FanHouse Thomas Jones

In this past week's fantasy football tailgate (every Sunday from 10:30 AM ET to kickoff, come check it out!), someone asked us what we thought the first round would be for next season's drafts. Since we never want to disappoint, let's check it out. Here is one man's opinion on how the first round will shake out next year in standard scoring formats. This is using what we've seen thus far in 2009, plus what I expect to see the rest of the way. The first pick isn't really a secret, if you've been reading me the past two weeks.

1. Chris Johnson, RB, Titans - As I said, I haven't been secretive about this. He's gonna end up with 2,500 yards from scrimmage and close to 20 touchdowns this year. And he's only getting better.

After starting the season 3-0, including impressive victories at Houston and against New England, the Jets have fallen flat on their collective faces. With a home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday -- a team that was previously 1-3 on the road -- the Jets have now lost four of their last five games. They've also lost their last three games at home, against the Bills, Dolphins and Jags.

Sunday, the Jets' problems emanated from losing the turnover battle (3-to-1), and their inability to stop Maurice Jones-Drew. MJD gained 123 yards on 24 carries and also threw in 22 receiving yards for good measure.

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Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around pointing skyward, while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

Studs

Carson Palmer, QB Cincinnati (20-24, 233 yards, 5 TDs) -- There was an interesting moment during "Hard Knocks" on HBO this year when Palmer was giving his center, Kyle Cook, a little bit of grief about the smell that Carson had on his hand after taking snaps. It was essentially boys being boys, but Palmer played it well and had some fun at the expense of Cook.

He's baaaaaack. Frank Gore is both back on the field and back among the best fantasy football running backs in our Week 7 rankings.

After getting four touchdowns and 294 yards from scrimmage through two games, Gore owners watched him leave after a single carry in Week 3. They've since been without their RB1 -- likely treading water, at best. This week, not only is the horse back in action, but he's facing the Houston Texans. Yes, the Texans have seemingly righted the ship the past three weeks, but we've seen enough from them to believe they can still be run on. They are the only team in the NFL to have allowed 10 rushing touchdowns thus far in 2009. Plus, Gore will be an integral part of the passing game as well.

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Here's how it works. We throw some intriguing matchups at the FanHouse staff and ask whether each player will be over or under a certain point total. The result? Fantasy Football Over/Under. Makes sense, right?

Sure, it's the Over/Under, but let's throw some fantasy point lines out there as well:

Marshawn Lynch (-4) over Fred Jackson. Who scores the TD? I say neither, but Lynch breaks a long carry and pulls ahead in the passing game.

Leon Washington (+5) over Thomas Jones. I'll take a long TD or two from sparkplug Washington against sparkless Buffalo.

Kevin Walter (+6) over Andre Johnson. Johnson will eat up the attention while Walter does the damage.

Ronnie Brown (NL) over the bye. Not even a bye week can stop Brown.

Chad Henne's yet to make an NFL start on the road. Plus, despite what you might have thought about the Jets after three weeks, he's yet to play a full game against one of the league's upper-echelon teams.

But under Henne, Miami is 2-0 in 2009. It was 0-3 under Chad Pennington. And on that basis alone, it's not a huge stretch to think that the Dolphins might be better off now that Pennington's done for the season and Henne's their guy.

Henne did everything that was asked of him, and then some, Monday night. He threw short, deep and in-between. He made smart reads against the Jets' high-pressure defense. Most importantly, of course, he won, and suddenly the Dolphins are 2-3 and just a single game out of first in the AFC East.

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With the announcement earlier Wednesday morning that Braylon Edwards had been traded to the New York Jets, we figured we'd fire up a mini-version of the value machine. We'll take a look at the shift in value for all fantasy relevant players on both the Jets and Braylon's former team, the Cleveland Browns, who is effected.

Braylon Edwards - Tough choice here (please note sarcasm). It wasn't possible for his value to fall any further. I do think this trade really helps him, due to his attitude. He's a selfish player who wants to be in the spotlight and there's no bigger spotlight than New York. I believe he falls in line due to the fact that he's out of Cleveland, in New York and playing for a winning team. We'll place him in WR3 territory for now, with the chance to move up to WR2 by season's end.

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

There aren't too many must-win football games in Week 4, but Tony Romo could have used a victory Sunday in Denver instead of coming up just a little short -- fueling the fire for Romo-haters everywhere.

Romo was 25-for-42 on Sunday for 255 yards and had zero touchdown passes in Dallas' 17-10 loss in Denver. Romo was sacked five times and turned the ball over twice and Charean Williams of the Star-Telegram spoke of Romo's plummeting statistics.

Since the season opener against Tampa Bay, when he threw for 353 yards, three touchdowns and had a 140.6 passer rating, Romo has not been nearly as efficient. The past three games, he has completed 57.7 percent of his passes for 437 yards with one touchdown, three interceptions and a lost fumble.

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

When Chad Pennington went down Sunday with a season-ending shoulder injury, an injury that may end his NFL career as well, the Miami Dolphins felt they had to scramble a bit.

Backup quarterback Chad Henne will step up and take the reigns, but the Dolphins felt that Pat White wasn't ready to be the backup just yet. To remedy this issue Miami made a trade for Tyler Thigpen, who will come in and be Henne's backup. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald feels that this move may make Pat White obsolete.

With attention spans dwindling, we forego 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.

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