Welcome to the world of fantasy football. If you’re reading this, you’re most likely trying to get oriented so you don’t look like a total novice competing in your league against friends, family or colleagues. Fortunately, The Athletic spent the summer compiling this comprehensive guide to walk you through everything you need to know.This series was built for beginners, so if you already know that a Flex isn’t just a verbal boast and that EPA does not stand for the Environmental Protection Agency, kindly show yourself over to our wealth of in-depth draft coverage.We’re here for the fantasy first-timers, the folks so fresh to the game that they may occasionally call it “Imaginary Football.” (Lesson 1: Do not call it Imaginary Football.) So, if you’re simply hoping to grasp the nuances of your league’s scoring system, figure out how to add players from the waiver wire and learn how to pronounce Favre and Houshmandzadeh, then you, my friend, are in the right place.We’ve broken down this briefing into five sections: league settings, scoring settings, drafting, waivers and trades, and lineup management. You can use the navigation links at the bottom to navigate between the sections. Have more specific questions? Leave ’em in the comments. Let’s get to learning.League settingsAs you begin the road to fantasy football mastery, the first step requires learning the terrain. That means understanding how your roster will be built and how your players will accrue points from week to week.While the majority of leagues will utilize the default settings from a fantasy game provider, each league’s settings can be tweaked to make it unique. These settings include the number of teams in the league, starting players in a weekly lineup, the positions required to fill the lineup and which statistics translate into fantasy points and how many each stat is worth.Through customization, you can make your league look as mundane as a planned community in central Florida or as wild as a kid’s Minecraft fever dream. Regardless, it’s essential to spend some time learning all your league’s peculiarities before you sit down on draft day. Otherwise, instead of crafting a team bristling with fantasy weapons, you might spend your draft building a screen-door submarine destined for the bottom of your league standings on its maiden voyage.The biggest setting to note is whether your league is a redraft, keeper, dynasty or guillotine league. Redraft leagues reset with a new draft every season, with every player going back into the draft pool. Keeper leagues allow managers to retain a certain number of players from season to season, usually at the cost of a particular draft pick or an increased salary (if you’re in an auction/salary cap league). Dynasty rosters persist from season to season, with managers only drafting players entering the NFL for the first time. Guillotine leagues are their own unique animal that we’re not going to get into for beginners. (You can read more about them here, if you want.)For the purposes of this guide, we’re going to focus on redraft leagues since that’s where most beginners start their fantasy careers.Roster settingsDefault settings will vary between fantasy platforms. For the purposes of this guide, we’ll use ESPN’s, as it has the largest player base and thus provides the most likely default settings a beginner might see.A default ESPN roster consists of a starting roster of a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one flex position — which can be a running back, wide receiver or tight end — a kicker and a team’s defense and special teams units (typically abbreviated D/ST or DST). Those are your team’s active roster spots that will accrue points for your team. Each team also gets seven bench slots, which can feature any position, and an injured reserve (IR) slot that requires a player to be on the NFL’s injured list, on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list or ruled out for the game ahead.Notable roster variantsAs we mentioned, each league can be its own special snowflake, so some league commissioners will tinker with the roster settings to play with the degree of difficulty or simply to eliminate a position entirely because the commissioner has a seething, unabated vendetta against kickers, as our own Jake Ciely does.Some of the more common variants include:2 Quarterback Leagues: These require multiple quarterbacks in your starting lineup, introducing an element of scarcity around viable starting QBs. The position will typically be drafted much earlier (usually starting early in the first round) than in default leagues.2 Tight End Leagues: Guess where we’re doubling up here? The same principles apply as with 2QB leagues, requiring managers to plumb the depths of a typically top-heavy position with only a handful of elite performers. This is the preferred format of Taylor Swift. Probably. Maybe. Perhaps not, but it could be. You never know.Superflex Leagues: These leagues allow you to play a quarterback in the Flex position, which most managers typically do given that QBs generally put up more points per week than other position players. Like 2QB leagues, those players are now at a premium.Flex 10 Leagues: This adds another Flex position to the starting lineup, giving teams a starting lineup of 10 players.Individual Defensive Players (IDP) Leagues: Instead of drafting team defense and special teams units (DSTs), these leagues require you to fill out a starting lineup of defensive players — at position groups such as defensive end, tackle, linebacker, defensive back — in addition to your offensive starters. You’re likely not going this route as a beginner.Scoring settingsThis part is pretty intuitive, but we said we’d be comprehensive, so let’s quickly sketch out how you amass fantasy glory by winning your league title.Each week your starting lineup will rack up points that correlate to the real-world statistical performances of your players. Those individual point totals combine to produce your team’s weekly score. Score more points than your opponent and you get the win that week. Your wins and losses comprise your team’s record. The teams with the best records (and/or your league’s division winners, depending on your settings) will advance to the fantasy playoffs, while the others will be eliminated from title contention. This usually happens around Week 14 of the NFL season, but again, check your league settings to be sure. The playoff teams will play a series of elimination games until there is one team left standing.Now, let’s break down how your rise to fantasy greatness begins.The basicsIn fantasy football, players score points based on their performance in various statistical categories, including yards gained, touchdowns scored and, increasingly, receptions. The value varies for each of those categories and by position. For example, passing yardage is usually less valuable than receiving or rushing yardage because there’s typically more of it in a normal NFL game. So passing yardage is set at 1 point for every 25 passing yards, while players earn 1 point for every 10 rushing or receiving yards. Similarly, passing TDs are only 4 points in ESPN’s default settings, while rushing or receiving touchdowns are 6 points. Turnovers — interceptions and fumbles — subtract 2 points from the responsible player. Meanwhile, two-point conversions are, aptly, 2 points.Kickers are typically awarded 1 point for extra points, with a little more creativity for field goals, which start at 3 points and can go to 4 or 5 for makes of 40+ and 50+ yards, respectively. Missed field goals and extra points each cost the kicker one point.DSTs accumulate points for associated stats like sacks (1 point), safeties, turnovers and blocked kicks (2 points), and defensive or special teams touchdowns (6 points). There is also a sliding points scale tied to IRL points allowed, which starts at 10 points for shutouts and drops to -10 for blowouts. That scale looks like this:PPR/Half-PPR/Non-PPRThe scoring setting that varies the most between leagues is points per reception (PPR). When fantasy football first began — when the world was in black and white — there were no points awarded for receptions. These are now known as “Standard” scoring leagues, though it’s more accurate to think of them as “Non-PPR” leagues.With offenses adopting more pass-first tendencies and teams more frequently dividing rushing attempts among multiple running backs, more fantasy leagues began awarding points for receptions, making wide receivers and tight ends slightly more valuable and turning pass-catching running backs such as LaDainian Tomlinson, and more recently Christian McCaffrey, into full-on fantasy deities.ESPN’s scoring settings now default to PPR, though some leagues opt for half-point. Standard/Non-PPR leagues are becoming increasingly rare because they are objectively terrible. (Just my opinion, but a correct one.)Notable scoring setting variantsIndividual leagues might tinker with the yardage-to-points ratios at various positions, but aside from PPR settings, the most common alterations include:6 points for passing TDs: Boosts scoring for QBs due to the 2-point bump for thrown TDs, which significantly impacts/improves the value of non-running QBs such as Joe Burrow or Matthew Stafford.TE premium leagues: These leagues seek to spice up a sometimes (read: often) unglamorous position by adding an additional half or full point for tight end receptions or first downs. The net change over more traditional leagues is that the elite TEs such as Trey McBride and Brock Bowers become certain early-round selections, while the middle-of-the-pack TEs could become viable options for Flex spots, normally populated by RBs and WRs.IDP: Again, IDP is probably only for the most intrepid (or masochistic) of beginners. But for that group, scoring varies by giving individual players points (as you might expect) in a way that stacks based on play results. For example, while sacks might be worth 1 point, they are also tackles (another point) and a tackle for a loss (another point), so that one play is worth 3 points in total. Recovering your own strip-sack fumble? Whoa, mama!DraftingThe draft is the core component of your roster crafting, so you need to go into that moment with maximum knowledge. After studying the intricacies of your league’s scoring and roster settings, focus on the draft format, which will dictate your strategy for optimizing your selections.Typically, leagues will utilize either a snake draft — where teams are ordered from 1-12 and selections are made in ascending order during odd rounds and then descending order in even rounds (1-12, then 12-1) — or an auction, where the team manager that offers the highest bid for a player gets him.Here are some of the specifics you should keep in mind to maximize your draft haul.Snake draftsThis is the most common format, though sometimes there are some wrinkles, which we’ll address below. The draft order is usually determined at random or through another method, like order of finish from the previous season. Managers will make a selection each round until their roster is filled.The biggest thing to keep in mind is that there is a gap, sometimes a sizable one, between your selections. For example, if you pick first overall in a 12-team league, there will be 22 more players coming off the board before you make your second pick. Meanwhile, if you pick sixth in that same league, the longest you’ll ever have to wait to make a pick is 12 spots.What this means is that you can’t lock onto one target, particularly after the first round. You can work ahead by adding players to your queue — a list of your preferred targets you can reference quickly when it’s your turn to pick.You should keep several options top of mind and/or in your queue because the default settings on most drafts include a timer. If you fail to make a selection before the clock hits zero, you’ll receive the top player in your queue or, if your queue is empty, the top player in the site’s overall player rankings.We’ll get to some tips particular to snake drafts below, but first let’s cover a few popular variations.Notable snake draft variationsReversals: As a measure to compensate for truly elite players going off the board with the first picks of Round 1, some leagues will flip the draft order of another early odd-numbered round. Most often that’s the third round, which would allow the team drafting 12th to get the first pick of that round and progress back up to the team that picked first overall. At the start of the next round, the draft order flows from 1-12 and 12-1 again as usual.The reversal gives some more high-end talent to teams at the bottom of the Round 1 draft order and puts more emphasis on teams picking in the top five to make sure they nab a surefire stud with their first pick.Slow drafts: Rather than gathering the league’s managers at the same time for a dedicated draft session, some leagues will allow players to make selections over an open period of time that can stretch on for weeks. The order follows the standard snake format, but rather than mere minutes, managers might have hours to make their selection. This variant is useful for leagues where it’s difficult to get everyone together (paging all young parents and those who work outside the typical 9-to-5 job).Just because you have more time doesn’t mean you need to use all of it. You should still think ahead and make sure you’re ready to make your selections quickly once it’s your turn to pick.Top tips for snake draftsThink in terms of tiers, not rankings: Your draft interface will usually have a set of default player rankings mixing together all of the position groups. It would be natural to assume that's the best order to select your players. And that would be a terrible decision.You need to draft based on both talent and positional value. If you don't get the best running back, that's fine. You should be able to compensate by drafting a better wide receiver, tight end or quarterback than the team that takes the top RB. If you just take the next name down on the position list though — such as picking the sixth-best running back with the No. 6 pick — you'll always be chasing the teams that get to select before you and setting yourself at a disadvantage.There's also the fact that projections are not future facts. Player over/underperformance and injuries are realities in fantasy. Your best bet is to use a good set of player projections and assemble each position into tiers where the projected points are fairly similar. That way you can see, across positions, which available player figures to provide the most value at a given pick. That brings us to our next lesson.Be mindful of positional scarcity: We refer to significant drops in player value at a position as "Chasms of Doom." These are drops in projected production that are so steep you're doing your team a catastrophic disservice if you just take the next player on your rankings sheet. To put it similarly to the tip above, these would be the players that begin the next tier at a position.The key is to hurdle these chasms by either making sure to pick a player from the tier prior to the drop-off, or hurdling the chasm by "leaping" to a different position because there is no marginal advantage in the next available player on your list at that position. We dive into this in more detail for each position (QB, RB, WR and TE) in this year's edition of the "Chasms" series. And you can read more about the overall strategy here.Establish a foundation early: Given the unpredictability of the NFL season, one of the best strategies for success is to ensure you set a high point-scoring "floor" by making the most of your early-round picks, particularly your first-rounder. This simply means zeroing in on players who are in the best circumstances to produce a lot of points this season. Typically that means they are 1) healthy at the start of the season and have not recently dealt with a major injury; 2) are on a good team that plans to feature that player in the offense, giving them a lot of carries and targets; and 3) didn't receive an overabundance of work from the previous season, which has historically reduced their effectiveness during the ensuing campaign. (We saw this last season with the Eagles' Saquon Barkley.)Jake typically bakes this into his draft rankings, so you can use those with confidence to build the foundation of your fantasy roster.Quarterback is not the most important position … unless: If you're an NFL or football fan, you might expect quarterback to be an absolutely crucial position in fantasy as it is in the real sport. But because of both performance volatility and the fact that teams in default leagues only need to pick one starter from the league's 32 top candidates, the premium is actually on running backs and wide receivers, which require at least two starters but more usually three because of the flex position.A lot of fantasy analysts recommend waiting to draft your quarterback because there's not much to separate the next tier of quarterbacks outside of the elite performers such as Josh Allen. Jake Ciely in particular recommends a "Ricky Bobby" approach where if he's not taking one of the elites because their average draft position (ADP) makes them a value in the early rounds, he'll wait until the double-digit rounds to address the position. It helps that he also has a good track record of predicting breakout players at the position.The one exception is for the aforementioned 2QB or Superflex leagues. In those setups, you really need to start two quarterbacks, which dramatically increases the premium placed on the position. While there may not be a big gap between, say, Brock Purdy and Jaxson Dart, there is a veritable gulf between Dart and whichever five players the Browns throw out at the position this season.Use your bench for upside: Fantasy managers who favor planning ahead and who wile away their days contemplating the logistics of their weekly routines may well see the wisdom of spending their bench spots on bye-week fill-ins for their starting players or backups for their starting running backs in case they're bitten by the injury bug. Two words of advice: Do not.Rather, spend those bench slots on players with high upside to their scoring projections, or a high "ceiling," as you'll often hear analysts refer to it. These are players who could produce a lot of fantasy points because either the industry has underestimated their talent or they end up receiving increased opportunities either because of those talents or because of injury.Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Emeka Egbuka was a textbook example last season as he filled in admirably for injured starters Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and exploded onto the scene as a rookie. His early-season performances helped secure some dubs for those managers who saw the available opportunity in Tampa and who know that Ohio State mints exceptional wide receivers as Mercedes churns out exceptional automobiles.Auction draftsIf you want a little more dynamic action on draft day, auctions absolutely offer it. With auctions, every manager has a shot at every player in the pool; they just need to have enough capital to outbid everyone else.Auctions will typically start with a predetermined amount of money for each manager ($200 is often the default). Managers must then fill all their roster slots using that budget, with $1 serving as the minimum bid for any player (even kickers, much to Jake Ciely’s chagrin).Instead of the draft order determining when each manager will make their selection, the order determines when a manager can nominate a player for auction. Once a player is nominated, all managers can bid on the player, with the highest bidder securing the player to their roster.After the nomination, managers can increase the bidding with a minimum bid (usually $1) or with a more sizable escalation, taking the early high bid from, say, $6 to $60 for a superstar player. The winning bid is determined either when no one else bids on the player, or by the highest bid at the end of a set period of time.Once a manager fills their roster, they can no longer bid on players, even if they have leftover money in their budget. Once all managers fill their rosters, the draft concludes.Notable auction variantsThe blind timer auction: The standard auction format includes a timer that starts ticking down after there’s been a pause in the bidding. (Think, “Going once, going twice, sold!”) Instead, some leagues who gather in person for their drafts will just set a timer for a minute, or another predetermined length, and whoever has the high bid when the time expires gets the player, regardless of whether another manager was willing to pay more. In this variant, it is essential that the timer be out of every manager’s sight line so no one can time their bids for the last second. Interjecting the bidding with inane questions or other comments about other managers’ rosters or the errant wisdom of their previous bids is highly encouraged to distract other bidders or disrupt any manager counting down in their heads.Blind bid auction: Instead of going back and forth soliciting higher bids, this format requires all managers to submit a fixed bid amount for each player. After all managers have entered their bids, the bids are revealed, and the manager with the highest bid gets the player. Ties can be broken through any league-approved method. One of my longtime leagues uses Rock, Paper, Scissors, which usually produces a similar level of tension and spectacle as a UFC bout.Top tips for auction draftsSet a budget, but be flexible: Coming into the draft, you should have a sense for how much players and positions are worth so you can calibrate your bidding. Typically, you should devote the majority of your money to the stars you want to anchor your roster, particularly at RB and WR.Meanwhile, you can save money at K and DST by only bidding a dollar to fill those positions without losing much of a competitive advantage. This is also true at tight end, where the talent curve is fairly flat after the top options, such as Trey McBride and Brock Bowers, and even at QB once the elite dual-threat QBs such as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are off the board. That said, you still need to fill your roster, so …Be aggressive with your targeted players: You don’t get to take your draft budget into the season, so don’t be bashful about spending it all. The flip side of saving money is that you should be spending it on the players you know you want to lock up. If you think Bijan Robinson is worth $60 but it’s going to take $65 to get him rostered, do it! There are plenty of ways to find value elsewhere, but there are only a handful of truly elite running backs.OK, not that aggressive: While it’s OK to go a little over budget for one or two players, know when to tap out if the bidding gets truly crazy. If someone wants to devote 50% of their budget to their favorite player, let them. There are always more fish in the sea, so to speak. Which reminds me …Be mindful of player tiers: As the draft proceeds, don’t defer on a position indefinitely. While some players may have similar projections when compared head to head, if you wait until 10 wide receivers come off the board before addressing the position, the talent gap between the top wide receiver (Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 300.2 projected points) and the 11th (Tee Higgins, 210.3) is significant. Wait too long and suddenly you’re fishing in the Mariana Trench and reeling in a hideous player who swims around in the dark with a glowing dangly thing in front of their face.Nominate stars you know you don’t want: If there’s a player you think is overvalued, or will be overvalued by other managers (like the stars of your local NFL team), nominate them early to sap the budgets of your competitors. Start the bidding frenzy, and then calmly use the time like a true fantasy veteran by reloading your plate of taquitos and refreshing your beverage.Waivers and tradesAfter your draft ends, you’re still able to tinker with your roster throughout the season by adding players from the waiver wire or making trades with a fellow manager. There are two predominant systems governing the waiver wire, which we’ll detail below along with a few tips for how to best make a deal at the trade table.Priority/Rolling waiversIn the default setting for ESPN leagues, after the draft, each team will receive a waiver priority number. That number is the inverse of your draft order, so the player with the last pick will have the No. 1 waiver priority, and the player with the first pick will have the lowest waiver priorityThat means that when a player hits waivers and multiple managers make a claim, the player will be awarded to whoever has the higher priority. This is another way to maintain competitive balance in the league.Once a team makes a waiver claim, they will drop to the bottom of the priority list. So, use your claims wisely.Top tips for priority waiversDon’t waste your waiver priority: Most default leagues include periods of the weekly calendar that allow open waivers or full free agency. During this period, managers can add and drop players without affecting their waiver priority ranking. It’s generally smart to wait until open waivers/free agency to address positions such as DST and kicker, where the difference in talent between the best available option and others isn't that significant. Save your waiver priority for when there’s a true breakout/impact player available, not for merely replacing a kicker on his bye week.Monitor the wire closely in the early weeks: Leagues have been won and lost through early additions of surprising performers. If a player on waivers puts up a lot of points in Week 1 or 2, you should strongly consider using your priority to add him.“But didn’t you just say to not waste your waiver priority?” you exclaim to the screen in front of you. Yes, so it’s important to parse which players have a sustainable path to success versus a fluky week. To do so, favor adding players who are getting a lot of opportunities (targets/touches) or showing a new element of their game that wasn’t accounted for in preseason rankings (such as a quarterback being featured in designed rushing plays). If one wide receiver puts up 24 points from two touchdowns and 100 receiving yards on two catches after the defensive back fell down, and another puts up 24 points on eight catches and 10 targets, favor the latter.Get ahead of your bye weeks: Also related to preserving your waiver priority, you should try to account for players on a bye a week before they actually sit out. That way you can still have top choice of all the options during the open waivers/free-agency period without wasting your priority or competing with other managers facing similar bye-week decisions.Free-agent budget (FAB, or, if you must, FAAB)Instead of prioritizing waivers, some leagues incorporate a bidding process for waiver claims each week. This is done by giving each manager a free-agent budget (or a free-agent acquisition budget, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) that can be used to bid on players on waivers. Whoever enters the highest bid gets the player, with ties usually decided either through a timing element (first highest bid wins) or the incorporation of a secondary waiver priority mechanism (team with the highest bid and highest priority wins).FAB leagues will also often utilize an open waivers/free-agency period when teams can add and drop players without spending any FAB money, but some will require a minimum bid any time you want to add someone to your roster. Be sure to check your league settings to see what your system is. Otherwise, if you blow through all your budget, you may be starting a player on a bye week late in the season.Top tips for FAB (or, sigh, FAAB) leaguesSave your money for impact players: Just like you don’t want to squander your waiver priority, you don’t want to waste your budget. Take advantage of the free-agent/open waivers period to make low-impact moves like replacing your kicker or DST. If your league requires a minimum bid, definitely go as low as possible in this scenario so you can save the majority of your budget for big-time acquisitions at a more crucial position like RB or WR.Don’t be bashful with your bid: If there is a breakout running back or receiver you really want to add, be sure to bid enough to win. Making a “smart” bid doesn’t matter if you don’t get him. If you know you badly want a player or need to replace an injured starter with their backup or another top performer on the waiver wire, do it.Separate flash from sustainability: Just like in the example in the previous section, focus on opportunity stats (touches and targets) so you can discern whether a waiver-wire player can sustain his success. You don’t want to overpay for a fluky performance.TradesGiven that trading has been part of human culture for multiple millennia prior to the creation of fantasy sports, we are going to make the bold assumption we don’t need to spell out the term here. But before you make or evaluate an offer to swap players, there are a few things you should keep top of mind. For starters, check your league settings to see if there are any limitations. Some leagues will require the same number of players to switch teams, essentially outlawing a 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 exchange. Others might require both teams to have a legal lineup (with all starting positions filled) after the trade is executed.Always know what kind of deals are on the table before you get into any kind of trade talk. Now, let’s make you a savvier player swapper.Top tips for trading playersDon’t try to “win” the trade: There’s an instinct in all managers to add more value than they give up in any player exchange. This is the wrong motivation for a trade, and you will largely be unsuccessful if this is what drives you to the bargaining table.Trades are really about improving both teams. If you offer your worst players for another manager’s best, no one will take you seriously, and your leaguemates will fashion an effigy of you and hurl it into walls, with vigor, whenever they see your trade offers.Look for opportunities to trade from a strength to address a weakness: If you have five wide receivers who all could be starters but only two running backs who are consistently performing, try to find a team where one of your five receivers would provide instant value and see if they have a comparable running back to send back your way. Think about what your partner needs and whether you’re willing to provide a solution off your roster. It’s about finding the right fit, not just amassing the most talent for yourself.Honestly, the best advice here is to find a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, ask them how they’ve made it so far together and apply that logic directly to your trade talks.Respond to trade proposals in a timely manner: Even if you’re nonplussed by the offer, don’t just sit on it. Reject it and move on so your counterpart can find another solution. Better yet, explain why it doesn’t work for you. See! Communication! Compassion! I see 50 years of wedded bliss in your future. This is the way.Lineup managementOnce the season begins, you’ll need to set your starting lineup each week, often referred to as "start/sit" decisions. This is where fantasy sports becomes more art than science, so let’s focus on the objective goals of weekly lineup construction first.You’ll want to start your best rostered players each week, so the simplest solution there is to simply follow the weekly projected player scores and slot in those with the highest projections. There is zero shame in doing this, and don’t let anyone say otherwise — especially if you're pulling from our own Jake Ciely’s weekly player rankings.Is there a savvier, more nuanced way to approach these lineup decisions? Yes, yes there is, and we offer a lot of advice on exactly that topic here at The Athletic dot com. Even if you’re in a rush, you can make use of Jake's rankings, our injury report and our weekly newsletter to summarize the most notable news and choicest tips.Still, here are some essential pointers to ensure you’re checking all the boxes on your weekly to-do list.Lineup lock timesThe vast majority of leagues will let you tinker with your lineup right up until a player’s game begins, but with the NFL more regularly introducing games outside of Sundays and Mondays — including a Wednesday night Week 1 game (Thanks, Goodell … ) — you don’t want to realize too late that you’ve left an intended starter on your bench.Instead, lay out your lineup early in the week. This will help you see where your roster is weak or whether your regular starters are on a bye or injured, giving you time to address the issue via waivers or free agency.Injuries and the injured reserve (IR) slotThe NFL requires teams to be transparent about a player’s status going into games, so they’ll issue weekly injury reports listing the likelihood of a player’s availability. If there’s a chance a player will miss the game, they’ll receive one of three designations — questionable, doubtful or out.If one of your players is listed as questionable, you’ll need to look regularly for updates to see whether he’ll play, and you’ll want to have a backup option in mind. If the player is doubtful or out, you’ll want to enact a Plan B. It is very rare that players bounce back from doubtful to playing (more or less playing well), and they won’t be declared out unless they absolutely can’t play.Once players are listed as out, you can assign them to an injured reserve (IR) slot. This will allow you to add a player to your roster without dropping anyone to waivers. In order to reactivate the player on the IR, you will need to make a corresponding move — either adding a different player to the IR or dropping a player from your active roster. Most default settings won’t allow you to make any other roster moves until you activate a healthy player from the IR.Top tips for setting your lineupNow let’s get into the art of reading fantasy tea leaves. Here’s how to parse the shades of gray and come away with a brilliant lineup that resembles a rainbow trailing a shooting star. You know the one.Speaking of stars, start them: Some decisions you just shouldn’t overthink. Do you play Bijan Robinson every week? Yes. Do you start Josh Allen every week? Yes. Should you consult The Athletic for top tips and advice every week for every other lineup question? Also yes.Pay attention to matchups: While your top players might be lineup fixtures, that’s not true of players in your Flex or even your second RB or WR slots. The projections usually will reflect the strength of the opposing defense from a fantasy scoring perspective, but we offer several lenses that can further parse whether a particular player is worth starting in the face of adverse conditions. Consult Jake’s weekly adjusted points allowed (APA) article and KC Joyner’s player-specific best and worst matchups for additional insights.Maintain vigilance on injuries: Injury status won’t be finalized until about 90 minutes before the player’s game begins. Check your roster regularly to make sure all your starters are active.Reserve your flex spot for anyone playing Monday night or late Sunday: Your Flex spot gives you a measure of versatility since you can use running backs, wide receivers and tight ends there. If you use a player with, say, a Thursday night game in that slot, it will lock with the start of that game, giving you fewer options to adapt your lineup if there’s a late-week injury or another development that sidelines one of your other starters.Consider streaming defense and kickers to take advantage of matchups: Streaming is a process where you never commit to a devoted starter and instead comb the waiver wire for the teams with the most advantageous matchup. Last year, that was typically a DST that faced the Cleveland Browns or New York Jets. For kickers, you can just go by the scoring projections or snag a kicker from a game that projects to be particularly high scoring, which usually has a trickle-down effect for those responsible for booting the field goals and extra points.