A few last-minute, predraft tips

With some of you waiting until the last minute to hold your fantasy football drafts, here's a little last-minute advice before our weekly columns kick off Friday.

• Have no fear in drafting Willie Parker as a very solid No. 2 tailback, and even a No. 1 if you opted for Tom Brady, Randy Moss or Terrell Owens in the first round. Rashard Mendenhall's fumbling problems in the preseason are worrisome, and the Steelers figure to leave the ball in Parker's hands near the goal line. Mendenhall needs to prove he can hang on to the ball before he'll be anything more than a situational fill-in for Parker.

• If you take Matt Hasselbeck (seventh in my preseason rankings), grab a capable backup. Seattle's wide receivers are a mess right now, meaning Hasselbeck figures to struggle big time in the early going. Bobby Engram and Deion Branch are both banged up, and Ben Obomanu, who could have started the season as the team's slot receiver, is now out for the year with a broken clavicle. Until Engram and Branch are back to full strength, Hasselbeck is probably a No. 2 fantasy QB.

• The capable backup to Hasselbeck? How about Arizona's Kurt Warner, who won the starting job over Matt Leinart. Many of your opponents will forget about Warner, but you shouldn't. He had 28 TDs last year and 3,417 passing yards in 14 games and still has two of the best receivers in the game.

• Don't be stunned if Minnesota's Adrian Peterson has "just" 3-4 TDs and 300-325 rushing yards after four games. Bryant McKinnie, a 6-foot-8, 335-pound left tackle who makes up the best left side of an offensive line in the league, was suspended last week for four games. That, combined with a tough opening stretch at Green Bay, vs. Indy and Carolina and at Tennessee, could pose problems for Minnesota's running game.

jdietz@dailyherald.com

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