I've been playing fantasy football with a few business school friends going on 6 years.  Now, I'm not one of those fantasy nuts that spends a ton of time combing the waiver wire or trying to make trades (although my league has enough of those).  Seriously...who has the time?

My casual approach to playing fantasy football has been working well for me.  In 6 years, I've won the 10-person league twice-most recently in 2003.  This year I was 11-0 and things were looking good.  And then...tragedy struck in the form of Priest Holmes getting injured. Since then I've lost 2 games and got knocked out of the playoffs.

Anyone who knows anything about fantasy will tell you Priest is the man.  He is a guy who can just as easily score on the ground versus the air.  So, am I just a victim of bad luck.  Well, sort of, but I could have prevented it by simply picking up one of his back-ups (Blaylock/Johnson) off the waiver wire before the season began. 

Some my question this logic-why would I waste a spot on my team with a bench warmer.  My response is it isn't always the player, it is the system they play under.  Just look at Denver.  They had Terrel Davis, Mike Anderson, Orlandis Gary, Clinton Portis and Reuben Droughns.   These backs are decent to good, but the Denver Broncos' system made them better.

The same holds true for KC.  Both Blaylock and Johnson have been solid producers since Holmes went down. Johnson, for example, who was riding the bench has 560 all purpose yards and 7 TDs. Blaylock has 800 all purpose yars and 9 TDs. 

So my advice is if you have a stud player that can make or break your team, draft his backup and let him ride your bench.