FanHouse DaunteCulpepper

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

The bye weeks are finally upon us, but relax it's no time to panic. You see, had you planned your draft accordingly you would have realized that when you drafted Matt Forte, Drew Brees and Greg Jennings they all had a bye in Week 5. OK, show of hands if you're really that on top of things. Listen, I try to cover those bases, but once the beers flow and the clock starts -- I lose focus.

Regardless, we will get through this together. It's October (the best month of the year) with a glorious weekend of sports and fantasy football on tap. There's never a reason to let a few voids in your roster make you worrisome. Come on, you don't want to walk around like Tony Romo on most Sunday afternoons (kinda-sorta kidding). Just check out our weekly player rankings and tune into the Sunday tailgate. We promise to help you get through this.

Now let's poke around and see what's newsworthy this side of fantasy football.

Top draft pick Matthew Stafford will be the starting quarterback for the Detroit Lions' regular-season opener Sunday in New Orleans, Lions coach Jim Schwartz announced Monday. Stafford has beaten out veteran Daunte Culpepper for the job and will join No. 5 overall pick Mark Sanchez of the Jets as a rookie starting quarterback on Day One of the 2009 NFL season.

The Stafford-Culpepper competition was, by all accounts, a close one, with the veteran Culpepper having reported to camp in top shape. He impressed the coaching staff with his mobility, arm strength and attitude during offseasn workouts and the preseason. But in several interviews with FanHouse this summer, Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan also praised Stafford, saying at one point that "you don't get the feeling you're dealing with a rookie quarterback."

Byron Leftwich will be the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, coach Raheem Morris has informed his team. Leftwich beat out Luke McCown in one of the least inspiring QB battles in recent memory, and will direct a Tampa Bay team of which little is expected through a likely rebuilding season.

Morris' decision leaves only two NFL teams -- the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions -- undecided about their starting quarterbacks as the third week of the preseason hits its climax. (That is, unless you count the Patriots.) Daunte Culpepper gets the start for Detroit this afternoon against the Colts and at this point looks like the favorite to open the season as the Lions' starter over rookie Matthew Stafford. Meanwhile, true to frustrating form, Browns coach Eric Mangini isn't saying who will start tonight's game against the Titans, though the thought in Cleveland seems to be that a decision will be made today on whether Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson will be the regular-season starter.

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's daily gathering of links from around the web, covering the goings-on in NFL Training Camp which have an impact on fantasy value.

Obviously, with training camp comes a certain level of optimism surrounding every team. At Bears camp, the entire offense has been a veritable hype machine, due mostly to the acquisition of pro bowl quarterback Jay Cutler.

Devin Hester is getting rave reviews from every source who has seen camp as well. Most recently, Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune penned an entire column gushing about the progress of Hester as a receiver and the prospects of him becoming a legitimate star receiver. And he hasn't always been a Hester-at-wideout fan.

Retired NFL quarterback Trent Green is the first-ever guest columnist of MMQB, filling in while Peter King is on vacation. Green provided an interesting read on subjects relating to the league's personal conduct policy, concussions and the expanded season. And of course it wouldn't be a MMQB without a healthy dose of Favre thrown in for good measure.

What jumps out of Green's article is his prediction that 10 quarterbacks will have over 4,000 yards passing this season. He says six are a lock to do it (Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Phillip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers), and seven have the potential to do it (Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, Carson Palmer, Matt Schaub, Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo, Matt Hasselbeck).

Let's put this prediction in context:

The Detroit Lions, who haven't won a football game since 2007, just wrapped up their final minicamp of the offseason. There's a lot that's new about them, including offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, who was good enough to return FanHouse's phone call on Thursday afternoon and answer some questions about the way the team looks to him so far.

Linehan, the former head coach of the St. Louis Rams, addressed the quarterback competition between top draft pick Matthew Stafford and veteran Daunte Culpepper, had very high praise for rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew and called himself a longtime admirer of new Lions head coach Jim Schwartz. He also spoke of the challenge of coming in as part of a new coaching staff on a team that only has to win one game to call 2009 an improvement over 2008.

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.

Was last season the year of the quarterback or what? You still had the old reliables like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb doing their thing, but a whole new crop of passers have elevated themselves. Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler led the way for the youth movement. You could have even waited toward the end of your draft and landed stud QBs in Matt Ryan and Tyler Thigpen (who would have been waiver-wire fodder). Team all that with Tom Brady's Week 1 injury, and we had a really interesting season. Let's see how they fall out presently for 2009.

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Sure, it may be a little early for most normal people to start thinking fantasy football draft, but for us derelict diehards, keeping abreast on the developments of the offseason can provide peace of mind and an advantage in watching things progress as we head into the summer. While the news coming out of the NFL these days is far overshadowed by two wildly entertaining playoff series, there are some pretty critical players to keep an eye on.

A small handful of elite fantasy stars are in the midst of a serious value conundrum. On one hand, they provide an opportunity to nab otherwise surefire first-rounders on the cheap, but not without taking on big-time risk. It is question of "how far do we let them drop before it is critical to pull the trigger?"