FanHouse DarrenSproles

It's time for a little CP26. Last week, we knew Clinton Portis had a rough week ahead of him, facing an incredibly stout Giants run defense. This week? He gets to play at home against the St. Louis Rams. The same Rams who let Julius Jones get loose for a 62-yard touchdown and 136 total yards from scrimmage.

You don't need us to tell you Portis is a much better back than Jones. That's common knowledge. Expect Portis to outperform nearly every other running back this week. You'll find him ranked only below the obvious number one.

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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 the secrets to successfully navigating a fantasy football draft is sorting through the noise that comes out of the various media sources and uncovering the hidden values. Every season, fantasy football pundits will sway the general consensus in a particular direction, making forgone conclusions that cause a good percentage of players to rethink what they already know, thus causing some stalwart players to become significantly underrated. Over the next couple of weeks, Fantasy FanHouse will provide a rundown of our perceived five most underrated players at the key fantasy skill positions, starting today with the five most underrated running backs.

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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.

LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles threw a wrench into the mock-drafting plans of anyone hoping to predict who the Chargers would take in the first round of 2009's NFL Draft; San Diego had obvious defensive needs, but the future at running back was uncertain as well. Of course, lots of folks had them taking Knowshon Moreno, and he was off the board a touch early anyway.

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

The San Diego Chargers were one of the earliest contenders to be drafting a running back in the 2009 NFL draft (and they probably would have had their pick, too, if not for those darned kids). But then Darren Sproles got tagged with the old franchiser and LaDainian Tomlinson worked out his feud with A.J. Smith, and, suddenly, the Chargers were back to the secretly-stacked squad that just needs a little defensive help.

Okay, "little" might be off -- it was the absence of Shawne Merriman last year that killed the defense as a whole; without Merriman in the middle of the D to create havoc, the secondary suffered and teams moved the ball almost at will against San Diego. In other words, you should see some defensive picks in this year's draft.

I'm generally of the opinion that selecting a running back in the first round is a waste of money. Players of similar talent can be found later in the draft for a fraction of the salary-cap space, and it allows teams to address other, less fungible needs in the meantime.

There are exceptions, of course -- the Vikings and Adrian Peterson, the Rams and Steven Jackson, and the Chargers and LaDainian Tomlinson. But as we're constantly reminded, the NFL is a business with no room for sentimentality. Last offseason, the Seahawks dumped Shaun Alexander two years after he rushed for 1,880 yards, 27 touchdowns and was named league MVP.

After restructuring his contract earlier this week, LaDainian Tomlinson will be in San Diego for at least one more season. There was speculation that if the two sides couldn't reach an agreement, the Chargers would either trade or release him, but it never came to that.

That doesn't mean LdT didn't think about the possibility of finishing his career with another team. In fact, on Thursday he appeared on the Dan Patrick Show and talked about just that. Via SI.com:

LaDainian Tomlinson and the San Diego Chargers have finally ended their offseason-long soap opera by agreeing on a three-year contract that restructures the running back's original deal.

While "LdT" will take some reductions in his 2010 and 2011 base-compensation numbers, he'll now make the same amount he was originally scheduled to earn in 2009: $6.75 million, which, not coincidentally, is $1.75 million more than Darren Sproles will earn if he signs the team's franchise tender.

Once again, we've lost sight of Darren Sproles. The Chargers franchised the 5-foot-6, 180-pounder earlier this offseason, and then everyone naturally turned their attention to the other running back.

On Thursday, LaDainian Tomlinson sounded optimistic about returning to the Chargers, a team he'd given eight years and almost 12,000 rushing yards.

A day later, things seem less certain, even if it's all speculative at this point.