FanHouse KevinSmith

The Detroit Lions, who haven't won a football game since 2007, just wrapped up their final minicamp of the offseason. There's a lot that's new about them, including offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, who was good enough to return FanHouse's phone call on Thursday afternoon and answer some questions about the way the team looks to him so far.

Linehan, the former head coach of the St. Louis Rams, addressed the quarterback competition between top draft pick Matthew Stafford and veteran Daunte Culpepper, had very high praise for rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew and called himself a longtime admirer of new Lions head coach Jim Schwartz. He also spoke of the challenge of coming in as part of a new coaching staff on a team that only has to win one game to call 2009 an improvement over 2008.

The Detroit Lions are at a turning point, no? They just shed their old regime run by Matt Millen, they drafted their franchise quarterback and, even in the darkest of times for Detroit, there appears to be some hope. Until you start reading Terry Foster's recent Lions round-up in his Detroit News column.

You see, Foster finds -- in two separate items -- the real reason why the Lions fail: as their fans are, sadly, busy caring too much about the team, the Lions are busy caring too little about their fans. How do I know this? Because Foster mentions a fan who gets a Lions tattoo on his butt, and then in the next item discusses the fact that the team is repurposing jerseys. That's right, "Kevin Jones" is suddenly becoming "Kevin Smith."

Maybe drafting Matthew Stafford would be a total success for Detroit. Maybe it would be an unmitigated disaster. There's just no way to know for sure how things will work out. It's a total crapshoot -- so the Lions should put the dice down, pick their money up and cash in whatever chips they hold in exchange for Denver quarterback Jay Cutler.

Detroit's slow, slow, slow crawl back to respectability took a step in the right direction on Thursday, as the Lions signed running back Maurice Morris to a three-year, $7 million deal.

Morris rushed for 574 yards in 13 games with the Seahawks last season. He's been in Seattle since being drafted out of Oregon in 2002 (fun Lions fact: Morris was the Ducks running back when Joey Harrington was their quarterback), and has proven to be a valuable backup behind guys like Shaun Alexander and Julius Jones.

Let's face it, this year was all about the Rookie RB when talking about fantasy football. Depending on the scoring system for your league, three rookies most likely finished in the Top 10 RB producers. This made for arguably the single greatest rookie RB class in recent memory, not only from a realistic perspective, but also for fantasy purposes.

Is this the new trend and will we lust over the rookie class next season as we prepare for our drafts? Well, let's not jump the gun just yet. However, what we can depend on will be the spiked draft day values of the returning sophomore class. Many of these talents have already become mainstays on the fantasy football horizon.

And so today, we take a quick look back at the season that was, but more importantly gage the values of this heralded class moving forward. Follow along and in order...

As opposed to quarterbacks, I'm definitely in favor of keeping running backs. In fact, I highly recommend keeping two runners instead of a quarterback, if you have two of my top 20. Running backs are the life-blood of your fantasy team, much like the oil in your car. Two consistent runners on your fantasy team make life so much easier, which is why it's your starting point.

As I said, I'm recommending you keep two from the list, which is why I'm ranking more than I did for quarterbacks or wide receivers.

Ladies and Gents, your top 20 keeper running backs ...

You know this job ain't easy. It's sure a lot of fun to toss around opinions, eat, sleep and breathe fantasy football, but when the day is done...it's still not easy. We've gotta be on top of the game at all times, take the criticism when we're wrong and still somehow manage our own fantasy teams and hope to win our own fantasy titles.

The hard part is always dropping a post about a potential sleeper we like and then having a buddy in our league read that very post and beating us to the punch. Well, that's just life and I'm hardly complaining. And not that we like to brag or boast all too much, but when we get it right, we gotta let people know. When it comes to fantasy football, cockiness is all part of the game.

With that said I'm holding myself accountable today for some of the things I nailed this season and some of the others I completely whiffed on.

I'm just gonna be real right now: Your fantasy league should be over. It's one of those things about which we've all pretty much made an unwritten pact. When people like Peyton Manning will likely not be playing because their teams want them to rest, you shouldn't have a fantasy relevant game. That's why we don't play in the preseason.

All that being said, there are leagues out there with a championship game this week. Since we are committed to helping you win your league title no matter what, we'll still be helping you out. In lieu of positional rankings -- due to a limited audience -- we'll sift through each position and give some pointers. We'll also examine guys who need to play well, as well as those who won't factor at all.

Feel free to leave specific lineup questions in the comments section, and we'll answer. We'll also be having a shortened -- yet quite effective -- Tailgate Sunday morning.

Again, we want you to win ... even if that means supporting you when your league is mishandled.

The 0-11 Lions have many believing that a winless season is not only possible, but probable. This is 0for08, FanHouse's eye on the Detroit Lions and their quest for a winless season.

After one quarter, the Lions actually have a lead in their attempt to avoid cementing their status as the NFL's worst team of all time. The Lions have shut down the Vikings offense and have actually put together a drive.

Now it's the Lions, so first-and-goal at the seven turned into fourth-and-goal at the seven and a 3-0 Lions lead, but hey, a 13-play drive is still something for Detroit to build on.

For a team that got its star defensive tackles back thanks to a court injunction, the Vikings sure look like they're starting Ellis Wyms. Kevin Smith rushed for 24 yards including a 14-yarder, Daunte Culpepper has looked adequate, and the Lions defense has shut down Adrian Peterson and picked off Gus Frerotte, which gave the Lions a chance to add to the lead as the second quarter began.

Detroit's actually looked like an actual professional team in the first quarter. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now, they have a chance.

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.

I'd strongly consider it.

You are playing for the big money -- your fantasy playoffs -- likely because you rode Clinton Portis as one of the few reliable first-rounders for much of the season. At one point, he was easily the best fantasy football player.

Currently, he's really banged up. There are back and knee woes he's dealing with, and he hasn't even practiced this week. Even if he does play Sunday, he's going into Baltimore to face the league's third-best run defense. If it weren't for Brandon Jacobs busting through their wall, the Ravens would only have allowed one rushing touchdown all season.

As you can see by the ranking (26, which was honestly a huge coincidence), I really don't trust him at all. Just imagine that is you in that picture (above right). You are saying, "hey man, I thank you for getting me here and all, but you are on the bench this week."

More notes after the rankings.

1. Adrian Peterson, at DET
2. Matt Forte, vs. JAX
3. Thomas Jones, at SF
4. Chris Johnson, vs. CLE
5. Steve Slaton, at GB