As we move into week 4 of the NFL, I wanted to update you on the status of my fantasy football experience. In week 1, I managed to scrape by with a win, but in weeks 2 and 3, I was not so lucky. Although my team’s not performing as well as I hoped, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons that I thought I would pass along. I thought being a football fan was stressful before I joined a fantasy football league. I was wrong. Before, I worried about the status of my favourite team as a whole. Now, I have a whole new group of worries.

As many of you fantasy football veterans already know, it’s a much bigger deal when fantasy football players are injured or under-perform, even if the team still wins. It’s not enough for my teams to scrape by anymore. If my teams simply scrape by with a win, they might as well have not played at all. I need my fantasy players to excel. I need them to make big plays, run big yards and score high. A win is simply a bonus. It’s also a much bigger deal when the players on my fantasy football team are injured, especially when the players on your bench pale in comparison to your starters.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through fantasy football is that anything can happen on game day. Just because your starters are supposed to perform well, doesn’t mean they will. Actually, from my experience, it probably means they won’t. It doesn’t matter if the projected numbers are on your side. Projected stats mean nothing, well maybe not nothing, but definitely take them with a grain of salt.

Here’s hoping my luck turns around in week 4.