FanHouse KevinBoss

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

The roller-coaster ride continues if you don't own a top-tier TE. However, even if you do - those once reliable options have been hit or miss at best. Tony Gonzalez continues to flourish in the role as the top dog, but Antonio Gates should be primed for a decent game this week. Meanwhile, fantasy owners can finally breathe a sigh of relief as Jason Witten has a pretty good matchup and -- although he might not be 100 percent -- at least Tony Romo is back.

Yet, once you get past those favorite TE options... it's really a crapshoot. Fantasy pundits fell in love, for some reason, with big John Carlson. He's returned a big helping of nothing in return during recent weeks. Plenty of fantasy owners were banking on Kevin Boss last weekend and he also dished out a helping of bust. Who's the boss now? Ah, yes ... bad, bad joke.

Well, the flavor of the week now seems to be Dustin Keller coming off a breakout stretch of games. Will he also break our hearts? I sure hope not, because I've bumped him up the TE rankings and I'm banking on big things for my own team. So don't blame me if he craps out. Stay tuned.

Quick note: I just couldn't bump Dallas Clark over the "Big Three." Worth mentioning, though, is that San Diego is a funnel for tight ends to have successful days. Just mentioning. On with the ranks...

1. Antonio Gates, IND
2. Tony Gonzalez, BUF
3. Jason Witten, SF
4. Dallas Clark, @ SD
5. Chris Cooley, @SEA

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

Just two weeks ago, this position was absolutely depleted; the shallowest of fantasy positions. All of a sudden, Week 10 brought us some incredible success for such a specialized position ... and now looking at this week's matchups, it's really tough to go wrong here.

The top seven are obviously solid plays, especially Tony Gonzalez, who would be a weekly must-start at this point if he played WR.

Look past that group, though. Would you be having any reservations playing Donald Lee against the Bears? Todd Heap, Vernon Davis, and Zach Miller would be decent options, but they are ranked in the 17-20 range.

Dustin Keller and Kevin Boss are beginning to break out in New York.

Visanthe Shiancoe, Greg Olsen, and Bo Scaife have become extremely trusted options for their quarterbacks.

Finally, John Carlson (pictured), the rookie from Notre Dame, will enjoy having Matt Hasselbeck under center again, and I look for him to receive the most targets and catches in Seattle this weekend.

1. Tony Gonzalez, vs. NO
2. Dallas Clark, vs. HOU
3. Kellen Winslow, at BUF
4. Antonio Gates, at PIT
5. Jason Witten, at WAS

Waiver Wire Wonders is your weekly guide on how to use/abuse those pesky waiver claims that come with every fantasy football league.

The beauty of fantasy football is that this late in the season, there are always people of relative importance popping up. Sometimes it's because they took a while to develop, and sometimes they emerge because of early season injuries that turned them into cast offs and pariahs. Yet, here you are, still desperate after all these weeks. Go ahead, don't be shy. You can admit you're at least intrigued by Cadillac.

Cadillac Williams, RB, TB
Yes, that's right. The old car that your grandmother drives is suddenly relevant again. Why? Because he's coming off the PUP soon and Jon Gruden has shown little to absolute zero care about how he manages his roster in the name of winning. (What? Don't believe me? How about starting Brian Griese and putting Earnest Graham in at fullback?) And yeah, Caddy has talent. He's hurt, sure, but, hey, so is Ryan Torian. Sigh. Not your top priority, but certainly worth a claim.

Deion Branch, WR, SEA
Just like this guy. Branch hasn't garnered much attention this year because he hasn't done anything other than pretend he might come back. But he will be back in Week 11, presumably, and that's why you want to grab him now -- if you're hurting at WR and Matt Hasselbeck happens to make it back about the same time, suddenly you're staring at a poor man's Billy Volek - Drew Bennett combo.

With fantasy leagues around the country defining who has a chance to win this thing and who can basically kiss their season goodbye (thanks Tom Brady), it was nice to have a little help from some of the not-so usual suspects.

This week went to the tight ends, who had 13 touchdowns between 10 guys, a staggering number for a position that doesn't always get the glory they may deserve.

Week 10 started out well, with Tony Scheffler of Denver catching four balls for 92 yards and Daniel Graham grabbing a touchdown from Jay Cutler. Then we had Bo Scaife, Todd Heap and Kellen Winslow have career fantasy days, racking up some serious points for people that were smart (or lucky, one of the two) enough to start the guys.

The craziest part of this whole thing is the top tight end in the league, Jason Witten, was on a bye, so a lot of owners had to search for some replacements.

What does this say for the rest of the year? Well, one could argue it was just a coincidence, that a lot of the same position players had some good grabs and that was that.

The more positive (and fantasy) side might say that quarterbacks are starting to find their favorite targets as the year shortens and playoffs are on player's mind. You know the usual suspects, with Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez and Kevin Boss all scoring a touchdown on 66, 113 and 69 yards receiving, but here are a couple that you might not know but could be interested in starting this coming week.

Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around with his finger in the air while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

Here's Week 10 at a glance, where we point out the horses destined for the Kentucky Derby and jeer those headed to the glue factory.

Studs

Thomas Jones, RB NY Jets (26 carries, 149 yards, 3 TDs) -- Three weeks ago the Jets looked absolutely dreadful, losing their third of four games and having people question just about every decision they'd made (i.e., Brett Favre). Well thanks to Jones, who has scored in three straight, all victories, New York looks like they could sneak in the playoffs and play the role of team you wouldn't enjoy seeing on the opposing sidelines. In the largest victory in Jets history, Jones found holes in a pitiful Rams defense and decided to hang out in the end zone three times. Mr. Jones, how does it feel to be the AFC leading rusher?

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Who would have thought a year ago that the perception of Eli Manning would have changed so drastically? That's what happens when you win a Super Bowl. But can you really expect Manning to be as precise as he was during that improbable championship run? Either the light finally went on for Manning, or he simply found a zone. Or a combination of the two. Last year was a step forward, for sure, but I expect Eli Manning v.2008 to resemble something in between the lows and highs of the two Eli Mannings circa 2007. Still, that's good enough to win games. What isn't good enough to win games is David Carr, the team's new backup, so Manning better stay upright for all 16. Heat Index: 7

Running back: The Giants found out exactly how critical depth at running back is, and they also found out that they luckily have it. Great contributions came from Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, Derrick Ward, and Reuben Droughns. Danny Ware will likely take Droughns' place this year, but the team is still set in the backfield. Jacobs' combination of speed and power is pretty unstoppable, and while punishing backs don't typically have long shelf lives, Jacobs is in his prime now if he stays healthy this year. Heat Index: 8

Championships usually tend to give people trophy goggles -- the romanticized sense that a player is better than in reality.

Kevin Boss, in particular, was a pleasant surprise for the late-season Giants. During the stretch leading them to Lombardi, almost everything went well for him. But that's the thing: everything went well for the Giants, period. You can't use that sample size to project the future, because that sample size was probably an anomaly. An exaggeration, at the least.

Which is why I winced when the Giants hitched their apple wagon to Boss' star, shipping Jeremy Shockey off. And though I guess it's true that they had to dump Shockey no matter what, it seems a bit dubious of the team and its fans to expect Boss to live up to the myth that has built around him.

So it's not surprising, to me, to hear offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride pepper his enthusiasm with a ton of caution in discussing the position. You would never expect Gilbride to flat-out criticize the group, but he makes it clear that they have a lot of improving to do, noting that they don't have one guy who can "do it all."

Of course, they had one of those guys. And they decided that it was best for the team to go with Boss. Which is fine, morale plays a large part in team success, and Boss helps it. If you're expecting him to be an elite tight end this season on top of that, well, you're probably setting yourself up for a let down.

Yesterday, we were reminded of Jeremy Shockey's promise to a bunch of unsuspecting kids that he'd make the Giants pay for trading him. Today, The New York Post's Paul Schwartz writes that head coach Tom Coughlin is ready to move on in a post-Shockey World.

Coughlin's message ... was simple and resounding - "Team over self is why we win" - and, asked if Shockey's inability to adhere to that mantra was a factor in the trade, he admitted, "I am sure at some point in time that was part of the consideration."

Coughlin's right, of course, and he points out the obvious in about as harmless a way as one could expect. And although Shockey is a top-5 NFL tight end, I'm not sure the Giants will miss his on-field production particularly when you take into account his off-field bellyaching.

Of course, this assumes second-year tight end Kevin Boss will be able to replicate his surprisingly successful rookie season, or that other downfield threats -- Steve Smith, Sinorice Moss, and Mario Manningham come to mind -- pick up the slack.

Whatever happens, the Giants and their fans have moved on. While I think the Saints are even more explosive with Shockey catching passes from Drew Brees, New York made out alright, too, getting a second- and fifth-round pick in the trade. And one less distraction.

Next up: extending Plaxico Burress' deal.

Maybe that three-team trade rumor had some substance after all. Is it just a coincidence that after months of talk about the Giants sending Jeremy Shockey to the Saints, the deal happened to go down the day after the Dolphins shipped Jason Taylor to the Redskins? Or is it a sign that the two teams were working on something else (with, possibly, those Dolphins) and decided to just finally get it done on their own after Miami strayed from the plan?

Regardless. Shockey is now a Saint, for the price of a second- and fifth-round pick in 2009.

If Kevin Boss is really the player he was at the end of last year, the Giants are sitting pretty. But to assume that on such a small sample size is dubious, especially since it seemed that everything was clicking for the team during that stretch. But they obviously couldn't exist with Shockey, and Jerry Reese recently practically admitted his time in New York was short.

The Saints get a big talent with a bigger attitude, but don't underestimate the vengeance factor, as Shockey (who seems the vindictive type) tries to prove the Giants wrong -- especially playing in the system, for the coach, and with the quarterback he wants. Sean Payton has desperately wanted a playmaking tight end, and Shockey can do wonders for his offense. But one has to wonder why the Saints gave up the exact same steep cost they were offering before the draft, with the Giants losing leverage with each passing day.

Either way, like the Taylor trade, a long-bandied domino has fallen, and we're getting closer to inner peace as the season approaches. It's your turn, Brett.

After Jeremy Shockey broke his leg in December, the New York Giants' starting tight end for their Super Bowl run was Kevin Boss, a rookie fifth-round draft pick from Western Oregon.

The Giants' offense played very well with Boss on the field instead of Shockey, so when I saw Boss at Super Bowl media day, I asked him if he thought he did anything better than Shockey. He looked at me like I was crazy and insisted that he's nowhere near as good as Shockey is.

After four months of speculation that the Giants could trade Shockey and make Boss the starter on a permanent basis, Boss is still repeating that line. Boss tells the Newark Star-Ledger he doesn't want Shockey to go anywhere:

"If I was selfish, you would think that, but I'm not," said Boss, who went from unknown to heir apparent with his 45-yard catch against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. "I have a lot more to learn from him. And to have him back is going to benefit me -- and to be able to learn from him and play off of him and play with him."

I admire Boss for his modest attitude. That's the one thing Shockey could learn from him.