FanHouse Bernard Scott

Need a last-minute fill-in for this week? 4th and 26 is here to throw you a couple deep sleepers, guys available in at least 90% of Fleaflicker leagues that could give your fantasy football team a big boost.

If you're looking for sleepers, check out our weekly Passed Out at Your Desk column. If that well has run dry (and seriously, David Clowney is claimed in your league?), you're now in the right place. We'll throw a couple obscure darts at the board and see if any stick.

Remember, if you want specific advice tuned to your fantasy situation, drop by the Sunday Tailgate chat today. We always have a lot of fun and answer a ton of fantasy questions leading up to kickoff.

Need a last-minute fill-in for this week? 4th and 26 is here to throw you a couple deep sleepers, guys available in at least 90% of Fleaflicker leagues that could give your fantasy football team a big boost.

Whether you're an unlucky Pierre Thomas owner that was late to the free-agent pool for Mike Bell, or someone looking for a Kevin Walter replacement for the week, time is running short to find a player to plug into your lineup. If you're in a standard-sized league, you should have plenty of options -- just check out this week's Passed Out at Your Desk for some. But if you play in a deep league, the FA pool could already be barren. Read on to find a few guys that could have decent Sundays; odds are at least one is available to you.

For those who may use a different term or are new to fantasy football, "handcuff" is the term used when you own insurance for one of your players in the form of owning his real-life backup. It's usually a running back, but you could conceivably handcuff a quarterback. The theory is that some or all of the production is automatically replaced should you lose a high draft pick to injury, meaning you need to insure a high draft pick by grabbing his backup.

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One of my favorite moves on fantasy football draft day is taking a late-round gamble and letting everyone else laugh at me. You can have the first round, just let me pick late. To illustrate, here's an actual message board post last season after one of my drafts: "Commish Snyder purposefully did not draft a kicker so he could take a flier on yet another long shot (Steve Slaton of the Texans). I'm sure he'll say it will pay off in the long run."

My response? "I'll end up dropping Patrick Crayton (my fifth WR) for a kicker before week 1 when Slaton wins the Houston gig -- unless someone suffers a season-ending injury, in which case I'll drop that person."

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

All joking about character risks aside, the Cincinnati Bengals needed to have a good draft. They've had some misses -- through bad scouting and bad luck -- with top picks in recent years, and they had to hit on their top pick this year. You can take as many shots as you want at his weight and conditioning, but when you watch a tape, there is no question the Bengals' first-round pick can play football.

Even when the Bengals drafted Chris Perry 26th overall in 2004, there were skeptics. In addition to Kevin Jones still being on the board (he was rated higher coming out of college, although his NFL career hasn't been particularly noteworthy), there were concerns about Perry's durability and whether he could be an every-down NFL running back.

(Not to mention he was from the Big-10, which is only slightly less conspicuous that wearing an "I'm a bona fide bust!" hat on stage at Radio City Music Hall after hearing the commissioner call your name.)

As it turned out, both were a problem. He played in just two games as a rookie, and mustered nine starts over four seasons, amassing 606 rushing yards (3.4 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. And today, the Bengals released him.

We've already given a single post to each of the seemingly most relevant fantasy football impact players from the NFL Draft -- we say seemingly because bust-hood is always a possibility in this business -- but those are by no means the only players who might matter in this coming season. With that in mind, here are the rest of the guys who's impact will be felt:

LeSean McCoy, RB, Eagles (Round 2): If you end up with Brian Westbrook, you absolutely must have McCoy. The shifty stud from Pittsburgh is exactly the type of back Westbrook is, which means he can thrive in this offense.

I doubt anyone was truly surprised on Sunday when the Cincinnati Bengals announced their sixth-round pick.

Yes, Abilene Christian running back Bernard Scott is a talented football player. However, it's worth noting that the Bengals seem to have once again ignored the rap sheet of a player before using a draft pick on him. As Ryan Wilson pointed out Sunday, Scott has been arrested on at least five separate occasions, and actually hit a coach during one of his college stops.

It's late in Day 2 of the NFL Draft, and it's at this point in the proceedings that teams take chances on high-risk, big-upside players. Or, if you're the Bengals, you draft the guy with the longest rap sheet. Cincy used their sixth-round compensatory pick on running back Bernard Scott, most recently of Abilene Christian.