FanHouse Rob Johnson

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

The days where boos rained down upon Kosuke Fukudome seem like a distant memory.

Through nine games on the new season, the formerly-embattled center fielder is batting .375 with three homers, eight RBI, six runs and a steal for good measure. Compare that to his rookie campaign, where he only managed 10 big knocks in 501 at-bats. Should we believe in this new and improved Fukudome, or is it only a matter of time before fans are ripping him to shreds again?

One of the unintended consequences of releasing Terrell Owens is that now there's no one around to take the focus off Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips. (On the upside, the offense is now "Romo-friendly," so there's that.) In previous seasons, Phillips' shortcomings were partly overshadowed by anything T.O. might do, no matter how seemingly benign.

Now, though, when we aren't talking about Tony Romo, the conversation falls squarely on the guy responsible for benching Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson. I have a vague notion of how this is going to end.

At the annual NFL meetings earlier this week, Phillips offered this thoughts on how long it takes to evaluate a head coach. (Presumably, his response is autobiographical, though he could've been speaking in generalities.)

As if things weren't bad enough for the Dallas Cowboys, cornerback Terence Newman decided to jump into the Sweet Valley High drama on Friday, and started pointing fingers at the Dallas coaching staff for not setting an example of what it means to be accountable.

This comes a day after reports surfaced that Terrell Owens was jealous of the fact Tony Romo and Jason Witten are best friends forever, and that the two hold double-super-secret meetings to design plays that purposely keep the ball out of Mr. Owens' hands. Even though Romo has been throwing the ball to Owens more than any other player on the team in recent weeks. But, hey, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson: "Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, 14% of people know that."

Exactly.

Anyway, Tim MacMahon of the Dallas Morning News has Newman's quotes from his appearance on ESPN Friday morning and, well, he's blaming somebody else for the team being full of guys that like to blame somebody else. Yeah, accountability.

MDS mentioned it yesterday: "The offensive line in Cincinnati is so awful that I continue to say they just need to shut Carson Palmer down for the season. Why risk your franchise quarterback, who's already hurt, behind a terrible offensive line in a season that's already lost anyway?"

And today, via ESPN's Chris Mortensen, them's the plans. Sort of.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer is unlikely to play another game in the 2008 season but he will delay a decision on whether to have surgery to repair a "frayed" ligament in his right throwing elbow, sources told ESPN. ...

[T]he team has no plans to place Palmer on injured reserve, which would officially end his season. Palmer has asked the Bengals to wait "around two months" before taking any action because, a source said, the quarterback "does not want to abandon the team until he's certain he can't play ...the win-loss record has nothing to do with it, believe it or not."

Mortensen also reports that Palmer has visited five specialists, and consulted at least two quarterbacks who have undergone Tommy John surgery (which is what Palmer will be facing when he eventually goes under the knife) -- Jake Delhomme and Wade Phillips' legacy in Buffalo: Rob Johnson.