FanHouse Roydell Williams

Training camp is finally here and FanHouse breaks down the most important position battles heading into the season, team by team.

For a team that is now built around its franchise quarterback, the Tennessee Titans sure don't do a lot to help him out.

The day the Colts drafted Peyton Manning, they already had Marvin Harrison. But they also made sure that they gave him other targets. Between Brandon Stokley, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, Manning has always had a plethora of quality pass-catching options.

Tom Brady may not have had Pro Bowlers at wide receiver until Randy Moss and Wes Welker showed up, but between David Givens, Deion Branch and Troy Brown, he always had a set of very reliable targets.

The news coming out of today's Tennessean's see you in late-July preview is that Justin McCareins is likely going to have a starting job when the Titans open the season.

It's hard to say if that's good news or bad news. The good news version is that Tennessee has brought back a receiver who was a outstanding deep threat the last time he was in Tennessee. He's reunited with his former offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger. For a team that didn't go deep very often in 2007, McCareins could help solve the problem.

The bad news version is that McCareins will turn 30 this season, he has caught one touchdown and less than 700 yards in his past two seasons combined, and he was phased out of the Jets offense because he had serious problems with drops. As Jim Wyatt points out, the fact that McCareins was able to step in and immediately retake a starting job says as much about the team's problems at wide receiver as it does bout McCareins' talent.

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet The ...
Only team that rivals watching paint dry in the boredom department. The Titans likely hate fantasy football. They definitely hate the pass. Their 543 rushing attempts last year led the NFL, even though they averaged a subpar 3.9 yards per carry. Only four teams threw the ball less often, and they were the only team in the entire league that threw less than 10 TD passes. I'm bored just thinking about this offense as I type. So they did the only rational thing to do in the off-season ... shore up the run game while nearly ignoring the passing situation. Yeah, they added tight end Alge Crumpler -- a 30 year-old TE who endured a rough 2007 in easily the worst season of his career. Still, the team virtually ignored wideouts in the off-season, fully content on letting Justin Gage and Roydell Williams being the top two with an absymal supporting cast. Instead, they used their first round pick on speedster RB Chris Johnson. Do you really believe them when they say they wanna pass more?

FanHouse's JJ Cooper noted last night that Titans tight end Bo Scaife will miss the playoffs with a lacerated liver. And now there's even worse news for the Titans' passing game.

Wide receiver Roydell Williams, who tied for the team lead with 55 receptions, suffered a broken ankle in practice Wednesday and will miss the Titans' playoff opener against the Chargers.

With both Scaife and Williams out, it's hard to imagine Vince Young being able to do much of anything through the air against the Chargers. Young hasn't been a successful passer this season even when he had a full complement of receivers. Without his favorite targets, he's really going to struggle.

With that in mind, Titans coach Jeff Fisher must at least be considering the possibility that he should play Kerry Collins instead of Young. Although all indications are that Young will start, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see Collins get playing time.

Do you want the bad news or good news first?

In the case of the Titans, I'm sorry, but there isn't any good news. If a gimpy Vince Young and a hamstrung Albert Haynesworth wasn't enough, the bad news keeps coming for the Titans.

The Titans have learned that tight end Bo Scaife will miss the entire playoffs with a lacerated liver, while wide receiver Roydell Williams suffered an ankle injury in practice. It's not clear if Williams will miss the Chargers game, but if he does, the Titans are running out of targets for Young or Kerry Collins.

Scaife was third on the team in catches, while Williams is tied with Justin Gage for the team lead in catches. The Titans didn't exactly have a roster of All-Pros at receiver before, now the Titans depth is in danger of being gutted. Brandon Jones already is on the injured reserve. Eric Moulds, a dependable, but very slow veteran, is the only other wide receiver with more than 10 catches this year.

The good news is that Vince Young did see some limited action in practice, but Jeff Fisher also said that Young couldn't play if the game was today. And Haynesworth didn't practice as usual as he nurses his injured hamstring.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Matt Stover, Ravens
It's sorta unfair to put the Ravens latest loss -- that's eight straight now -- on the team's only scoring threat. But Stover, one of the league's most consistent kickers, honked a 44-yard field-goal attempt in overtime. And three plays later, this happened.

For the Dolphins, they win their first game since Week 14 of the 2006 season and now everybody knows the name Greg Camarillo. The Ravens are now the biggest laughingstock in the NFL, and Brian Billick -- who may not be a great coach, but is apparently great at talking himself into at least one more year on the job -- would be just as effective if he stayed in the locker room and did crossword puzzles for three hours on game days.

Next up for Miami: they head to New England to try to extend their one-game winning streak -- and to give the crotchety old guys something to live for -- while Baltimore continues its quest for a top-5 pick in next April's draft. So far, so good on that front.
Sorry, No Photos

I mentioned earlier that Larry Fitzgerald-to-the-Cowboys isn't a completely certifiable notion, but the Chicago Tribune's Dan Pompei is a little more grounded in reality, and has a deal that might actually happen, possibly in the next few weeks:

It would surprise no one if the Jets were to trade receiver Justin McCareins before the Oct. 16 deadline. The Jets acquired the Naperville North and Northern Illinois alum by trading their second-round pick to the Titans in 2004. Since then, Eric Mangini became the head coach and McCareins has become the odd man out with Jerricho Cotchery taking his role.

Man, a lot can change in a few years. I remember with McCareins used to be good -- in '03, he caught 47 passes for 813 yards (17.3 yards per catch average) and seven touchdowns. Now he's best known as "that guy who cost the Jets the Ravens game a few weeks ago.

The only issue for the Jets, of course, is finding a trading partner. Pompei thinks the Titans might still be interested -- they have a bunch of young guys right now, and I'm not sure McCareins would be anything more than a No. 3 behind Roydell Williams and Brandon Jones (I'm not counting Eric Moulds here -- he's just a stopgap).

Pompei also likes McCareins as Muhsin Muhammed's eventual replacement in Chicago. Yeah, now all that's missing is Rex Grossman throwing inaccurate passes to a guy who can't catch. Just what that offense needs.