FanHouse MichaelBush

The Oakland Raiders fought tooth and nail for a victory Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. Afterward, offensive guard Robert Gallery provided a black cloud on an otherwise sunny Raider day. The 29-year-old guard told a throng of reporters in the locker room that he suffered a broken left fibula during the game.

Gallery is part of a solid run-blocking offensive line and he's the team's best pulling guard. Losing him for any length of time is a big blow for the team, and this injury figures to be a while. The fibula is the smaller bone in the lower leg (tibia is the big one, also known as the shin).

With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.

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It's time for a little CP26. Last week, we knew Clinton Portis had a rough week ahead of him, facing an incredibly stout Giants run defense. This week? He gets to play at home against the St. Louis Rams. The same Rams who let Julius Jones get loose for a 62-yard touchdown and 136 total yards from scrimmage.

You don't need us to tell you Portis is a much better back than Jones. That's common knowledge. Expect Portis to outperform nearly every other running back this week. You'll find him ranked only below the obvious number one.

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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.

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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 ...
Running game that needs help from the passing game. One thing is for sure, the Oakland Raiders can run the football. They finished 10th in the NFL last season in rushing offense. The problem is that they only had nine rushing touchdowns (only three teams had less), which we can attribute to the fact that the Raiders had the worst passing offense in the NFL.

If the Raiders can find a way to stretch the field and move the ball through the air, expect the rushing game to get even better.

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Looking for the 2009 version of Lance Moore instead? Head over here.

Michael Turner was relegated to mop-up and proverbial "change of pace" duties in San Diego. This past offseason, he was free to sign elsewhere, and the Atlanta Falcons swooped in like any good falcon would. Only Turner wasn't prey, he was a beneficiary. He turned out to be a steal, and he'll be taken towards the top of the first round next season in fantasy drafts.

Like any good dynasty league player would do, we need to start examining who could experience this sort of leap in fantasy football before next season. It's much better to be proactive than reactive, so here are some running back candidates who have a shot at gaining the job on their own team or in a new destination.

Leader in the Clubhouse

Derrick Ward, Giants -- He'll be a free agent when the Giants' season ends, so he's the most obvious choice here for the headline. The Giants likely don't want him gone, but they have to keep Brandon Jacobs, and Ahmad Bradshaw can handle the RB2 duties for them. There will be a team out there so desperate for a featured back that they'll break the bank for Ward -- Seahawks? Broncos? -- and the Giants can't justify a huge cap hit.

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 17 at a glance, where we point out the horses destined for the Kentucky Derby and jeer those headed to the glue factory.

Studs

Michael Bush, RB Oakland (27 carries, 177 yards, 2 TDs) -- This is the other running back in Oakland, and boy did he have a pretty nice coming out party. In his first game with more than 16 carries, Bush rolled a Tampa Bay defense in search of a playoff spot and carried the Raiders to their second consecutive win. Sure, the team went 5-11, but the last two games were something to build on, and Michael looked like a capable backfield option.

It's been yet another lost season out in Oakland, as the Raiders are already on their second head coach of the year, employees are jumping ship to join the former head coach at his new place of employment, all while they've assured themselves a sixth straight 10-loss season. Good times, indeed.

One of the players who was supposed to help turn this thing around was No. 4 overall pick Darren McFadden. Thus far, his rookie season has been somewhat of a disappointment, mainly because he's been hampered by some turf toe problems -- that may or may not be the result of shoes that don't fit -- and some curious decisions by an agitated Tom Cable.

On Sunday, when the Raiders were absolutely throttled by New England, McFadden didn't play much in the first half, and didn't start getting regular touches until the third quarter when the game was already well out of reach. This isn't sitting well some members of the Oakland media.

Following the game, Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune offered his initial feelings on the lack of McFadden, saying his performance once he got in proves that the turf toe issue is, well, no longer an issue. On Tuesday, Monte Poole weighed in on McFadden's usage, and he too isn't thrilled with the interim head coach.

No team in the NFL has completed fewer passes this season than the Oakland Raiders, and frankly, it's not even close. That's probably not all that shocking to you, seeing as how JaMarcus Russell is a second-year quarterback, and the Raiders are, for the most part, a running team blessed with a deep backfield including Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. Naturally, like any team, they're going to stick with their strength.

Still, Russell has struggled at times, while also showing flashes of the potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick a year ago. Perhaps one of the problems he's dealing with this season is the fact his wide receivers are, well, for lack of a better word -- terrible.

Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee pointed out today that the Raiders haven't had more than one wide receiver catch a pass in a game in four weeks, and that Michael Bush, a 245-pound running back -- who is now playing fullback -- is second on the team with 18 receptions.

Sounds pretty bad. But it gets worse.

In what was an active trade deadline day for NFL standards -- two trades! -- there was almost one more involving two unlikely partners. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports the Raiders and Chargers nearly swung a deal involving Oakland running back Michael Bush.

The Raiders and Chargers doing business? What's next? Dogs and cats living together? Up is down, my friends, up is down.

Anyway, according to Acee's report, the Raiders would have received a second-day pick in exchange for the second-year running back, only to back out at the last minute. Hopefully because Oakland realized trading Bush for so little would have been, well, stupid.

The Raiders have a pretty good set-up in their backfield, and Bush has been a solid player in his first year of action. He's carried the ball 47 times for 202 yards, and is currently second on the team in receptions behind only Zach Miller. Trading him for a pick, especially a second-day pick, wouldn't make much sense, seeing as how Bush has plenty of value to the Raiders, especially with Darren McFadden and Justin Fargas missing time this season due to injuries.