FanHouse MichaelTurner

Am I scared about the prospects of Steve Slaton losing carries to Ryan Moats (and even Chris Brown)? Absolutely. I'm more concerned about the overreactions from across the fantasy football world. Sure, I took it on the chin with Slaton in one league, but last week was hardly indicative of what will transpire from here on out.

Consider the following:
- If Gary Kubiak was going to send a message to his second-year running back with problems holding onto the football, what better opponent than the league's worst run defense?

- Slaton shredded the Colts in Indy last year, and that was without Matt Schaub at the helm to take pressure off him.

- Frank Gore got loose for a 64-yard touchdown against the Colts and added 43 receiving yards. Slaton is faster, more elusive and a better pass-catcher than Gore.

So, yeah, of course last week made me worried about Slaton. But I live by the "no guts, no glory" credo. You'll find Slaton in my top 15. You can have Ryan Moats.

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Bad news, New England fans. The fine folks at Tecmo Super Bowl Repository have the Week 3 Falcons-Patriots game (all 10 minutes, 24 seconds of it) Tecmo-nized and the results are, well, humbling.

(For the tech geeks interested in how they managed to update the old-school Tecmo with new-school rosters, knock yourself out. For the rest of you, just enjoy the fact that the Patriots lost again, even if it's make believe.)

Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.

Top Faller: Greg Jennings had 80 catches for 1,292 yards last season. His worst game in terms of catches was two. His worst game in terms of yardage was 22. In 2009, he caught six balls for 106 yards in his one game before Sunday. Obviously, at home against the Bengals seemed to bode well for the fourth year wideout. The result was a goose-egg of a game from a player who is a WR1 on fantasy rosters in every single league out there. Keep in mind, angry owners, this isn't going to happen again this year. The Packers play the Rams next week, so there's no reason to get down on him now. He'll
be fine.

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ATLANTA -- It was one game. They kept saying as much on Sunday inside of the mostly business-like home locker room at the Georgia Dome.

"Yeah, it's one game, so we don't get too hung up on what we just did," said John Abraham, among the Atlanta Falcons defenders who spent the majority of their NFL season opener keeping the Miami Dolphins listless, clueless and scoreless.

It was one game, all right, but this was a scary game for the rest of the league in general and the NFC South in particular.

In continuing with our three-part series on ADP analysis, today we look at the second method in which average draft position can be utilized to uncover values come draft day -- trend analysis.

This approach involves following a sequence of successive ADP charts over a span of time, usually a couple of months (or anteing up for a premium service that tracks more detailed mock draft data), and following the trends. Trends in ADP are great indicators of who is moving up or down on depth charts, which players have made breakthroughs in camp, and most of all, who got dinged up in camp -- information that can be daunting to follow on a player-by-player basis.

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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)

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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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At last, it's fantasy football draft season! And that can mean many things, but, most importantly, it means everyone is an expert. Fortunately for you, we at the Fantasy FanHouse are dishing out the goods with tips, previews and insights that can help you earn those coveted bragging rights. In this space, I'll dive right into the various strategies that can be followed on draft day.

You can go many a route: The conservative approach, the risky approach, the all or nothing approach, etc. It's up to you. Below, you'll find various views of the most recognized approaches practiced by today's fantasy owners in the first two rounds. Let's get down to business.

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If you take a look at the 2008 NFL strength of schedule, you'll notice that the Pittsburgh Steelers had the toughest schedule of them all. That's odd because they still won the Super Bowl. The New Orleans Saints had a very easy schedule (ranked 28th of 32 teams) and they finished 8-8 and in last place in the NFC South division. Obviously, looking at strength of schedule prior to the 2008 season didn't help you predict future outcomes.

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Here you go, cheat sheet fans. No analysis or explanations ... just the down-and-dirty list. (CLICK HERE for most recent update: 8/30/09)

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1. Adrian Peterson, RB, Vikings
2. Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jaguars
3. Michael Turner, RB, Falcons
4. Matt Forte, RB, Bears
5. Steven Jackson, RB, Rams