Whether it's torn, sprained, broken or just needs to be taped, Injuries to Watch will keep you up to date on injuries around the NFL and how they'll affect your fantasy football team.
Quarterback
• Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers - Roethlisberger is not listed on the injury report, but he sat out parts of practice on Thursday with his elbow wrapped. He is expected to play on Sunday, but questions of a sore arm have definitely surfaced.
Everyone loves fantasy footballsleepers, but they change depending on league size and availability. We're here each and every week to give you a look at good plays for all types of leagues.
We're shortening up the sleeper column a bit this week. Fear not, because the benefit to the shorter column is ... more sleepers! First we'll take a look at players available in most shallow leagues and some normal-sized leagues. Next, we'll move on to players available in many normal-sized leagues and a few deep leagues. Lastly, we'll throw out some sleepers for your deep league owners.
Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.
Riser of the Week: With the help of Brett Favre's arm, Sidney Rice is becoming a star in the NFL. Favre's affinity for Rice isn't really difficult to figure, either. At 6-foot-4 and blessed with incredible athleticism, Rice is the rare breed of receiver that can play as both a deep threat and possession receiver, which has made him Favre's favorite target. With a 7-catch, 201-yard effort Sunday, Rice now has compiled 27 catches and 553 yards in the past four games. He still needs to score more touchdowns -- he only has two this season -- but he's gathering enough yardage to make up for it in the meantime. The Vikings' remaining schedule isn't especially tough, either, so don't even think about benching Rice.
Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."
The Adds Ladell Betts (RB, Redskins, 1,896 adds) -- We told you to add him on Sunday and again on Monday, so it's great to know you were listening. You were listening, right? Well, either way Betts makes a solid pickup while Portis recovers from his concussion and ankle injury, especially since he's very doubtful for Sunday. It's not like he was ever that healthy to begin with, so Betts exhibits a lot of upside particularly considering he showed the most life of just about any Redskins player this season. The X-factor with this pickup is a rumor floating around that Washington is looking at Larry Johnson, but go ahead and cross that bridge if/when you come to it. Besides, Zorn already said no.
For a team that has had three wide receivers earn Super Bowl MVP honors and has placed two wide receivers in the Hall of Fame, the Steelers have had very few receivers put together standout rookie seasons. Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress all went on to have excellent careers, but none of them finished their rookie years with 300 yards receiving.
Rookie Mike Wallace has already topped that, and he's on pace to put together one of the best rookie seasons in Steelers history. His season may not fully eclipse Louis Lipps' excellent 1984 debut and Jimmy Orr's rookie receiving record (way back in 1958) is at the outer edge of what Wallace could do this year, but Wallace is on pace to put finish with 50 catches and 874 yards, which would rank second in both categories among Steelers rookies.
Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."
The Adds
Ryan Moats (RB, Texans, 5,087 adds) - With over 5,000 adds in a single week, Moats becomes the most added player of the year (for one week). Three touchdowns and 126 yards will do the trick every single time. Frankly, I'd file this one under "big time fluke" and expect to see Steve Slaton back in the lead role by week's end. Coach Kubiak already gave Slaton the pep talk and said he expects him to remain a key part of the running game. So the bottom line here is as follows: go ahead and add Moats, but unless you are in dire need of a leak plug at running back, wait to see how this shakes out before making him your starter.
Stash or Trash tells you whether a prospective fantasy football pickup (or drop) is worthy of your roster spot.
It's getting to be that time of the football season when depth charts are rewritten in pencil, with an eraser handy, due to a plethora of circumstances. A player outside of the limelight may just be turning it on to become a force to be reckoned with. Or maybe injuries are beginning to take their toll and players who weren't counted on early will need to step up and perform.
Whatever the reason for a players' rise to prominence, if he's going to perform he needs to be on your fantasy football roster. It's that time of year to start stashing these upstart weapons -- one may turn into fantasy gold.
The Rams-Lions contest this weekend has the potential to be one of the most unwatchable games in years. The Lions have only won once in the past two seasons and the Rams are 2-21 in that span. Remember, though, in fantasy footballevery game is exciting to some extent. In FanHouse's latest fantasy football podcast, Tom Herrera and Matt Snyder explain why they like both running backs -- Kevin Smith and Steven Jackson -- to have a good game Sunday. We also tackle why T.O. reminds Herrera of a smelly homeless guy on the subway this week, reveal our Starting Six Pack and discuss several deep league plug-n-play options (like Brian Hartline).
Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires.
You can't paint a turd, folks. Week 7 gave us slim pickings in terms of waiver wire action. We saw a couple of interesting stories to add to the watch list, the reemergence of a quarterback long thought to be lost for dead, the first start of a highly-touted rookie, and a few other odds and ends, but really only one quality add via a huge day from a previously third-string rookie. All in all, it looks like a week to focus on lining up that blockbuster trade to take you down the backstretch, because the waiver wire gods did not offer us up much this week.
Many of you might have been surprised to see the Giants' Steve Smith and the Jaguars' Mike Sims-Walker (or MSW, for short) among the top dozen options for Week 4. No-names as No. 1 WRs? Well, those surprised people obviously haven't been keeping up with the action.
After another huge performance by Smith (11 catches, 134 yards, 2 TDs), he now sits atop the pack as the best WR through four weeks. MSW is seventh on the list, and that's not accounting for his zero in Week 1. Take the three-game average, and MSW (along with Smith and Reggie Wayne) is one of the three best WRs in football. How will the pair of overachievers rank this week?
Whether it's torn, sprained, broken or just needs to be taped, Injuries to Watch will keep you up to date on injuries around the NFL and how they'll affect your fantasy football team.
Everyone loves fantasy football sleepers, but they change depending on league size and availability. We're here each and every week to give you a look at good plays for all types of leagues.
Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.
Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."
For a team that has had three wide receivers earn Super Bowl MVP honors and has placed two wide receivers in the Hall of Fame, the Steelers have had very few receivers put together standout rookie seasons. Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress all went on to have excellent careers, but none of them finished their rookie years with 300 yards receiving.
Fantasy FanHouse's "Bust a Move" segment provides quick-hitting insight on the most popular adds and drops across Fleaflicker fantasy leagues between Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. Knowing who is on the move during this 24-hour period often provides a valuable edge with regard to outperforming or underperforming players, injuries and depth chart shifts. So do as the man says, "Don't just stand there..."
Stash or Trash tells you whether a prospective fantasy football pickup (or drop) is worthy of your roster spot.
Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires.
Many of you might have been surprised to see the Giants' Steve Smith and the Jaguars' Mike Sims-Walker (or MSW, for short) among the top dozen options for Week 4. No-names as No. 1 WRs? Well, those surprised people obviously haven't been keeping up with the action.
