This weekend's AFC South showdown appeared, at the beginning of the week, to be one of those strength vs. strength matchups. The Colts have the NFL's seventh-ranked pass defense and they have only allowed three passing touchdowns all season (making them the stingiest in the NFL). The Houston Texans are the NFL's third-best passing team and have thrown 16 touchdown passes in eight games.
On a televised report, ESPN's Adam Shefter reported the Colts are likely going to ink wide receiver Hank Baskett to a contract. Baskett is most famous for stealing Kendra Wilkinson from Hugh Hefner, but he does play a little football on the side.
The four-year veteran has caught 72 passes for 1,052 yards and six touchdowns in his career. Most notably, he has a penchant for long touchdowns -- he's caught TDs of 90, 89 and 87 yards in his career. Baskett was recently released by the Eagles.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
For most franchises, 12 wins is a banner year; one they can hang their proverbial hats upon. For the Colts, 12 wins is a certainly. They have won at least 12 games in each of the last six seasons. They have also had Tony Dungy as their head coach for the past seven years, but now he's gone. In 2009, the Colts will look for some continuity. Can it be provided by the Jim Caldwell administration?
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)
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.
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days. FanHouse is here to help with an in-depth look at each division that should have you plenty prepared for training camp. We're calling it the Summer Scramble, and today we look at the AFC South's looming position battles.
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.
Meet the ... Team under Peyton's leadership for the first time without Tom Moore*. That's right. Peyton's only offensive coordinator for his entire 11-year career has been the venerable Moore. Moore's first year at the helm was Manning's rookie season, so the two grew together. It's going to be interesting to see how Manning fares without his mentor calling the shots.
Of course, Manning's obviously cerebral enough to deal quite well with the transition, and the Colts have enough weapons in their arsenal to remain the high-octane offense we're used to seeing every fall.
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.
In an otherwise jumbled mess, there is one thing we know about the running backs when it comes to fantasy football drafts: Adrian Peterson is easily the class of the position. After that, there appears to be a large clump of running backs who have a good chance to excel this season. If you think the old school fantasy football "running back-running back" draft strategy (drafting a running back in each of the first two rounds) is truly antiquated, ask yourself the difference between a Frank Gore and Marion Barber tandem in your backfield as opposed to Ronnie Brown and Jamal Lewis. Is it worth taking a wide receiver, then, before a Barber type?
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.
When the Colts used their first-round pick on a running back (Donald Brown of Connecticut), I was quite surprised. I knew they needing running back depth, but defensive tackle, middle linebacker and wide receiver seemed much more pressing -- all with quality options on the board. However, I'm not about to question a first-round pick by Bill Polian. Click through this link to see his history with the Colts.
What the pick does mean, though, is that Joseph Addai has probably fallen out of favor with the Colts, at least as the every down starter. Let's try to envision the fantasy fallout for this coming season and beyond.
On a televised report, ESPN's Adam Shefter reported the Colts are likely going to ink wide receiver Hank Baskett to a contract. Baskett is most famous for stealing Kendra Wilkinson from Hugh Hefner, but he does play a little football on the side. 
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
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. 
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.
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all. 
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. 
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. 
When the Colts used their first-round pick on a running back (Donald Brown of Connecticut), I was quite surprised. I knew they needing running back depth, but defensive tackle, middle linebacker and wide receiver seemed much more pressing -- all with quality options on the board. However, I'm not about to question a first-round pick by Bill Polian. Click through this link to see his history with the Colts. 
