FanHouse Darren McFadden

When one prepares to draft a fantasy football team, myriad criterion should be considered in evaluating who to target, and, likewise, who to avoid. One word bouncing around just as frequently as anything else during said evaluation? Injury. Maybe a guy was injured for several games last season, maybe he suffered a season-ending injury or maybe he's just an injury-prone guy. This affects the value of players on draft day.

Let's check out the value of 10 guys with injury concerns, and judge whether or not they are up to the task for 2009.

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On Second Thought is Matt Snyder's look back at the initial FanHouse staff rankings, which were compiled nearly a month ago. As we all know, fantasy players' value changes frequently, even when no games are being played. Today, we look at running backs.

As teams continue to use two-backs systems, running back has become an increasingly deep and unpredictable position. Thus, you don't have the predictable first two rounds of years past. Injuries and the progress of young backs will shuffle backfields throughout the preseason. As that happens, the fantasy values of the running backs continually shift. Let's take a look.

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FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version.

In an otherwise jumbled mess, there is one thing we know about the running backs when it comes to fantasy football drafts: Adrian Peterson is easily the class of the position. After that, there appears to be a large clump of running backs who have a good chance to excel this season. If you think the old school fantasy football "running back-running back" draft strategy (drafting a running back in each of the first two rounds) is truly antiquated, ask yourself the difference between a Frank Gore and Marion Barber tandem in your backfield as opposed to Ronnie Brown and Jamal Lewis. Is it worth taking a wide receiver, then, before a Barber type?

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Mocking the Oakland Raiders is a year-round affair, and the NFL Draft is no different. People who make it their business to know such things were predicting the Raiders would take wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh overall pick because -- wait for it -- Al Davis loves speed.

The year before, some folks thought running back Darren McFadden was a stretch with the fourth selection, and then there were the Fabien Washington and Michael Huff first-round debaclements in 2005 and 2006. But the 2007 draft was different: the Raiders chose quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the No. 1 pick, and we all agreed it was the right move.

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.

Last week, NFL Network's Mike Mayock had the Raiders drafting Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh overall pick. Not because he thought Heyward-Bey was one of the seven-best players in the draft, or even a top-3 wide receiver. But because Al Davis loves speed. Former Raiders executive Mike Lombardi also had Heyward-Bey going to Oakland for the same reason.

It's easy say Mayock and Lombardi are overstating their case, maybe in an effort to separate themselves from the millions of other mock drafts we're subjected to. But a quick glance at Davis' recent draft history suggests that Heyward-Bey is hardly a stretch, even at No. 7. Last season, Darren McFadden was taken fourth overall, and Fabien Washington and Michael Huff were drafted in back-to-back drafts starting in 2005.

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 9 of 10 (read Chapter 8 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The corner of Craig Stevens' left eye is twitching. He can't stop it. We're sitting across the table from one another and again and again the eye twitches, a metronome of ocular discomfort.

"Can you see it?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say.

He nods, flexes his arms on the table, "I can't get it to stop. I was really worried about it, but then my girlfriend told me that sometimes your eye can start twitching when you get really stressed."

"Has your eye ever done this? Before a big game or anything like that?" I ask.

"No," Stevens says, "I think it's going to stop as soon as I finish the combine."

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

The Oakland Raiders are coming off their sixth straight losing season and will be entering 2009 with their fifth different head coach in seven years.

For the second consecutive offseason, the Raiders have spent a gargantuan amount of money on cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson, and punter Shane Lechler. The Raiders also find themselves in their customary spot in the top 10 of the NFL draft, and their biggest need is pretty obvious.

Andre Smith has already, according to most projections, lost about $15 million in guaranteed money due to a series of bad decisions in the tumultuous months leading up to this month's NFL draft. Though he's still projected as a likely top-10 pick, it's been a long fall for the left tackle once considered a potential No. 1 overall selection.

Smith capped his bizarre descent Sunday night by apparently firing his agent, Alvin Keels, according to The Birmingham News.

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

Perhaps no other storyline carries as much national importance for college football as USC's quarterback battle. With the three Heisman Trophy finalists -- Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy -- returning to Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, respectively, USC may be next in line as a championship contender. The Trojans are hosting a three-man battle between Matt Barkley (left), Aaron Corp (middle) and Mitch Mustain to determine the school's next quarterback who will hopefully follow in the school's lineage of successful signal-callers and maybe even lead the team to a national title.