FanHouse Bobby Engram

Many of you might have been surprised to see the Giants' Steve Smith and the Jaguars' Mike Sims-Walker (or MSW, for short) among the top dozen options for Week 4. No-names as No. 1 WRs? Well, those surprised people obviously haven't been keeping up with the action.

After another huge performance by Smith (11 catches, 134 yards, 2 TDs), he now sits atop the pack as the best WR through four weeks. MSW is seventh on the list, and that's not accounting for his zero in Week 1. Take the three-game average, and MSW (along with Smith and Reggie Wayne) is one of the three best WRs in football. How will the pair of overachievers rank this week?

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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.



In 2006, the Kansas City Chiefs finished with a 9-7 record and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Indianapolis. Since then, the Chiefs have won just six games -- four in 2007 and two last season -- causing a major overhaul of the front office and coaching staff prior to the 2009 season.

After 13 years with the New York Giants, Amani Toomer spent this offseason searching for a team to finish his career with and landed in Kansas City. Now, less than two weeks before the NFL season begins, Toomer's hunt will begin anew.

The Chiefs cut the 34-year-old veteran on Tuesday -- part of Kansas City's effort to get down the mandated 75-man roster limit by the close of Sept. 1 -- which could mean the end of the line for Toomer's career.

K.C. brought Toomer aboard at the start of August as the team stockpiled veteran talent -- the Chiefs signed Bobby Engram in March, and Ashley Lelie a couple of weeks after Toomer.

Chiefs head coach Todd Haley removed Chan Gailey (right) as the team's offensive coordinator Monday after three preseason games, likely paving the way for Haley to handle the job himself.

The only real surprise here is the timing -- there's less than two weeks until Kansas City opens up its 2009 campaign at Baltimore on Sept. 13. All indications are that Haley will take over the play-calling duties, and considering his success running Arizona's offense the past two seasons, Gailey might be lucky this didn't happen sooner.

Summer is heating up and so is NFL football, so FanHouse is at Chiefs training camp to get you the rundown on the new-look squad as they get ready for the '09 season.

RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- In a Chiefs training camp awash in urgency and big changes, none is more glaring than the absence of tight end Tony Gonzalez, the do-everything signature star who no longer will dominate what's been a sputtering Kansas City offense.

Gonzalez, a 10-time Pro Bowler, took his prolific pass catching skills to the Atlanta Falcons after 12 seasons in K.C. But there is another veteran receiver in Kansas City who's eager to take up where Gonzalez left off.

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 ...
Conclusion of the Butt Chiefs. That lousy 2-14 Chiefs squad from 2008 has nowhere to go but up from here, so they will no longer be the butt of everyone's joke. Remember that explosive offense for the NFC Champion, Arizona Cardinals. Well, former offensive coordinator Todd Haley assumes his first head coaching job this season in Kansas City. In other words, the Chiefs offense just became very relevant for fantasy football owners. Sure, Haley still faces a massive challenge in terms of personnel, but you can rest assured that this season, the Chiefs' offense will make plays just like Haley's Cardinals did.

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Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Mike Holmgren has long been one of the primary identities of the Seattle Seahawks. He took them to the Super Bowl and made them a perennial winner of the NFC West. Then last year happened. As Holmgren's retirement tour rolled along, more and more injuries piled up, Seneca Wallace had to start at quarterback for a few games, and the Seahawks stumbled to a 4-12 record.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

If anyone still cared about the NHL, the Sabres might make it three whole things that people love about Buffalo. As it is, there's wings -- and then there's the Bills. Sadly, Canada seems intent on stealing the NFL away from the city in the middle of the night. Relevancy (almost achieved following a 4-0 start last season) would greatly enhance the Bills' chance of hanging around Buffalo.

There are bigger problems at play, but "nice offseason additions" would greatly benefit the franchise and head coach Dick Jauron. And there are plenty of areas that will need to be addressed over the coming months.

The news continues to get worse for the Seahawks. Currently 1-3 and fresh off a 44-6 throttling at the hands of the Giants, they'll host the Packers on Sunday and there's a good chance they'll do it without Matt Hasselbeck.

The Seattle quarterback missed part of the preseason with a sore back, and he'll be a game-time decision against Green Bay after injuring his knee last weekend. Which means Charlie Frye could get his first start since that forgettable season-opening effort 13 months ago in Cleveland, when he was still considered the Browns' quarterback of the future. Sort of. (Here are the gory details, just in case you, um, forgot.)

Probability suggests Frye would fare better against the Packers than he did against the Steelers last year, but, well, I'm still skeptical. Unfortunately, Seneca Wallace, who started four games in 2006, isn't available, either; he's nursing a sore calf.

On the upside, head coach Mike Holmgren thinks Koren Robinson and Bobby Engram will start. But -- and this probably goes without saying, even though he made a cameo last week -- Deion Branch is listed as questionable. Typically, this means a player has a 50 percent chance of suiting up for the game, but this is Branch we're talking about. He might as well be on injured reserve.

Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires. Enjoy those pickups...

Week 5 looks sleepy on the waiver wires relative to the past few weeks. There are definitely some decent options to fill holes for a week or two here and there as well as one solid receiver option coming off an injury, but generally speaking it is more like a group of names to get to know, so watch how they follow up on today's big performances in the coming weeks.

Kyle Orton – (Chicago Bears, QB) Don't be fooled by Orton's 334-yard and two-touchdown outing; the Lions are officially malfunctioning. If the Lions were a car, they would be Layne Meyer's Camaro . They need to bring somebody in to fix that lemon and get it running. Anyway, the Bears passing game is inconsistent, so this type of performance is not likely to repeat itself regularly.

Bo Scaife – (Tennessee Titans, TE) While Scaife has risen eyebrows on a number of occasions already this season and may not be available, he is officially a reliable tight end, at least as a bye week substitute. This week he snagged seven passes for 72 yards.