The increase in players taking on the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols may have you questioning how this could affect your fantasy football team as we head into the first week of qualifying. Live for ESPN’s standard leagues. We will try to answer what we can for you here.
How does a player’s status affect his showings and ratings on ESPN.com?
We use our best judgment. The majority of players who were added to the COVID-19 roster Monday through Friday before Sunday’s game missed that game, with a few notable exceptions. Our approach is to remove those players from our leaderboard and remove their predictions, discarding another suggestive report. For players who have been on the roster longer, we are more optimistic about their chances of clearing protocols and playing. That’s the case right now with Darrell Henderson Jr. and Myles Gaskin, for example, but as with any medical situation, this is only our best guess and is not indicative of inside knowledge of the situation. – Mike Clay
So when will I know for sure if a player will play or not?
Current rules state that in order to play on Sunday, players must be activated from the COVID-19/substitute list by 4pm Saturday ET. For games on Thursday, Saturday (there are two slots this week) or Monday, the deadline is 4pm on the same day. If this rule changes, we’ll update it here as well. However, as we saw last week with the Rams ahead of their Monday night game, a player can be added to the reserve/COVID19 roster at any time. – Stephania bells
What advice can you give me to prepare?
I often stress that, especially in fantasy knockouts, one should maximize each squad in place. That doesn’t mean just filling every slot with an active player, but rather, in the current COVID-19 environment, making sure every slot is used in a way that maximizes the potential to bring in. Decide your squad at every lock of the game block.
Here’s how: As Sunday’s 1pm ET games approach and you lock in your initial lineup, if any of the players removed from your bench serve the minimum purpose in future, cut that player and leave the slot on his list blank, or add someone in the same position at a corresponding or later game start time to any player you have in the game at 4 pm or at night.
That way, you’ll be able to add an emergency plug-in (thanks to the empty bench slot) or a spot in that pickup should your player unexpectedly land on the COVID-19 roster. This is most important if you have players on Sunday or Monday night games – David Montgomery, Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson most notably this week – as the later in the game, there is more time for unexpected results, so capturing insights for those three is far more important before than do so, such as, Nick Chubb in the game Saturday afternoon.
Think it can’t happen? Think again: During one of my home tournaments last week, a manager Tyler Higbee in his squad with the outside chance to win an important match. Unfortunately, that league didn’t allow adding/subtracting after Sunday, which was simply an unlucky result, but in an ESPN tournament there weren’t any substitutes – as was the case with That team – you’ d be forced to cut Higbee yourself to replace him. That’s a no-no if you have an assignment, like Montgomery or Cook. (Note: Make sure you are familiar with the tournament-specific rules regarding when and how you can add players, and tailor the above to your specific conditions.)
Which brings us to our final piece of advice: Always Take the opportunity to put your last-player of the week in a flexible position, maximizing your alternative moves when the news is late. That way, if Montgomery is your chance rather than running backwards, you can pick RB, WR, or TE to replace him if there’s bad news, instead of just running back if he gets cut there. –-Tristan H. Cockcroft
What if a match is postponed or cancelled?
When and if a game is played is entirely up to the NFL. We saw some games rescheduled last season and over the summer the NFL pointed out The game may be canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
A canceled game will be considered a bye week. Players will obviously not accumulate points, but also won’t lock into the originally scheduled game time, allowing you to substitute or eliminate those players according to your tournament rules.
If a match is rescheduled to Tuesday, we will extend the scoring period for that week to resolve. This will also delay the waiver by one day. Note that if your league uses a multi-day waiver, this could create a overlap with the following Thursday night game. Players in that game will be locked out and will not be able to be used as a conditional reward for waiver purposes.
Remember that custom league managers have access to certain roster editing tools and can also adjust scoring for any given match, allowing your league to address the particular situation in an appropriate manner.
