FanHouse Drew Brees

It's been a tough stretch of games for owners of elite quarterbacks, starting with a Week 5 that saw Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler on the sideline and going through last week's off-week for Tom Brady, Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger. Rest easy, because the rigorous fantasy games featuring backup QBs are over.

This week, only Brett Favre gets a seat on the bench in terms of QBs you'd want to use in normal-sized leagues. Next week, you just have to make it without Matt Schaub. For owners of the seven QBs in the previous paragraph, it's smooth sailing unless an injury strikes.

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Every Tuesday night, we'll give you an update on our FanHouse fantasy football league. Who hit on their sleepers? Who made the shrewd pickups? Who's practicing what they preach? In 'House Check, you'll find out.

It sure is nice to be Tom Mantzouranis these days. The FanHouse editor and unabashed Saints fan is witnessing what is probably the best New Orleans Saints team in history. And even though he showed a lot of homerism at our fantasy draft, the picks of Drew Brees, Pierre Thomas and the Saints defense are sure working out, even if a few of them may have seemed overdrafted at the time.

Mantzouranis (owner of My Soul Belongs To Breesus) is currently the only 6-2 team in the FanHouse league, so this may be a magical season for Tom in more ways than one.

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NEW ORLEANS -- Go ahead, because this is the right thing to do: You should spend the rest of the NFL season hugging whatever team you traditionally love, but you should kiss the New Orleans Saints in the shadows.

If you prefer to do so in the sunshine, that's fine, too.

The Saints have replaced the folks with stars on their helmets as America's Team. In case you weren't paying attention, Hurricane Katrina blew this franchise into the hearts of all those who had them. That unofficially happened on Sept. 25, 2006, the team's first home game back in New Orleans -- a Monday night when, just like this Monday night, the roof of the Superdome threatened to explode because of the noise generated by inside, as opposed to the wind outside it.

A game that was also against the Falcons. And that, too, was a victory for the Saints, along the way to their first and only NFC championship game.

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The Early Games

New York Giants (5-2) at Philadelphia (4-2): The Giants are supposed to have one of the best pass rushes in the league, but they just haven't shown up in the past two games, with zero sacks over that time. They must get pressure on Donovan McNabb to have a chance on Sunday. Eli Manning also must figure out how to rebound from his four interceptions over the past two games.

Sorry, owners of Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer -- you'll have to look elsewhere, and Matt Cassel ain't gonna help. A number of quarterback controversies and injuries are also making like difficult looking for a spot-starter, and the bottom half of this week's set of rankings are pretty ugly.

For some, this might be the right time to execute a trade to bring a quality signal-caller into the fold. There should be teams in your league with two quality QBs, and if you can trade a Palmer or Cassel along with another piece for one of those two QBs, it's going to help you now and in the long run.

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With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.

The Early Games

New England (4-2) at Tampa Bay (0-6): Tom Brady threw for six touchdown passes last week, five in one quarter alone. And to be honest, it gets easier for him this week in London against the Bucs. Expect fireworks from the Patriots offense, as Brady is beginning to click with Randy Moss, and he's extremely happy that Wes Welker is back in action.

On defense, the Buccaneers don't have the speed or skill at the cornerback position to defend against Brady and the Patriots' aerial attack. On offense, the Bucs are young and inexperienced -- especially at the quarterback position where Josh Johnson is already looking in the rear-view mirror at competition from Josh Freeman.

Pick: New England

Now that Drew Brees has revealed he would have joined the Miami Dolphins back in 2006 as a free agent had they trusted his throwing shoulder was healed, had they believed in him, here comes Brees for an encore visit on Sunday to Miami.

I think the Dolphins and quarterback Chad Henne know the score.

They know that Henne will enter into a scrap with Brees where Henne had better light it up or be lit up.

There were plenty of QB outings to love last week, with first and foremost being Tom Brady (No. 2 in Week 6) and his amazing first half against the awful Titans secondary. Matt Schaub (No. 3) threw four TDs and nearly had a 400-yard game as well. Aaron Rodgers (No. 1) wasn't quite as good, but 350-plus yards and two TDs is nothing to scoff at.

But then again, that was last week, and you're more concerned about the upcoming week. So who do we like to captain the ship this week? Most people should love Brady again, but I'm taking a bit of a different route with him, as I'll explain after the rankings.

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NEW ORLEANS -- The players have started wearing T-shirts bearing the inscription, "SB44." It's not a Louisiana highway or some exotic local beer but the stated aspiration of the Saints, a franchise that has managed only eight winning seasons in more than four decades and long was known for humiliated fans who wore bags over their heads. One fan was a young Eli Manning, who was a baby when his father got beat up in his final seasons but later would venture to the Superdome with his brothers, Peyton and Cooper, to see the Saints get mauled.

These days, Manning is just the latest victim of a team that doesn't hesitate to think big, even when its pedigree suggests small, careful, quiet steps to a championship. The idea of the Saints reaching Super Bowl XLIV should have been the halftime theme of the House of Shock, a musical troupe that instead gave us a Michael Jackson Thriller compilation. But then, we never, ever should be shocked by the great Drew Brees, who played a mesmerizing game of pitch-and-catch with his numerous weapons Sunday and proved again that he's among the most electrifying quarterbacks the game has known.

Two undefeated teams enter, one leaves with a win and the unquestioned title of NFC Favorite. This is what football is all about.

Brother Eli and the G-Men travel to the Superdome with Super aspirations in mind. Coach Sean Payton has put the "S" back in Saints, and New Orleans will look to extend a four-game winning streak that has been matched just three times in Saints history.

There's a very good chance (barring late-season mojo from Grandfather Time) that this Week 6 matchup will end up being a preview of the NFC Championship game in January, which makes it by all accounts the game of the week.

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