FanHouse RobertMeachem

One of my favorite moves on fantasy football draft day is taking a late-round gamble and letting everyone else laugh at me. You can have the first round, just let me pick late. To illustrate, here's an actual message board post last season after one of my drafts: "Commish Snyder purposefully did not draft a kicker so he could take a flier on yet another long shot (Steve Slaton of the Texans). I'm sure he'll say it will pay off in the long run."

My response? "I'll end up dropping Patrick Crayton (my fifth WR) for a kicker before week 1 when Slaton wins the Houston gig -- unless someone suffers a season-ending injury, in which case I'll drop that person."

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The now 0-14 Lions have many believing that a winless season is not only possible, but probable. This is 0for08, FanHouse's eye on the Detroit Lions and their quest for a winless season.

Some fans and pundits have looked at the Lions schedule over the last four or five games of the season and thought that their best chance to get in the win column would come today against the Saints. On ESPN's Sunday Countdown this morning, Tom Jackson -- normally a rational NFL mind -- stood firmly against the rest of the crew in picking the Lions today.

The Lions aren't going to win today.

At halftime, the score is 28-7, and Detroit can't stop a single thing New Orleans is doing on offense. The Saints have scored four rushing touchdowns by four different players (Robert Meachem, Deuce McAllister, Pierre Thomas, and Mike Bell). Meanwhile, Dan Orlovsky has a quarterback rating of 19.6, though that number is damaged by a prayer at the end of the first half which was picked off by Usama Young, and a long touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson that was called back on an illegal formation penalty by Gosder "The Human Penalty" Cherilus.

Still, the game is as lopsided as the score indicates.

UPDATE: It gets worse. After returning the opening kickoff of the second half, the Lions get called for 12 men on the field. Those are your halftime adjustments at work.

Reggie Bush is a very unique individual when it comes to his impact on an offense. Even when Tom Brady went down, the Patriots were plugging in a backup to the same position. Obviously, Matt Cassel isn't near the QB Brady is, so the ripples felt through the team and league were significant. The point is, though, that the offense didn't change.

With Bush going down, the entire offensive complexion of the Saints is forced to change, because the dynamic Bush impacts the game on every play. Even when he doesn't touch the ball, the defense must pay attention to him. That element is now going to be missing from the Saints offense for at least the next two games.

So what does Sean Payton do? Does he try to plug Aaron Stecker -- the most comparable player left on the roster -- into the Bush-role? The defense doesn't exactly jump to Stecker the way they would Bush. The other option is to run a traditional offense until Bush gets back. Deuce McAllister would jump into the feature back role, with Pierre Thomas available to spell him, and Stecker picking up third and long duties.

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I love the Bears, but I also have to admit that you can pass all over them. Obviously Brian Griese had his fun, and then last week DeSean Jackson put up some good numbers. Well, not since week one -- when Reggie Wayne was on the field -- has the secondary had to deal with someone as talented as Calvin Johnson. Plus, Charles Tillman may not play. I expect the Bears to lead all game, so the Lions will be chucking it. The bottom line? Please don't sit Calvin.

- I'm giving Andre Johnson another chance, but he's got to get himself in on the passing game.

- The Saints are going to pass for over 300 yards. You can pretty much book that every week. This time around, look for Robert Meachem and Lance Moore to have similar quality stat lines.

- Remember that Cardinals secondary that Brett Favre wrecked? Lee Evans should shake loose again this week for a long score.

1. Brandon Marshall, vs. TB
2. Calvin Johnson, vs. CHI
3. Terrell Owens, vs. CIN
4. Reggie Wayne, @ HOU
5. Larry Fitzgerald, vs. BUF

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How will the Saints offense make up for the loss of Jamar Nesbit and Jeremy Shockey for the next month, especially with Marques Colston out? Do you see any receivers finally catching anything?
- J. Willits, Jackson, MS

The Saints have been debacled by injuries so far this year; one-fifth of the roster appeared on this week's injury report. Nesbit's suspension makes him the 11th starter from the presumed opening day roster to miss time this year. That being said, while it never helps to lose a starter, Nesbit's injury opens the door for coaches to get a look at Carl Nicks, the one-time Nebraska right tackle they drafted in the fifth round this year. Nicks was thought generally to have second- or third-round talent, but some trouble he got into in college, causing him to be banned from Nebraska's pro day, caused him to drop. He was converted to left guard in the offseason and coaches rave about the athletic ability he has for his size (6'5'', 343). Nesbit has been the weakest link on a line that has really performed poorly in the run game, so seeing what Nicks can do might prove to give the line a spark.

As far as the receivers are concerned, Robert Meachem is going to get increased looks, and rightfully so. He's only got three catches in two games, but they've totaled 105 yards and a touchdown, and all have been for first downs. Each catch has showed a flair for the ability to make plays. The Saints always find a way to move the ball through the air, so they'll put together a good enough attack to hold them over, but Meachem will work his way into the forefront. By the way, the Saints have San Francisco, Minnesota, and Oakland in the next few weeks, so their schedule is pretty favorable while everyone gets healthy.

Drew Brees has had to deal with losing two of his best receiving options -- Jeremy Shockey and Marques Colston -- early on this season, but the stats are looking quite sparkling thus far. Will it continue? In a word, yes.

Brees carved up the Broncos for 421 yards through the air, with a wildly efficient 39 completions in 48 attempts. His most reliable option has been Reggie Bush out of the backfield, and the losses of Colston and Shockey aren't going to do anything to change that. The reason is that the Saints -- through the offensive scheme of Sean Payton and horizontal field-stretching ability of Bush -- can make a weapon out of nearly any receiver. You know Terrance Copper? Well, you wouldn't had he played for any other team.

Moving forward, you can expect Brees to remain an elite QB in fantasy and in reality. He's facing the Niners at home this week, so I'm calling for at least 300 yards and multiple TD passes.

Let's check out the impact on some other players:

Value Machine checks the current value of non-obvious names -- no Tony Romo or Brian Westbrook here -- for owners looking to scope out the trade market.

For the record, the most egregious thing about Ed Hochuli's snafu is being overlooked by everyone. I officiate high school -- I understand I'm far less qualified to complain than an NFL official, but this does make me more qualified than someone sitting at their computer claiming the "refs cheated" -- and the worst part about the call was the fact that the ball went backwards. Even if Hochuli thought, in real time, Jay Cutler's arm went forward, the ball still went backwards. A backwards pass is a loose ball. How the referee can't see that from even with the QB is beyond me. People keep talking about the whistle, but it's not acceptable to blow it there. I still respect him as an official, because human error is part of the game. Human error like this, though, shouldn't happen in such a high level game.

Even without the extra points, that he never should have accrued, Cutler had another big game. With two young, studly receiving speedsters and a reliable tight end, this isn't likely to change anytime soon. This time, the Broncos actually played a legitimate defense. You don't want to expect around 30 points a week, but it's very reasonable to start expecting 20. Jay Cutler is your top for week two.

But there are other players whose value just changed with these injuries as well. They're not replacing the player in question, but the loss of that guy changes their own value – some in good ways, others in bad. Let's take a look.

Tom Brady's knee: And sure, Cassel gets himself a gig. But another first round fantasy pick also loses a decent amount of value in Randy Moss, who will now be trying to catch passes from a guy who has never had a starting job since high school. Wes Welker, ranked at or near the top-10 in WR himself, also loses value – though presumably less because he tends to run shorter routes that should be easier on what amounts to a rookie QB.

Vince Young's knee: Unless you play in the deepest of leagues, you don't own, nor did you really even consider, starting WRs Justin Gage and Justin McCareins. In fact, you may have been unaware that starters share the same first name. In truth, Collins is a better quarterback than the injured Young, so the two Justins both get a bump, albeit a small one in value. At RB, Chris Johnson's value spiked up with his performance in Week One, and there's no reason for that to come down without Young behind center. LenDale White also probably deserves to get a bit more love, since there should continue to be plenty of carries to go around.

Fantasy owners of Jeremy Shockey should be pleased; those who drafted Marques Colston, or are big Saints fans (or both, yeah, today's an awesome day for me) will mourn -- Colston will miss four to six weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb. He had surgery yesterday to reattach the ligament.

This injury, um, came out of nowhere. Colston was sidelined for a portion of the season opener against Tampa, but there was no mention of him when Sean Payton discussed injuries in the post-game press conference, and so the "no news is good news" theorum was put into practice. And fell flat on its face.

The silver lining, if you can find one, is that it opens a spot for Robert Meachem on the roster. Despite playing well in the preseason, Meachem was inactive last Sunday because he couldn't overcome the team's top three receivers and doesn't play special teams. With Colston out, Meachem will have a chance to be the team's slot receiver behind starters David Patten and Devery Henderson.

But the real winner in this, I think, is Shockey. He will replace Colston as Drew Brees' safety valve and primary red zone target. He's got Colston's size and similarly reliable hands, and will serve Brees well until Colston is ready to return.