PARRY: Staying true to my fantasy draft plan

Published 11:49 pm Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The annual Dereliction League fantasy football draft took place last week at LaQuinta in Tyler.

The hotel staff probably was a little overwhelmed as each member of our league cruised through the lobby looking for which conference room upstairs to bring their ice chest, laptop and preparation materials.

It is a 14-team, point-per-2-reception league, and we have three receivers with a tight end as an option for any of the three receiver spots. We also start two running backs and no flex.

Oh yeah, and I drew the No. 13 slot to draft from.

Brutal, but I felt confident and cool and had a plan to make this work.

Our league is not filled with a bunch of “in it for the fun of it” kind of guys. We are serious and this showed immediately as the first eight picks were all running backs.

But then we came to pick No. 9. There were plenty of capable backs still left — including C.J. Spiller, who had fallen further than I projected, maybe because of big-time questions at quarterback — but this owner did what I would’ve done in this spot.

Calvin Johnson, affectionately known as Megatron, was the first non running back off the board.

Well, I am sitting there having already drawn a line through eight running backs on my rankings list, but began to feel like I might possibly be able to salvage my draft.

But I had to make a critical decision: take the best player available or stay with my original strategy of grabbing running backs with my first two picks.

Spiller went at No. 10 with that owner understandably thrilled to get a potential top-5 back in that spot. It left two more with scenarios already beginning to percolate my thoughts.

My whole draft would be determined by these two picks — because picking as late as I was, I was going to select twice in four picks.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees went 11th and the owner before me then took Atlanta Falcons running back Steven Jackson.

OK, here it was. Take Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, the aforementioned best player on the board, or one of the remaining running backs.

I decided on option B and grabbed Washington Redskins’ Alfred Morris and Chicago Bears’ Matt Forte.

It would then be another hour until picked, or seem like it, but at least my running back situation was settled. I did a little figuring afterward and if I had taken Dez, I could’ve grabbed Forte or possibly Morris with my second pick. But my second running back would’ve been Darren Sproles, Giovani Bernard, Eddie Lacy or Lamar Miller.

Of course, at that time I didn’t believe Sproles would fall, so I took the safe route.

Doing that allowed me to grab Tom Brady in the third round and select receivers Marques Colston and Antonio Brown with my fourth- and fifth-round picks. Not Dez Bryant, I realize, but I would much rather have Matt Forte as my RB2 than Lamar Miller.

Without further adieu, here are my first eight picks in round order: RB Alfred Morris, RB Matt Forte, QB Tom Brady, WR Marques Colton, WR Antonio Brown, RB Ahmad Bradshaw, WR Kenbrell Thompkins and RB Le’Veon Bell.

I took two running backs early, but still was able to get Colston and Brown, two of their teams’ No. 1 receivers in the middle rounds. As for the third receiver, I had the first write-in vote of the draft, meaning there was not a sticker with his name available, but I am thrilled to have Thompkins, who has been tearing it up for the Patriots in preseason and could finish as Brady’s top target.

I then solved my RB3 dilemma by taking Bradshaw, who has the inside track on being the Indianapolis Colts running back. That enabled me to reach in the eighth round and take what I think will turn out to be the steal of the draft — Bell from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, he has a sprained foot that will keep him out 4-6 weeks, but as my RB4, it was too good to pass up.

That brings me to the most talked about pick in this year’s draft — for the wrong reasons.

Yes, I am usually the winner of this infamous award, but not this year. One of our owners in the sixth round grabbed San Francisco 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree’s sticker and put it on the board.

The entire room went silent, wondering if he was just making a joke and would replace it with another sticker on top of him.

But this was really his pick.

As soon as he sat down, you could hear a pin drop. Crabtree tore his Achilles and underwent surgery in May.

An owner in our league would know this, and this owner did, but for some reason just forgot. Well, the razzing began in earnest with owners saying this owner should next draft Denario Alexander, Jeremy Maclin or Percy Harvin — all of whom have suffered potential season-ending injuries.

To his credit, the owner took it in stride and finished overall with a solid draft. But trust me, that pick will be talked about for years (just like when yours truly drafted the Baltimore Ravens defense in the fifth round).

Next week will be about choosing the best starting lineup you can for Week 1, and I will try to give some advice on those tough decisions like starting Anquan Boldin or Denarius Moore as your WR2.

Q: I have Drew Brees and Tony Romo as my quarterbacks, but who should I play in Week 1?

A: Why did you draft two QB1s! Unless it was to eventually trade one, you could have grabbed receivers or running backs when you took Romo, which was probably the fourth or fifth round. But to answer your question, you play Brees every single week. Romo is going to rack up a lot of points for you on your bench. I would start looking to make a trade immediately.

— Chris Parry began playing fantasy football in college in 1996 and he has won several titles in both fantasy football and baseball. His column appears each Thursday on Page Two. Feel free to email lineup questions or comments to cparry@tylerpaper.com, tweet to @CParryETFS on Twitter or post on the ETFinalscore.com Facebook page.