FanHouse DeuceMccallister

Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires. Enjoy those pickups...

For all you people out there in fantasy land who insist on perpetually asking "Who is this year's Ryan Grant?" -- week six might have provided your answer. While the waiver wires will likely be relatively quiet this week, there was one Big Montana that will have owners racing to login to those league waivers.

Dominic Rhodes (Indianapolis Colts, RB) - No sense teasing you all any longer, Dominic Rhodes is the gorilla I alluded to in the introduction. Joseph Addai left the game with an "undisclosed" hamstring injury. While it's uncertain at this point how serious this injury is, the "undisclosed" tag is never a good sign. In his place, Rhodes handled 25 carries and gained 73 yards and a touchdown. Get him ASAP if you still can.

Matt Schaub (Houston Texans, QB) - Just days after it looked like Matt Schaub may have lost his job to Sage Rosenfels, Schaub rekindled a magic connection with Andre Johnson and posted giant numbers. He threw for 379 yards and one touchdown and ran for the game winning touchdown on a crafty QB draw. While the two interceptions raise red flags, this offense looked pretty potent. Schaub might not be a bad idea to add for a backup down the stretch.

Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires. Enjoy those pickups...

Week 4 provided more of the same - big breakout games by our waiver wire friends. Not as many of this week's crop of eye-popping stat producers are necessarily worthy adds to the roster at this point however, so we'll filter through the noise and bring you the music.

Muhsin Muhammad (Carolina Panthers) - Looks like the Smothers Brothers are back together. After years together as a dynamic duo in Carolina, Muhammad parted for Chicago. Fast forward a couple of disappointing seasons filled with lots of whining and Moosh is in step again with Jake Delhomme. Although, Steve Smith should develop into the primary target, don't underestimate this veteran receiver and the great chemistry with his QB.

Steve Breaston - (Arizona Cardinals) Breaston actually looks like a great pickup at this point. Unfortunately, a big reason for Breaston's value uptick is the vicious helmet-to-helmet hit that Anquan Boldin took. And it looks like Boldin could be out for the near future. Breaston racked up nine catches for 122 yards with Boldin in the game, so he could assume a big role without him in the lineup.

Every week when the dinner bell rings on Friday evening, we'll be here to provide you a comprehensive injury report for the NFL weekend to follow. For those injuries that go right down to the wire, drop by our Fantasy Fanhouse expert live chat from 10am to 1pm EST every Sunday and we'll take care of you on those bloody game-time decisions. As always, please feel free to chime in with opinions, updates, and rumors in the comments.

The Atlanta Falcons

Michael Turner - After making the injury report last week with an ankle injury, Turner is now probable with a shoulder injury. He should be fine as he practiced full speed Thursday, but it might not be a bad time to start thinking about selling high on Turner.

The Baltimore Ravens

Willis McGahee - In a controversial development, the Ravens are speculating that the Browns pulled a "Sweep the leg Johnny" on McGahee and purposefully inflicted harm upon him. McGahee continues to struggle with his swollen, cut eye and although he is listed as probable, he has not made much progress. The game is Monday night though, so hopefully he'll be ready, but this is worse than it sounds.

The Buffalo Bills

Roscoe Parrish - Parrish is definitely out for four to six weeks with a thumb injury. While this is not material for many people, it may open the door for James Hardy to gain some playing time and for Lee Evans to put up a couple of his sporadic breakout games.

The Carolina Panthers

Jonathan Stewart - Stewart was limited in practice Thursday to rest his foot injury, but he should be there come Sunday.

Every week when the dinner bell rings on Friday evening, we'll be here to provide you a comprehensive injury report for the NFL weekend to follow. For those injuries that go right down to the wire, drop by our Fantasy Fanhouse expert live chat from 10am to 1pm EST every Sunday and we'll take care of you on those bloody game-time decisions. As always, please feel free to chime in with opinions, updates, and rumors in the comments.

The Atlanta Falcons

Michael Turner - After making the injury report last week with an ankle injury, Turner is now probable with a shoulder injury. He should be fine as he practiced full speed Thursday, but it might not be a bad time to start thinking about selling high on Turner.

The Baltimore Ravens

Willis McGahee - In a controversial development, the Ravens are speculating that the Browns pulled a "Sweep the leg Johnny" on McGahee and purposefully inflicted harm upon him. McGahee continues to struggle with his swollen, cut eye and although he is listed as probable, he has not made much progress. The game is Monday night though, so hopefully he'll be ready, but this is worse than it sounds.

The Buffalo Bills

Roscoe Parrish - Parrish is definitely out for four to six weeks with a thumb injury. While this is not material for many people, it may open the door for James Hardy to gain some playing time and for Lee Evans to put up a couple of his sporadic breakout games.

The Carolina Panthers

Jonathan Stewart - Stewart was limited in practice Thursday to rest his foot injury, but he should be there come Sunday.

You have tough decisions to make and I've got your tough-to-swallow answers. It's another round of "sink or swim" where some of the obvious names will surface and others... well, not so obvious. How do you manage these underwhelming guys and do you ditch them or save them? As usual, I'm glad to be the guide of this ship with the hopes of preventing it from sinking.

Today's targets are a few of the bigger names from fantasy years past and even present. Please welcome Marvin Harrison, Vernon Davis and Deuce McAllister. Consider this the Fantasy Football hot seat and it should come as no surprise these guys find themselves on the hot seat. Ultimately the choice is yours, but hopefully my words of wisdom and pessimism can be a compass for helping you manage your precious roster space.

Without further ado, let's roll right into this week's "sink or swim."

To get you ready for week 17, FanHouse is previewing all 16 NFL games. Here is the New Orleans Saints/Chicago Bears preview.

2007 Records:

New Orleans Saints: 7-8 (2nd in NFC South)
Chicago Bears: 6-9 (4th in NFC North)

Last Week:

Eagles 38, Saints 23
Bears 35, Packers 7

When the Saints have the ball: If the Saints want to keep their slim playoff hopes alive they'll need to win Sunday and then get help from the Broncos and Cowboys. If they want to win, they'll need to throw the ball early and often. While Aaron Stecker has done a fair job of filling in for Deuce McCallister and a better job than Reggie Bush, the Bears are most vulnerable through the air. Mark Anderson and Nathan Vasher are both on IR, limiting Chicago's pass rush and their coverage, and the Saints have shown that they can spread the ball around when Sean Payton looks beyond his predilection for screen passes. The weather looks like it will cooperate this week, Mother Nature was the 12th man in Chicago's performance last weekend, which will make it that much tougher for them to hang with the Saints offense. New Orleans will need to account for Brian Urlacher, however. After a middling season, Urlacher's played his best two games in the last two weeks and would love to spoil New Orleans' season.

If the first matchup of the Texans versus Saints were a referendum of the 2006 draft, then Texans defensive end Mario Williams would be the clear victor. He finished the day with a sack, a forced fumble from that sack and six tackles--along with lots of quarterback pressure. In a league where gifted defensive ends are usually harder to find than running backs, the Texans are hoping for many more of these types of performances.

Saints running back Reggie Bush, on the other hand, had a awful day. Against a Texans defense that has been awful against both the run and the pass, he rushed 15 times for 34 yards, an average of 2.3 yards. He caught 12 passes for 70 yards.

Most of his yardage came when the game was out of hand. He lost two fumbles, including one at the goal line that the refs on the field ruled a fumble, but arguably wasn't, but couldn't be overturned. Saints coach Sean Payton adds that he is concerned about Bush's missed assignments.

Obviously, with 47 yards total rushing this week and 43 yards last week against the Rams, the Saints are a team that obviously misses a healthy Deuce McAllister. And has fans wondering about the play calling. The Saints had so much more time of possession this week compared to the Rams game and still couldn't run the ball.

And now for some random recap and fun pictures you might not see if you read just the AP report of the game: