Hopefully you made it another week further into your guillotine league journey without getting chopped. I got bit by the injury bug with J.K. Dobbins (pictured), but I managed to keep moving on. If you’re like me and your team made it, but you’re dealing with injuries, you’ll want to be more aggressive with your bids in Week 2. Two reasons: You’ve got a higher chance of being chopped with a star player going down, and if you get this star player in a winning bid off waivers, you get to start them for more weeks of the season.
I’ve gathered the data, and here are the top 10 most chopped star players from Week 1: Tee Higgins, Joe Burrow, Travis Kelce, Drake London, Cooper Kupp, JaMarr Chase, Dallas Goedert, Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, and Najee Harris. Mostly due to their performances, but some due to being put on injured reserve.
Quarterbacks:
I don’t like spending for a quarterback. If you’re starting Daniel Jones, Geno Smith or Derek Carr, I can see getting the upgrade to one of the star quarterbacks that were dropped, but the amount that others will pay (compared to my recommendation) is much more. Bad news: You won’t get the quarterback upgrade. Good news: you just made someone else in your league spend 20-plus percent of their budget. I’d only recommend about 5 percent of your budget on a top-5 quarterback.
Running Backs:
Here’s where it gets tricky: If you lost J.K. Dobbins or are dealing with Austin Ekeler or Aaron Jones’ injuries, I’d recommend you pay up. Running backs are hard to come by, and they get injured more than any other position in football. An aggressive bid on someone like Barkley would be 50 percent of your budget. It’s very risky, but you’ve already lost a player, so you need to do whatever it takes to gather some more wins. If you’re not in dire need of a running back or your team is towards the top, I’d still recommend throwing out a about 15 percent of your budget bid for a star back that hit waivers.
Wide Receivers:
Unlike running backs, wide receivers kind of grow on trees. We saw it just this week with Puka Nacua, Tutu Atwell, Jakobi Meyers, Nico Collins, and so much more. Being that wide receivers are more common than running backs, the other skill position you’re starting multiple of each week, I’m okay being less aggressive here. If it’s a star player such as Chase, I’m okay bidding about 20 percent of my budget on him. Other wide receivers, such as Drake London, whose workload is in question, Christian Watson, who is dealing with injury, or DJ Moore, who just underperformed in Week 1, I’m only spending 3-5 percent of my budget on these players.
Tight Ends:
When bidding for a player like Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews, I want to be a little more aggressive because the tight end landscape is a barren wasteland. I’m okay with spending 15 percent (for Andrews) and 20 percent (for Kelce) if you’re not confident in your tight end situation in Week 2, just in case Kelce or Andrews don’t play. Outside those two elite guys, I’m doing a 1 percent bid on whoever has a good chance for a touchdown this week (Hunter Henry vs. Dolphins, Sam LaPorta vs. Seahawks, or Gerald Everett vs. Titans)
Players on IR:
This specifically goes for Cooper Kupp or Jonathan Taylor, but works for other names that may appear in the future. You’re holding a roster spot for a player you know you won’t have for at least a couple of weeks. These bench spots are so valuable once teams start getting chopped. On a player such as Kupp or Taylor, people will probably outbid you (which, again, is fine, we want others to spend up on players), but I’d be extremely conservative with a maximum of 5 percent of your budget bid.
—Colt Williams
Williams is working towards a degree in economics and statistics at Sonoma State. A United States Air Force veteran, he’s been playing fantasy football since 2012. If you have a specific lineup question, are wondering how much you should spend on a player not mentioned, or just want to talk, you can find me on Twitter @_ColtWilliams. Twitter is the quickest way to get a hold of him if you want any fantasy football questions answered.