Ian Allan

I want to address the issue of Larry Fitzgerald. For leagues including points per receptions, I ranked him No. 1 overall in the magazine – not just as a wide receiver, but overall. And then the topic came up again last week when somebody else selected Fitzgerald No. 1 overall in a mock draft that includes our Andy Richardson.

Reader Gary Allen specifically asked: ‘Would you actually draft him with a top 3 pick.’

As luck would have it, I was just put in that position.

I participate each year in two leagues hosted by Fanex, one of the first to get into the arena of experts-style competition. One draft is held in May and June; it’s a best-ball type league, and teams aren’t allowed to make any trades or waiver moves during the season. What you pick is what you’re stuck with. The guy who selected Derrick Mason, for example, is praying that he changes his mind and doesn’t retire. No games in that league – team with the most points after 17 weeks wins it all.

The other Fanex draft, which starts on August 1, is a more traditional head-to-head type format. And in that league, I drew the No. 2 draft position, putting me in the position to almost certainly select Fitzgerald. Even though this is a PPR league, the owners in these leagues tend to hoard running backs – typically you’ll see 11 running backs go in the first round, and about another nine selected in the second round.

So should I select Fitzgerald? Or should I take a running back out of fear that everyone else will take running backs. I don’t like drafting scared. I would stand by my principals and select Fitzgerald. When you break it down statistically, that’s the correct call. When you factor in those 100ish additional points he’s going to get for catching those balls and consider that you can start up to four receivers in this league, that’s the correct call. If you consider the possibility that you can start four receivers versus only two running backs (or three of each), the pure numbers shout out to you that it can make sense to use each of your first four picks on wide receivers.

These aren’t voodoo numbers. I won both of the Fanex leagues last year. And the previous year, I won the Fanex FAD. All three of those teams had strong, deep groups of wide receivers.

At the same time, however, I’m not excited about using the No. 2 pick on a player who was selected 11th in the Fanex “FAD” draft about two months ago. I’m actually not so much bullish on Fitzgerald as the receiver position in general in this kind of format. I’ve got five other receivers in my top 12 in the PPR format.

With that in mind, I’ve traded the pick. I made what I felt was a reasonable trade off to each of the other 11 owners in the league (I don’t like insulting guys by making trade proposals that a patently ridiculous). And one of the guys accepted my offer. In exchange for the No. 2 pick and my last choice, he gave me choice 1.10 and pick 4.03 (the 39th pick of the draft).

With the 10th pick, I figure I’ll either get Fitzgerald or a pretty similar player, and I believe the 39th pick holds substantial value. I might get a top-25 overall player in that spot. When I run the numbers, it works out that I’ll definitely come out ahead.

So for those with top-5 picks in leagues using the PPR strategy, I would recommend a similar type of strategy. If worse comes to worse, you take the best-available player in that spot – maybe Fitzgerald. But you also work the phones and see if you can engineer a deal to trade down.

—Ian Allan

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