FanHouse SammyMorris

Brian Westbrook is going to enjoy himself as he returns to both the gridiron and the Top 5 in the FanHouse fantasy football running back rankings for Week 5.

In Week 3, Brian Westbrook had the pleasure of sitting out and watching his heir apparent run wild on a terrible Kansas City defense (who I like to call the Swiss Chiefs). In Week 4, the Eagles had a bye week, and Westbrook went ahead and got himself healthy. He's also likely a bit motivated to prove he's still the superior back in Philly, as he's always done after missing a game or two due to injury. In Week 5, the Eagles play the Buccaneers, who are even worse defensively than the Chiefs. The Bucs are allowing 4.8 yards per carry, over 170 rushing yards per game and 28 points per game.

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According to Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston, New England Patriots No. 1 running back Fred Taylor is going to undergo surgery to repair his injured right ankle. The 33-year-old running back hurt his ankle on his seventh and final carry against the Ravens this past Sunday. No real timetable has been set for Taylor's return following this procedure, except that Reiss reports that it won't cost him the season unless there are complications.

Taylor, an offseason free agent acquisition, leads the Pats' backfield committee in carries (45), yards (201), yards per carry (4.5) and touchdowns (2). Expect Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris and Kevin Faulk to all receive an increased workload with Taylor sidelined.

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's daily gathering of links from around the web, covering the goings-on in NFL Training Camp which have an impact on fantasy value.

Taking over the helm from Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina over at Hot Clicks, today one of the sports world's most colorful characters, Chris Cooley shares his sleeper fantasy picks for the 2009 fantasy season. Cooley's picks look good, though he doesn't exactly swing for the fences, preferring safer bets like Chad Ochocinco and Anthony Gonzalez to deeper sleepers. Chris makes an interesting selection in Brent Celek however, after he made waves late last season with one particularly notable postseason game where he lassoed in 10 balls and two touchdowns.

If Cooley's sleepers don't pique your interest, he also shares a half naked picture of his wife for whatever reason.

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For those who may use a different term or are new to fantasy football, "handcuff" is the term used when you own insurance for one of your players in the form of owning his real-life backup. It's usually a running back, but you could conceivably handcuff a quarterback. The theory is that some or all of the production is automatically replaced should you lose a high draft pick to injury, meaning you need to insure a high draft pick by grabbing his backup.

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With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Troops of Tom Brady. Yes, there are plenty of guys on this team who matter -- not sure if you've heard of Randy Moss, for example -- but this season it is all about the health of Tom Brady. He's going to be nearly a year removed from tearing his ACL in 2008 when the season begins. Now that Matt Cassel is gone, the weight of the team is on Brady's shoulders.

Really, the picture here is perfect. There are guys in the background wearing the same uniform, but they are a bit blurry. Brady is front and center, and the focus of the photo.

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I've often argued -- unoriginally -- that, in general, NFL teams should avoid using first-round picks on running backs. Salary-cap friendly alternatives can often be found later in the draft, and other, harder-to-address needs -- like offensive line or wide receiver -- can be targeted in the early rounds.

There are exceptions: most recently Adrian Peterson, Steven Jackson and LaDainian Tomlinson. But the NFL scrap heap is littered with former first-round backs who never panned out. It's too early to classify Laurence Maroney as such, but his three-year career has, so far, been underwhelming.

It's been more than four months since Pat Bowlen fired close friend Mike Shanahan. The subsequent search to replace the man who gave Denver 14 years and two Super Bowls was, at times, bumpy. It got bumpier after Bowlen settled on 32-year-old Josh McDaniels.

A fresh-faced Bill Belichick protégé, McDaniels had coordinated up the most explosive offense in NFL history: the 2007 New England Patriots. As often happens when coaches relocate, McDaniels wanted to bring in his "his" players to run "his" system. Hours into free agency, the Broncos inked former Pats wideout Jabar Gaffney. And then, after Denver tried to acquire Matt Cassel, incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler demanded a trade, things got messy, and, ultimately, the Broncos ended up with a couple first-round picks, Kyle Orton and a lot of questions.

The Fred Taylor situation is already biting at me from both sides. The good side of the conscious is dressed in white, perched on the left shoulder, and saying, "Dude, it's freaking Fred Taylor. You know he will be hurt by week five and New England's running game will be stuck centering on shuffle passes to Kevin Faulk." On the flip side, the other half of the conscious is dressed in black leather with a pack of cigarettes rolled in his sleeve, sitting on his Harley, saying "Jump on it, man. This is the next genius move by New England. He is going to dominate just like Corey Dillon did when he came into to town and scored 39 touchdowns in three seasons. It's a system that has been missing the key guy, and Taylor is that guy."

In other words, this is a tough call that could really go either way. One thing we know for sure is that this has wide reaching fantasy impact, so let's take a look at the winners and losers in the wake of this bold signing.

The Patriots don't have much cap room, but that hasn't kept them from being busy in free agency. NFL.com's Adam Schefter is reporting that New England has worked out a deal with free agent running back Fred Taylor.

Taylor will join a very crowded New England backfield that already includes Kevin Faulk, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, Sammy Morris and Lawrence Maroney. Maroney, the Patriots' first-round pick in 2006, is edging ever closer to bust status, as New England has now brought in a free-agent back in each of the past two seasons (Lamont Jordan was signed last year) because of the team's worries about Maroney's productivity.

After being released by the Jacksonville Jaguars this past week, Fred Taylor is already finding some teams willing to see how much tread is remaining on his tires.

Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal reported on Saturday that the Patriots and Bills are likely landing spots for the 33-year-old running back, while Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe says he could be visiting New England as early as this week.