FanHouse Pat Williams

With attention spans dwindling, we forgo 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.

The Early Games

Denver (6-2) at Washington (2-6): Denver has lost its last two games and has shown an inability to score against good defenses. Washington's defense is ranked fifthh in the NFL, and that spells a much closer matchup than two teams with such opposite records should be involved in. It's extremely tough to throw against Washington, so Knowshon Moreno becomes a very important factor on Sunday. If he does well, Denver wins -- If Moreno falters, Denver loses.

The NFL still hasn't given up on the idea that it will eventually be able to suspend Minnesota Vikings defensive linemen Kevin Williams and Pat Williams for violating its drug policy in the StarCaps case. There remains the chance the league will further appeal the decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a federal judge's decision that the players could not be suspended. But on a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon, NFL union head DeMaurice Smith said the union and the NFL have had discussions about the drug policy in light of the StarCaps case, and he thinks there's a chance this could result in changes to the policy.

"I believe there is a resolution to this matter that can be collectively bargained," Smith said. "I do not think the only solution is continued litigation."

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The last three weeks have been a blur for Minnesota Viking fans. They've gone from a quarterback competition to a completely different kind of quarterback controversy.

When Brett Favre walked into Viking headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minn., on Aug. 18, he brought with him the promise of a Super Bowl run. Either that, or the promise of another glorious Vikings flop. The only certainty with Favre's arrival is that nothing is a given. All the meaningless predictions are cast aside starting Sunday, as Minnesota launches their 2009 regular season at Cleveland.

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

The Vikings offseason could have been sponsored by Waffle House. Brett Favre's will-he-or-won't-he waffling left Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson twisting in the wind, but when he did decide to come out of retirement again, he also gave the Vikings a buzz that the team has lacked for years.

They were jilted at the proverbial alter by Brett Favre last week. The starting quarterback injured his knee in their second training camp practice.

There is good news for the Minnesota Vikings, though. The Williams Wall -- defensive tackles Kevin and Pat -- should be available for the entire 2009 season without interruption.

The back-and-forth between the courts and the NFL continues regarding the four-game suspension of the Minnesota Vikings' two gargantuan defensive tackles, Kevin and Pat Williams. Thursday, Hennepin County District Court granted the players' request for a temporary restraining order, which means the players cannot be suspended at this time.

Late last season, Williams and Wiliams -- All-Pro defensive tackles -- were slapped with a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's drug policy. They had tested positive over the previous summer for bumetanide, a diuretic which is considered a masking agent for steroids. Neither ever have tested positive for any steroid, and it's easy to see why they'd be taking something to control their weight. This is what they say they were doing.

Tarvaris Jackson's accuracy has been called into question before, and it's hard to find a Vikings fan who hasn't wondered about his readiness to be an NFL starter, but now he's having to defend himself against another even more serious charge -- that he's not a hard enough worker.

Teammate Pat Williams said on Sirius radio this week that Jackson needs to work harder if he expects to develop into a quality NFL quarterback. Williams was pretty blunt about it.

This is a good thing, this ruling that came down Saturday in the StarCaps case. You may not see it that way if you're a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, who now face the first four games of their season without their Pro Bowl defensive tackles. Or if your team is the New Orleans Saints, who've likely lost their starting defensive ends for those first four games.

But if you're the kind of person who thinks pro athletes (and, by extension, the children who admire them) should be discouraged from taking drugs to cheat at their games, you have to look at today's development as a positive.

As you may recall, five NFL players were slapped with respective four-game suspensions late last season -- though they never served them while their legal claims were being heard in court. Friday, a federal judge dismissed the claims of the players -- Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Vikings, Charles Grant and Will Smith of the Saints, and unsigned Deuce McAllister.

Those five players -- well, four if McAllister doesn't sign somewhere -- will be forced to sit out the first quarter of the season for their respective teams.

The Vikings should know by the time training camp begins whether they'll be missing two of the keys to the defense when the season begins. A U.S. District Court judge set a June 15 trial date for Pat and Kevin Williams lawsuit against the NFL.

The Williamses are suing because they were facing four-game suspensions for testing positive for a diuretic. The diurectic is banned by the NFL because it can be used to mask steroid use. But in this case, the players are claiming that they didn't know that the Starcaps they were taking contained the banned diruretic, and the supplements they were taking were used to try to make weight.