FanHouse Kerry Rhodes

One of the more entertaining stories in the NFL last week was about former New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and current New York Jets safety Kerry Rhodes having a war of words over Twitter. But there's just one problem: Harrison, who's now an NFL analyst for NBC, isn't on Twitter. The account @Rodneyh37, which Rhodes and others assumed was written by Harrison, was bogus.

If you didn't know better, you'd think that Sunday's Jets-Patriots game was for the AFC Championship. There has been an outsize amount of jabbering between the two rivals, most of it coming from the Jets, for a game that will leave one team at 1-1 with 14 games to play.

The latest and, presumably, final stage in the pregame yammering took place on the radio and Twitter Friday between Jets safety Kerry Rhodes and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison. Earlier this week Rhodes said that the Jets didn't want to just beat the Patriots, they wanted to embarrass them. Harrison responded during a radio interview.

Think IDP leagues are the way to go? Then Ballhawkin' is for you. Here, we pick out a few Individual Defensive Players that could have huge weeks and are possibly sitting in your free-agent pool.

Those of you that picked up Stephen Cooper heading into Week 1 were treated to a pleasant surprise, as the San Diego linebacker notched 13 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and two passes defended. In my league, he earned me 19 points, which was good enough for the top defensive performance of the week. Other great calls were Louis Delmas with 15 points, James Laurinaitis with 14 points, and E.J. Henderson with 9.5 points. I wasn't so lucky with Kerry Rhodes and Jason Taylor, although Taylor did get a sack in his game.

Think IDP leagues are the way to go? Then Ballhawkin' is for you. Here, we pick out a few Individual Defensive Players that could have huge weeks and are possibly sitting in your free-agent pool.

All IDP leagues are created differently. I have one that starts five defense guys from any position each week. I have one that starts two DLs, two LBs, two DBs, and two flex defenders each week. I have another with different settings than those two, but you get the picture. As such, it makes it extremely difficult to figure out who's going to be available in your league on a weekly basis.

The knock on Vernon Gholston coming out of Ohio St. was that he took plays off, even as the most physically gifted player on the field. His rookie season with the Jets didn't change that perception, especially since he was taken sixth overall in the 2008 NFL draft.

Gholston's final stats: 15 games played, no starts, 13 tackles, no sacks. In January, shortly after getting the Jets head-coaching gig, Rex Ryan said that "We hope [Gholston] can be a great player ... A lot of us aren't sure, but we're going to find out. If he can't do it for me and for this team, he's never going to do it."

The increase in popularity of Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues was easy to see coming. After all, why break down offensive players individually by position yet group all defenders as a team? Of course, when IDPs come into play, the defense can't be just an afterthought.

Sleeping on defenders while other teams amass high-sack guys like James Harrison and DeMarcus Ware, or consistent 100-tackle linebackers like Patrick Willis or Ray Lewis could leave you high and dry at critical positions. You wouldn't be stuck with Donald Driver and Devin Hester as your top two receivers, would you?

However, it'll get to that point in the draft where 20 or 30 defenders are off the board at a certain position, and you need to add a sleeper or two to your IDP core, someone who has the ability to finish in the top ten at their position. Today, I'll examine a few potential breakouts at each position -- hopefully, you'll add one or two of the good ones on draft day.

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FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- Jets safety Kerry Rhodes came out after practice to take questions, but he made it clear right away that he couldn't answer any about the woman who claims she was raped at his Morristown, N.J. home.

"It's a pending legal matter, and I can't talk about it," Rhodes said at least 10 times in answers to questions about the incident.

Rhodes did say he was pleased that the Morris County prosecutor had made it clear in a public statement that Rhodes was not a suspect or the target of the investigation, and he and coach Rex Ryan both said they didn't expect it to be a distraction for Rhodes or the team going forward.

The owner of the Minnesota Vikings is Zygi Wilf, which means Brett Favre has become The Boy Who Cried Wilf. He also now qualifies as the most persistently annoying athlete in sports, a man in distinct danger of losing his icon status in this country because he CAN'T ... MAKE ... UP ... HIS ... FRIGGIN' ... MIND. After telling us back on Feb. 11 that he truly, honestly, genuinely, emphatically is through with football -- "It's time to leave," he said -- guess what he's doing this week?

He'll be meeting with Vikings coach Brad Childress about returning to the NFL for a 19th season, which would be his second un-retirement in less than a year and further evidence that Favre is dizzier than Courtney Love on a bender.

That didn't take long. Jay Cutler has been a member of the Chicago Bears for approximately three hours and the local media are already questioning his leadership skills. From the Chicago Tribune's Rick Morrissey:

Jay Cutler's dreams are finally coming true: the Broncos have agreed to trade him. Of course, if he weren't so sensitive -- or if new head coach Josh McDaniels had better controlled the flow of information -- it never would've come to this.