You’ve spent hours developing your cheat sheets and drafting
strategies. Fortunately you’ve drafted the player which you
believe will lead you to this year’s fantasy Super Bowl, when
the injury bug hits. The one player who you built your season upon
is either sidelined for several weeks or place on injured reserved.
Whether it may be for a few weeks or the entire season, injuries
can prove to be a intimidating test to many fantasy owners. If you
have played fantasy football long enough, you most likely faced
this dilemma. You scramble and hit the free agent lists, but other
owners in your league have first dibs on the back-up to your player.
You lose out, and your season quickly takes a turn south.
Could you have avoided this situation?
Well here in the United States we have a common practice of securing
insurance on items which are important to us. Thus, the importance
of acquiring backup insurance in fantasy football is often overlooked
by many owners. This policy of acquiring insurance for your quality
players should be applied in your draft tactics for the upcoming
season. Instead of wasting a late round pick on a so- called sleeper
who may develop, invest these picks in quality back-up performers
for your high draft choices.
I’ve always believed that in most situations its the system,
or the offensive scheme, that relates to fantasy production especially
for running backs. Let’s take a look at some examples from
last season.
Edgerrin James is lost for the season and Dominc Rhodes replaces
him in the Colts’ starting lineup rushing for 1104 yards,
receiving 224 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns.Marshall Faulk is
sidelined and Trung Canidate has several outstanding games. Look
what happened in Seattle after Ricky Watters suffered an injury.
Shaun Alexander rushes for 1309 yards and scores 15 touchdowns.
Anthony Thomas misses two games for the Bears in mid-season and
James Allen averages a 100 yards rushing per contest as his replacement.
Emmitt Smith goes out for the Cowboys and Troy Hambrick has two
games of 77 and 127 rushing yards. Stacey Mack replaces the often
injured Fred Taylor and responds with a season of 10 touchdowns
and 1042 total yards. Duce Staley misses the third and fourth
games of the season and Philadelphia’s backup Correll Buckhalter
fills in with 233 rushing yards and a score. These examples only
solidify the reasoning behind the insurance theory.
In this year’s draft its almost mandatory that you select
two running backs by the end of the third round and at least three
by the end of the sixth round. Realistically, the top 30 -35 running
backs have been erased from your cheat sheets. In the next few
rounds of drafting, one begins to concentrate on quality back-ups,
rookies or the so-called sleepers. However, this should be the
area where one builds depth on his roster. Looking at this from
a coaching stand point, I personally would rather have a back-up
running back from an established system, rather than gambling
upon a so-called sleeper. And in the majority of cases, these
replacements will out perform primary ball carriers from weak
teams.
High Risk
If you select one of these starting running backs it becomes essential
that you secure his backup. These teams will experience little
drop-off in performance levels.
Denver Broncos: Terrell Davis -
Olandis Gary or Clinton Portis
Green Bay Packers: Ahman Green
- Ki-Jana Carter
Indianapolis Colts: Edgerrin James
- Dominic Rhodes
Jacksonville Jaguars: Fred Taylor
- Stacey Mack
New York Jets: Curtis Martin -
LaMont Jordan
Pittsburgh Steelers: Jerome Bettis
- Amos Zereoue or Chris Fuamatu-Maafala
San Francisco 49ers: Garrison Hearst
- Kevan Barlow
St. Louis Rams: Marshall Faulk
- Trung Canidate or Lamar Gordon
Medium Risk
The following running backs play an integral part in their team’s
offensive schemes. If they are injured, these systems may be altered.
It is advisable to select the backup from these teams.
Atlanta Falcons: Warrick Dunn -
T.J. Duckett
Buffalo Bills: Travis Henry - Shawn
Bryson or Richard Huntley
Cleveland Browns: William Green
- Jamel White or James Jackson
Dallas Cowboys: Emmitt Smith -
Troy Hambrick
Miami Dolphins: Ricky Williams
- Travis Minor
New Orleans Saints: Deuce McAllister
- Terry Allen
New York Giants: Tiki Barber -
Ron Dayne
Oakland Raiders: Charlie Garner
- Tyrone Wheatley
Philadelphia Eagles: Duce Staley
- Dorsey Levens
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Michael Pittman
- Mike Alstott
Tennessee Titans: Eddie George
- Skip Hicks or Robert Holcombe
Low Risk
These teams have unproven backups, and they simply lack
the talent needed to be considered in your draft. Such players
are available as free-agents if needed.
Arizona Cardinals: Thomas Jones
- Marcell Shipp
Baltimore Ravens: Jamal Lewis -
Chester Taylor
Carolina Panthers: Lamar Smith
- DeShaun Foster*
Detroit Lions: James Stewart -
Lamont Warren
Houston Texans: James Allen -
Jonathon Wells
Kansas City Chiefs: Priest Holmes
- Mike Cloud or Tony Richardson
Minnesota Vikings: Michael Bennett
- Doug Chapman
New England Patriots: Antowain
Smith - J.R. Redmond
San Diego Chargers: LaDainian Tomilson
- Terrell Fletcher
Seattle Seahawks: Shaun Alexander
- Maurice Morris
Washington Redskins: Stephen Davis
- Ladell Betts
* Note: Although he's still running with the second team, DeShaun
Foster may find himself in the starting lineup if he continues
his solid preseason.
