Don't Panic

You prepared for weeks, or even months, leading up to the season. You nailed your draft. You tinkered with your starting lineup until it was perfect. And then…. you got waxed in Week 1.

Your first overall pick, Le’Veon Bell, didn’t show up for Week 1, and your RB3, Royce Freeman, didn't pick up the slack. You were convinced that THIS was the year Amari Cooper took his place among the league elites - but then he was targeted only three times in the opener, pulling in a measly nine yards. Doug Baldwin was a steal as your WR2, and then… the knee. You believed in DeShaun Watson as THE NEXT BIG THING, and he rewarded your confidence in him with fewer than 200 passing yards and only one score. You’re pulling your hair out. How could this have gone so horribly, horribly wrong?

But…

Don’t panic. I repeat: Don’t. Panic.

Making a knee-jerk trade is the very worst thing you could do. You put in your time and effort researching who you thought the best players were. You read the fantasy analysis. You took care to draft a team that you liked. Why would you throw that all away after one week?

Calm down. It’s a small sample size, in a game that’s full of small samples. As a general rule, I never make a trade involving one of my top 6 picks before Week 5. That gives you the first quarter of the season to evaluate your team. Maybe you’ve got someone like Watson working his way back from injury. It’s unrealistic to expect him to be an MVP his first game back. Maybe you’ve got someone like Cooper who was going up against one of the top defenses in the NFL in Week 1. Or maybe you’ve got somebody who just had a bad game. Every player has bad games. Even Hall of Famers. So, in the words (letters?) of Aaron Rodgers, “R-E-L-A-X.”

It’s going to be fine.