versus "not losing value".
If, at your draft spot, there is a combination of WR at your 3rd round pick and QB at your 5th round pick who score more combined than the two you named, then you're passing up value if you take those guys listed. If a 1st round RB, 2nd round RB and 4th round WR combine for more and let you delay drafting your backup RB another round which gives you a much better TE, that also means you passed up value.
There's no way you or I or anyone can just list some players in rounds that aren't absurd to be taken there, and say we didn't pass up value. We can't tell without making a list of good value players available at each pick the slot possesses and determine what the best combination of players that can be taken is. And that list is going to be different if you're picking 3rd in the round than if you're picking 8th in the round.
An optimal draft strategy isn't this simplistic, we would have to do a lot more before we could just how much value might be getting lost.
dkp993
Footballguy
Greg,
No doubt you are correct in that you can't just cherry pick. But as I eluded to earlier, and seems to continue to be left out of this discussion, in an auction this might be easier to do and still retain a shot at relative value.
FFFIEND
Footballguy
I pay no mind to bye weeks unless my starting QB has an early bye week. I used to watch bye weeks like a hawk during my draft, but I have found out that byes make little difference.
That said, I would NOT try to stack them. That would be an additional pain I would not want to suffer.
THE ONLY case I can see for stacking is in a league where your waiver pickups are limited. Then you could just assume a loss during the bye week and that would keep you from making as many waiver moves.
That said, I would NOT try to stack them. That would be an additional pain I would not want to suffer.
THE ONLY case I can see for stacking is in a league where your waiver pickups are limited. Then you could just assume a loss during the bye week and that would keep you from making as many waiver moves.
GregR
Footballguy
I struggle to say if it would be any better, or much better, than a draft. On the one hand, you wouldn't be stuck in a situation where there's no players that match your bye left at your pick who are a value and also at a position you still need.
But on the other hand, the players you're having to take for the bye may not be good values. I think the way you come out of an auction with the best team, is you walk in knowing the value you think every player should have, and you are prepared to take anyone that ends up being a value. With an eye on making sure you still spend to your cap of course.
I think it would require dumb luck for a lot of the best values in an auction happen to happen to share a bye.
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For fun I just did a mock on Yahoo. Yeah, random Yahoo mock, not always the most competition, but for starters I got:
Jay Cutler
Reggie Bush, Joique Bell
Calvin Johnson, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb
Martellus Bennett
And that was using the 2nd overall pick on Calvin.
Jay Cutler
Reggie Bush, Joique Bell
Calvin Johnson, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb
Martellus Bennett
And that was using the 2nd overall pick on Calvin.
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ghostguy123
Footballguy
You trade your good RB who is about to have his bye week to another team whos good RB just had their bye week, and do this the week you play him. Hopefully he likes your guy better and doesnt care (or never looks) at the bye situation.
Championship
But yeah, no, why worry about the byes. Other teams have them also.
Championship
But yeah, no, why worry about the byes. Other teams have them also.
ebsteelers
Footballguy
I wasnt saying its the right or wrong strategy just that it can be done. fairly easily.. and in that first 7. i dont really think one of those players is being "reached" on
GregR
Footballguy
Didn't mention it clearly but I feel the same there. I would use spreading byes as a tiebreaker normally, but if I ended up with the same bye enough I might flip the tiebreaker to favor stacking.
So after my posts in here... in one league 3 of 4 keepers had the same bye. Most of my picks so far, there was one clearcut best value player that I took. 3 out of 5 draft picks also have that bye, and one player (Gordon) will probably be serving a suspension that week. So right now, 7 out of 9 players might be stacked on that bye, just from drafting BPA and ignoring byes.
The universe has a sense of humor it seems.
Anyone follow through with this? With byes around the corner I'm noticing a few teams in my leagues staring at no rbs or wrs in the coming weeks. Could pan out.
However, with short benches (6 spots) they look as though they will roll the week with empty slots. As commish should this be allowed?
However, with short benches (6 spots) they look as though they will roll the week with empty slots. As commish should this be allowed?
GregR
Footballguy
Do you have a rule against it? If so then no, follow your rule.
If not, are they sticking with their existing players because it's helps the team's overall chances of winning the most games this season? Then yes you should allow it.
Are they doing it to throw games and lose intentionally? Then no, you shouldn't allow it.
You guys made the rules. If you made a league without enough bench space to be able to handle byes, and that leaves someone's best course of action to have to go a week with an empty starting spot in order to field the best overall lineup over the course of the season, that's a bed your league made and needs to sleep in now.
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dschuler
Footballguy
Sabertooth
Footballguy
That's what I did. I now have 10 of my 24 players on week 4 bye in a dynasty. Lol. Hopefully Lesean McCoy can do Marshawn's work as well as his own.
