One thing we definitely do not lack at Yahoo Fantasy is data. After a quarter-century spent hosting fantasy leagues, we know a few things about winning and losing. Among the most important (and overlooked) traits shared by the winningest fantasy teams is that they rule the month of September.
Yup, that’s right: . Successful fantasy teams tend to dominate out of the gate. If you’re looking for a true draft day cheat code, build a roster that wastes no time.
Started 3-0 made the playoffs 72.9% of the time Started 0-3 made the playoffs 12.0% of the time Sweeping the opening month was basically a golden ticket to the postseason, while opening 0-3 meant your squad was probably cooked.
Started 3-0 made the playoffs 83.8% of the time Started 0-3 made the playoffs 24.6% of the time Private leagues can obviously involve any number of teams fighting for any number of playoff spots, so there are more variables.
But the lesson is, it gets late early in fantasy football. Of course, you might be thinking that it's easy enough to talk about winning the month of September and quite another thing to actually pull it off. But there are certainly a few things you can do to maximize your winning odds early in the season.
Here are three keys to a successful opening month: Don't be the manager who drafts Nick Chubb, T.J. Hockenson and Jonathon Brooks, dreaming of the unstoppable roster you might eventually have and assuming best-case scenario recoveries.
Allow yourself one flier on an injured .