FanHouse Chris Hope

Think IDP leagues are the way to go? Then Ballhawkin' is for you. Here, we pick out a few Individual Defensive Players that could have huge weeks and are possibly sitting in your free-agent pool.

Those of you that picked up Stephen Cooper heading into Week 1 were treated to a pleasant surprise, as the San Diego linebacker notched 13 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and two passes defended. In my league, he earned me 19 points, which was good enough for the top defensive performance of the week. Other great calls were Louis Delmas with 15 points, James Laurinaitis with 14 points, and E.J. Henderson with 9.5 points. I wasn't so lucky with Kerry Rhodes and Jason Taylor, although Taylor did get a sack in his game.

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.

Let's rewind back to March 2008: I joined a couple buddies of mine for a Spring Break excursion to Las Vegas. We had an outstanding time, and the day we were to leave, we headed down to the sportsbook to lay down some futures bets. One of my friends had an interesting wager. His Super Bowl bet? The Tennessee Titans.

A couple of months ago, the list of Steelers free agents after the 2009 season looked downright frightening. But slowly and surely, Pittsburgh is whittling down its collection of potential departures.

First the Steelers re-signed left tackle Max Starks to a four-year extension, now there's word that they are working on a long-term deal with free safety Ryan Clark. The news comes from the NFL Network's Jason La Canfora (as relayed by Pro Football Talk).

The AFC and NFC Pro Bowlers were announced a short while ago, and why make some pointless comment you are sure not to laugh at when we can just give you the rosters instead? Here goes.

The Titans secondary will be without their leader for the rest of the season. Chris Hope will miss the rest of the season with a spinal cord injury that might require surgery.

In the wake of the Kevin Everett injury earlier this season, obviously any time you read the words "spinal cord injury" the initial thought is that Hope's career might be over, but Titans coach Jeff Fisher seems very confident Hope will be back next year, even if he has to have surgery.

"After numerous studies and opinions, Chris Hope's season is over,'' Fisher said. "The doctors don't feel it is safe for him to finish the season. It is not a career-ending injury by any means. We are going to continue to evaluate it. He may heal up as a result of rest, and we have not ruled out surgery as a possibility.''

The Titans have some depth to fill in with as Calvin Lowry will slide over to start at free safety--he was starting at strong safety early in the season before being replaced by first-round pick Michael Griffin. But the bigger question will be whether the Titans can survive the loss of Hope's leadership. From the day he arrived as a free agent, Hope has been one of the most vocal leaders of what was a young secondary at the time. The Titans have some more veterans out there now, especially with the addition of Nick Harper, but Hope will be missed.

The Tennessean has a feature on Chris Hope today that raises the point that the biggest reasons for signing him last year may end up being less about his play on the field than his attitude off of it.

Hope came in with a Super Bowl ring that gave him the credibility to walk in and start telling other guys what to do. And it seems that at least the other defensive backs are listening. According to the Tennessean, the DBs are putting in the most hours in the weight room, something Hope believes is beginning to spread to other parts of the team.

"It hasn't spread through whole team like it had in Steel City, but I watch every guy in the weight room and they watch what we are doing and they see our unity," Hope said. "I am starting to see other groups. It's spreading."