FanHouse BrianLeonard

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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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 best known for self-destruction and felonies! Yes, only in America ... it's the Cincinnati Bengals. Honestly though, the troubled times seem to be in the past, as the Bengals are preaching team unity and singing a new tune heading into the upcoming season. Under the radar? Sleepers? Well, when was the last time we heard such chatter as it relates to the Bengals? Hold tight, let's watch this story develop. However, you heard it here first (sort of): The Bengals have some fantasy potential.

They possess one of the top quarterbacks in the league (when healthy), a stable of cast-off running backs, a troubled receiving corps with "rebound" potential and the capability to be an explosive offense, again. Will the line hold up to keep Carson healthy? Will Ochocinco snap back into circa 2005 form? A lot of questions, but you already know there is gonna be risk with these guys. However, this year they do offer a sliver of hope that they will indeed reward.

So according to Adam Schefter (he's awfully busy these days), Darren McFadden sits atop the Rams' draft board. Guess what? He sits atop a lot of teams' draft boards.

This piece of information, paired with the fact that Steven Jackson is entering a contract year and has yet to begin negotiations with the team, has created a little stir. But there's still no chance in hell -- and I'll bet one of my robust FanHouse checks on this -- that the Rams draft him. It's not going to happen.

For starters, they'll get a deal done with Jackson. He's an elite back who can run, catch, and block, and he's a hard-worker with good character entering his prime. You don't let guys like that walk. They've also got two draft picks from last year, Brian Leonard and Antonio Pittman, sitting behind Jackson, making for a nice trio. The team isn't giving up on them so easily.

If this report is even true (and truth is a precious, scarce commodity at this time of year), the top player on a team's board isn't necessarily who they'll take. A lot of people make draft strategy a black and white issue with need vs. best player available, but the smartest teams (not that I'm saying the Rams are one of them -- huzzah) pair the two, meaning they'll find similar value at a position of greater need.

But I still don't think this report is true. More likely, I'd say they're trying to bait the Jets or Raiders into trading up to their spot. We'll see if either bites.

Earlier this week I noted that former Saints draft pick and current Ram Antonio Pittman stuck a dagger in New Orleans' heart with a 43-yard run that pretty much ended all hopes of a Saints comeback. Scott Linehan likes what he saw of Pittman, and wants to give him increased carries in a backfield that already features Steven Jackson and Brian Leonard.

"We'd like to keep that going as much as we can," Linehan said. "It was really encouraging. (Pittman) didn't get a lot of carries, but he took advantage of the ones he got."

Yeah, that one run in particular (borne from great blocking, not outstanding running) was impressive. Sure. Granted. But take that away and the former Buckeye only ran for 10 yards on six carries -- a Shaun Alexander-esque 1.7 yards per carry. Take away that run and for the season Pittman is averaging 1.8 yards per carry.

Now 16 carries isn't much of a sample size to bash a running back, but it's not much of a sample size to give a running back increased carries either. Especially when more than half of his yardage came on one run.

Whatever. If Linehan thinks Pittman can help, let him play. The Rams need all the help they can get -- as Marc Bulger told the Post-Dispatch, despite getting a win, "We're still a bad football team."

For one glorious quarter, the Rams' offense looked like the unit everyone was expecting. And then Steven Jackson decided that the injured life wasn't so bad, and that was that. Jackson averaged 5.1 yards per carry, the offensive line was keeping Marc Bulger clean (0 sacks for The Bulge!), and the Rams scored twice before Jackson aggravated his back. They were outscored 27-6 the rest of the way.

The damage Jackson's absence left doesn't lie in the box score alone. Down by a score with under six minutes left and the ball on the Browns' 16-yard line, Brian Leonard was stuffed for no gain on 3rd-and-1 and again on 4th-and-1. The Rams got the ball back once more, making it sort of moot, but it's tough to imagine Jackson not getting those yards.

Not that it matters much for the Rams, but it looks as if Steven Jackson is going to return this week from a torn groin. He did offer a caveat, though.

"A groin is something that, it feels good and the next day it may have a little tweak here or there," he explained. "We're waiting on Thursday and see how it reacts."

Once Jackson hits the field today, and sees what it's like running full-speed behind an offensive line even worse than the one he left, he might decide that his groin isn't reacting too well. Why not collect your paycheck and allow Brian Leonard to take the beating? Isn't that what rookies are for?

You iGMs looking for some sort of return on your hefty draft investment will be happy to see Jackson on the field, but it's not like his 233 yards, no touchdowns, and 3.4 yards per carry were really something to miss. And with a team much worse on and off the field, I don't know how happy of a return it is.

It's not even such a special occasion for Rams fans themselves. When Jackson hits the field, he might be hearing crickets.

He wasn't spectacular by any means -- three Gus Frerotte interceptions, including two back-breakers in the fourth quarter, spelled doom -- but he also moved the ball better than Marc Bulger has all season and did a much better job of spreading the ball to some of the team's new weapons. But in the battle of the backups, Kurt Warner returned home and shined just a little bit brighter.

In reality, the new starter didn't look terribly impressive himself. And, in fact, the Cardinals got a lot of help from beneficial refs, who handed the Cardinals two questionable calls. At the end of the half, the Cardinals were stopped on the Rams' one-yard line, but the refs gave the Cardinals a bonus play with no time on the clock when they called a delay of game, quite dubiously, because the Rams accidentally kicked the ball. Touchdown. On another call, Edgerrin James appeared to fumble near the goalline, recovered in the endzone by Cardinals lineman Reggie Wells. A challenge led to James being ruled down by contact before the fumble. Touchdown. The refs were correct in that James was down before the ball came out, but it never crossed the stripe.

It's a shame, too, that superb efforts from Fahkir Brown, who intercepted two passes and added an element missing from the Rams' defense in his first game returning from suspension, and Brian Leonard, who carried 18 times for 102 yards in his second start, were wasted. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Roderick Hood, who had two interceptions, and Larry Fitzgerald, who's gotta love having Warner and no Anquan Boldin. Fitzgerald had his second 100-yard day, and finally got in the endzone.

Look at the numbers, look at the game tape: these teams' performances were nearly identical. It was Frerotte's interceptions, and the two lucky breaks the Cardinals got, that made the difference.

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Brett Knight of RAMblings, a Most Valuable Network column that covers the St. Louis Rams.

Dan Benton: "For many, the Rams offseason expectations were extremely high. How frustrating has it been to watch your team struggle for the first quarter of the season?"

Brett Knight: "Obviously, with so many pundits picking the Rams as a darkhorse playoff team, it's been difficult to watch the team stumble thus far, with no end in sight. But I don't know what's been harder to deal with: all the forces that have been out of our control or all the blown opportunities. It's one thing to watch your offensive line crumble and your Pro Bowl backfield taken out of games by injury - it's tough, sure, but there's really nothing you can do about it. It's a whole different story, though, to sit through the sloppy play this team has been exhibiting this year: penalties, turnovers, blown coverages, missed tackles, awful play-calling. For all the talk of the talent on this team, it's really been a shock to see such a lack of fundamentals. It's been said that the mark of a good team is how it responds to adversity; with that in mind, I'm not sure how to respond to this team."

Brian Leonard (Jersey represent!) probably didn't think he was doing anything wrong by wishing the best for Steven Jackson ...

"I obviously hope I don't have to play the running back spot this year because we've got Steven Jackson," Leonard said at the time. "If I'm playing, that means he's down."

... or did he? Whether it was a jinx, an S-Jax voodoo doll tucked in Leonard's home, or just plain coincidence, Jackson is down and Leonard is running the ball for the Rams this week.

Who knows how he'll perform in his first start at tailback against the Cowboys, who are only allowing 86.7 yards per game on the ground, but Leonard has the type of confidence that's borne from crappy rap-metal groups.

Still, Leonard is ready for whatever Sunday brings. He will put on his earphones before the game, listen to his favorite band - Linkin Park - and then get after it.

"I'm ready to take on the load," Leonard said. "If I get 25 carries, I'm going to take 25 carries. If I get 10 carries, I'm going to take 10 carries. I'm ready for whatever they give me."

That's good, because it might be closer to 10. Not only is Leonard an unknown entity as a workhorse running back in the NFL, the same Cowboys defense that is eighth in run defense is inept against the pass, ranking 23rd. So, you know, you gameplan around your opponent's weakness. Although the Rams haven't excelled at gameplanning so far this year.

I don't think anyone expects the Rams to actually be better on offense without Jackson, but Leonard's a versatile weapon that the team wasn't getting involved enough anyway. That's going to change.

On Friday, I pondered the possibility of Drew Bennett, 6'5'' against defensive backs no taller than 5'11'', being the target of a fade in the end zone. And he was, but the results defied logic: Philip Buchanon intercepted the pass.

A lot of things about the Bucs' 24-3 victory over St. Louis defy logic: the Rams finally getting Steven Jackson on track, to the tune of 115 yards, and only scoring three points; Marc Bulger, he of a 97-62 career touchdown-interception ratio, throwing three picks without a touchdown; the Bucs defense, considered tepid in the offseason, putting together a second-straight dominant effort.

But I guess at this point in the season, there is no logic to be defined. We've got three games, not nearly a large enough sample to judge, and prior seasons mean nothing. On that note, this is what we know, and it's always open to change: the Bucs are playing perfect playoff football while looking like the best team in the NFC South, and the Rams need Mike Martz back, in the baddest way.

He was erratic. He was egotistical. He had trouble managing the clock, timeouts, and challenges. He hardly knew of these things we call "defense" and "the run game." But the Rams made the playoffs four out of his six years as head coach, they had a 53-32 record during his tenure, and even at their most inconsistent and sloppy, they were never, ever, ever this bad.