It's your Friday installment of "CNG" and we're taking you into the weekend. You've had the whole week to circle the wagons, analyze your fantasy rosters, read all the experts and gather the various weekly rankings around the Internet. The easy part is done, now comes the hard part -- the waiting for Sunday morning. At least you're prepped and ready.
Let's take a quick-hitter look around the NFL on this Friday and piece together any fantasy-worthy news that may have slipped through the cracks.
It's going to be Monday Night Football. The Cowboys are taking on the Carolina Panthers, who haven't yet shown a good run defense. Felix is a home run hitter, as evidenced by his 56-yard run last week, his 98-yard kick return touchdown last season and his career 8.9 yards-per-carry average on 43 carries. Give him 15 carries a week, and the sky is the limit. When news of Barber missing 1-2 weeks popped, it appeared the stars were aligning for Felix's breakout party. Now, it's looking like Barber might suit up and play. If he does, it would be like refusing to leave your friend alone with a girl at a bar. There's a hyphenated word for that, Marion, and the second part is "block." Don't be that guy. Back off and allow your buddy to get his.
Marion Barber is a beast when he's on the field. We know that. We've seen him take on defenders as the aggressor. Unfortunately, having to fight injury woes comes with the territory of being such a bruising runner. Barber wore down toward the end of last season after a monstrous start. This year, his injury has come early.
According to Blue Star, Barber is out for 1-2 weeks with a quadriceps injury (UPDATE: see end of this post). Being a quad injury on a running back, it's easy to see this thing lingering for a few extra weeks as well. The Cowboys can afford to be careful with their top running back, too, because they also have Felix Jones and Tashard Choice.
As the season nears, FanHouse's fantasy football team decided to put our heads together for another set of updated positional rankings. In this installment, we'll hit up the thoroughbreds.
The thing that sticks out to me, when viewing the running backs for this season, is what a muddled mess the group is. I stared at a group of about 15 players -- those ranked from six to 20 -- for probably 45 minutes while tinkering with how to rank them. Some will pan out, and some will end up being viewed as busts. May the force be with you. (Last Updated: 8/27/09)
The proliferation of mock drafts as well as their offspring, the ADP (average draft position), have given fantasy football players three new approaches to uncovering values come draft day. Whether or not you take fantasy football seriously, the ADP is officially protocol in draft prep. Evaluating this list of fantasy football ADPs provides three distinct strategies that can lead to finding some gems at bargain prices.
The first involves the simple idea of hubris: that you yourself know more than everyone else. In other words, owners can assess the current ADP levels and determine if the broader fantasy football playing market has under- or over-valued particular players. In doing so, owners can determine where they think they can pick up steals on the cheap, catching the fantasy landscape by surprise.
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.
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.
A year ago, the Cowboys used their two first-round picks on running back Felix Jones and cornerback Mike Jenkins. Neither contributed much as a rookie; Jenkins played in 14 games (starting three) and had 19 tackles, but the one he didn't make sticks out most in my mind (of course it does).
The Falcons' Matt Ryan was the Associated Press' NFL offensive rookie of the year last season. It was well deserved after completing 61.1 percent of his passes and throwing 16 touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 87.7.
But for the first three weeks of the season, Cowboys running back Felix Jones was the leader. In fact, he won all the primaries. Jones scored a touchdowns in the first three weeks of the season, including the first carry of his career at Cleveland. Jones scored on an 11-yard run, a 60-yard run, 33-yard scamper and how could we forget his 98-yard kickoff return for a score?
Big news out of Big "D" at this hour. It only seemed like a matter of time. He's notorious for burning bridges and ripping apart franchises, but it would appear Terrell Owens time has ended with the Dallas Cowboys. Initially the Cowboys were merely flirting with the topic of releasing Terrell Owens, but that's now a reality. Several sources have indeed indicated that Terrell Owens will in fact join the list of those recently out of work.
Where will he land? Does anybody really trust the guy anymore? So who else is impacted? One thing is certain the release of T.O is "huge" news in the fantasy world. He's betrayed many an owner's trust in recent years, but he's come up huge when motivated. Will he in fact be motivated with this upcoming chance, most likely being his last shot? Well, let's take a look at the stock market post T.O release and also take a guess at a few potential suitors.
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.
A message to 
Marion Barber is a beast when he's on the field. We know that. We've seen him take on defenders as the aggressor. Unfortunately, having to fight injury woes comes with the territory of being such a bruising runner. Barber wore down toward the end of last season after a monstrous start. This year, his injury has come early. 
As the season nears, FanHouse's fantasy football team decided to put our heads together for another set of updated positional rankings. In this installment, we'll hit up the thoroughbreds. 
The proliferation of mock drafts as well as their offspring, the ADP (
For those who may use a different term or are new to 
A year ago, the Cowboys used their two first-round picks on running back 
The Falcons' 
Big news out of Big "D" at this hour. It only seemed like a matter of time. He's notorious for burning bridges and ripping apart franchises, but it would appear Terrell Owens time has ended with the Dallas Cowboys. Initially the Cowboys were merely flirting with the topic of releasing Terrell Owens, but that's now a reality. Several sources have indeed indicated that Terrell Owens will in fact join the list of those recently out of work.
