FanHouse Adam Vinatieri

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

The season-ending injury to Jets running back Leon Washington is devastating for a number of reasons.

His change-of-pace running style will be sorely missed as will his 4.6 yards-per-carry average. The kick return team will also struggle to find a replacement. In fact, coach Rex Ryan says it will take many players to fill in for Washington.

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

We kinda saw this coming. Wouldn't it be nice if Calvin Johnson could transform like the real Megatron and withstand even the most crushing blows? Alas, he's human just like the rest of the stars our fantasy football team depends on. After taking a beating against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson limped off the field with a right knee injury, his second ailment in the past two weeks. Now his status is very up in the air heading into what would be a great matchup with Green Bay. Is it time to get worried about our silver-and-blue crusader?

Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri was forced to undergo surgery on his right knee to remove some cartilage. Early Wednesday, the Colts announced the surgery has been successfully completed and they expect the 37-year-old to miss four to eight weeks with the injury.

In his absence, the Colts have signed 41-year-old Matt Stover to take over field goal and extra point duties. Stover had previously kicked for 18 full NFL seasons, all with the Baltimore/Cleveland franchise -- 13 for the Ravens after five for the original Cleveland Browns. He's a very accurate kicker, having made 83.7 percent of his career field goal attempts and 99.5 percent of his extra point tries. Believe it or not, Colts fans, losing Vinatieri for Stover actually doesn't hurt the team much, if at all.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Peyton Manning's four-touchdown performance was a headline-grabber in the Indianapolis Colts' emphatic 31-10 road victory Sunday night over the reeling Arizona Cardinals.

So was emerging offensive star Pierre Garcon, the Colts' second-year receiver who caught three passes for 64 yards, including a 53-yard touchdown reception down the right sideline with 1:52 remaining before halftime in a game that proved totally one-sided after a tight opening quarter.

That play was the third of Manning's three second-quarter touchdown passes -- Reggie Wayne caught a 20-yard scoring pass and tight end Dallas Clark snared a 10-yard TD -- and all of them put this contest out of reach for the Cardinals (1-2), who are now 0-2 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

For most franchises, 12 wins is a banner year; one they can hang their proverbial hats upon. For the Colts, 12 wins is a certainly. They have won at least 12 games in each of the last six seasons. They have also had Tony Dungy as their head coach for the past seven years, but now he's gone. In 2009, the Colts will look for some continuity. Can it be provided by the Jim Caldwell administration?

Sentimentality makes many a fantasy owner stupid. Nobody wants to be a cold, callous general manager, but if your goal is to win your league championship you need to separate heart from head and make the best decisions regardless of personal history. So yes, Brett Favre posters may have adorned your walls as a kid and Marvin Harrison's autographed jersey was all you wanted for Christmas in 1999, but if you owned them last season you most likely came to regret it. Below are five guys that you might love as a fan but should avoid as a fantasy manager.

---

---

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the ...
Team under Peyton's leadership for the first time without Tom Moore*. That's right. Peyton's only offensive coordinator for his entire 11-year career has been the venerable Moore. Moore's first year at the helm was Manning's rookie season, so the two grew together. It's going to be interesting to see how Manning fares without his mentor calling the shots.

Of course, Manning's obviously cerebral enough to deal quite well with the transition, and the Colts have enough weapons in their arsenal to remain the high-octane offense we're used to seeing every fall.

---

---

I'm one of the 10 people in the world that has yet to make a purchase on eBay, mainly because I have no use for a potato chip that looks like Jesus (that's what people sell on eBay, right?). However, if I had an extra $50,000 burning a hole in pocket, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own a piece of NFL history, as a member of the Super Bowl XXXVI champion New England Patriots recently auctioned his ring on eBay. It received no bids.

According to USA Today's NFL blog, The Huddle, the ring belonged to a player who was on all three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

I often chuckle at the amount of time people spend whining about how you can't accurately evaluate the draft immediately. We know that. We also don't know exactly who is going to do what in each season, but that doesn't stop us from giving preseason predictions or fantasy football advice. Sometimes you just have to have a little bit of intestinal fortitude and put yourself out there. The reader demand is there, so we'll provide the supply.

One of the few cases (along with teams like the Steelers and Patriots) where it's probably not a good idea to say anything bad, though, is when it comes to Bill Polian and the Colts.

The best running back on the field as the Indianapolis Colts play the San Diego Chargers today in the AFC wild card playoffs isn't Joseph Addai, and it isn't LaDainian Tomlinson. It's Darren Sproles, whose touchdown with 42 seconds left in the first half gave the Chargers a 14-10 lead at halftime.

Sproles has seven carries for 38 yards in the half and has looked as speedy and elusive as ever in relief of Tomlinson, who managed five carries for 25 yards but has been sidelined for most of the half with a groin injury. When the Colts had the ball, Addai has been largely held in check, although he did score the Colts' touchdown.

Replay reviews played a key role in the first half. Colts coach Tony Dungy burned a challenge when the officials had correctly ruled that a Colts pass was incomplete, and then failed to challenge when the officials incorrectly ruled that a Chargers pass was complete. And with less than a minute to go before halftime, the officials ruled on the field -- and then upheld on review -- that Colts return man Chad Simpson was down before fumbling, on a play where the replay angles weren't definitive enough to overrule whatever had been called on the field.

Other keys to the first half: Chargers punter Mike Scifres has been incredible, drilling all four of his punts inside the 20-yard line, with an average distance of 55 yards. Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri split the uprights on a 43-yard field goal. And Anthony Gonzalez has emerged as Peyton Manning's favorite receiver, with six catches for 97 yards.