FanHouse ThomasJones

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.

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Offense in transition. With a new head coach along with rookies at quarterback and time-sharing running back, the best work of the Jets' offense will be in 2010 and beyond. They'll look to win with defense and taking care of the football in 2009, and you know that doesn't bode well when it comes to garnering massive amounts of fantasy points.

There are finds to be had on any team, but no Jets should be taken in the first three rounds of your draft -- and that's being conservative.

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FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version.

In an otherwise jumbled mess, there is one thing we know about the running backs when it comes to fantasy football drafts: Adrian Peterson is easily the class of the position. After that, there appears to be a large clump of running backs who have a good chance to excel this season. If you think the old school fantasy football "running back-running back" draft strategy (drafting a running back in each of the first two rounds) is truly antiquated, ask yourself the difference between a Frank Gore and Marion Barber tandem in your backfield as opposed to Ronnie Brown and Jamal Lewis. Is it worth taking a wide receiver, then, before a Barber type?

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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Thomas Jones showed up Wednesday and worked out for two days with the rest of the Jets. He wore a tight white T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and everybody noticed.

"I said, 'Welcome back, Eddie George,'" guard Damien Woody joked, "because he's just so big. He looks like he's been down in South Beach pumping a bunch of iron."

Jones had been skipping the voluntary portion of the Jets' off-season workout program because he wants the team to restructure his contract. But after his agent met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum last week at the owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Jones decided to reverse course and join the team for this week's optional OTAs. The Jets, who have not shown any interest in restructuring Jones' deal, are hoping the change of heart his permanent.

As we all know from Drew Rosenhaus' Twitter feed, grumpy Jets running back Thomas Jones plans to report to the team's voluntary workouts this week after skipping them all so far this off-season because he doesn't like his contract anymore. But according to Rich Cimini in the New York Daily News, Jones' change of heart doesn't mean the Jets have had one on their end.

The Jets have been playing hardball with Jones, going so far as to draft Iowa RB Shonn Greene in the third round of last month's draft as a way of telling Jones he could be replaced. When Rosenhaus met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum earlier this week at the NFL owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, it doesn't appear as if he got any satisfaction, according to Cimini:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Drew Rosenhaus is apparently mad as hell, and he's not going to be constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit. The Twitter-happy NFL superagent, who stopped by the owners meetings at the Ritz-Carlton here Tuesday to meet with some teams about some clients, doesn't give the impression of a man who believes those meetings went especially well.

Usually, Rosenhaus uses his Twitter account as a way of putting out 140-character fluff press releases about his clients: "______ is in great shape and is going to have a huge year for the ______s in 2009." Something like that. But this morning, he fired off a series of tweets venting about NFL owners who don't spend all the way up to the salary cap and the double-standard that allows teams to cut players but doesn't let players renegotiate deals in progress.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Despite numerous twitter updates that indicate he's in the building, I have been unable to locate agent Drew Rosenhaus. It appears, however, that Mike Tannenbaum was more successful.

Tannenbaum, the Jets' GM, is here at the meetings along with Jets owner Woody Johnson. One of Rosenhaus' clients is Jets running back Thomas Jones, who has been skipping the team's voluntary workouts this spring due to dissatisfaction with his contract. But Rosenhaus' latest "tweet" gives a strong indication that he met with Tannenbaum Tuesday and the situation has been addressed:

Sure, it may be a little early for most normal people to start thinking fantasy football draft, but for us derelict diehards, keeping abreast on the developments of the offseason can provide peace of mind and an advantage in watching things progress as we head into the summer. While the news coming out of the NFL these days is far overshadowed by two wildly entertaining playoff series, there are some pretty critical players to keep an eye on.

A small handful of elite fantasy stars are in the midst of a serious value conundrum. On one hand, they provide an opportunity to nab otherwise surefire first-rounders on the cheap, but not without taking on big-time risk. It is question of "how far do we let them drop before it is critical to pull the trigger?"

Thomas Jones believes in the New York Jets. Wants to play for them. But he doesn't trust them.

Make sense?

Jones told people close to him he wants a new contract from the Jets because he might get cut in 2010, the final year of the deal.

Jones' concerns also have to do with two running backs, Leon Washington, who emerged last year as a quality backup with 448 yards rushing and six touchdowns, and third-round pick Shonn Greene from Iowa.

FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- The most exhausted player at the end of the Jets' optional OTA morning practice was Danny Woodhead, a third-year free-agent running back who normally wouldn't be seeing too many snaps this time of year but has been rendered, through various circumstances well beyond his control, the only tailback in camp.

Thomas Jones has been skipping the voluntary portion of the Jets' off-season workout program because he wants a new contract. Leon Washington saw Jones doing that, thought it looked like a good idea and this week decided to do the same. And Shonn Greene, the team's third-round pick from last month's draft, is prohibited by league rules from reporting to camp until Iowa's senior class graduates later this month. That's the threesome that would be getting the reps at tailback under normal circumstances, but while Jets coach Rex Ryan admits to being disappointed by the absence of the two veterans, he claims to not be worried about its impact on the season.

For years we've heard agents say they wouldn't negotiate in the media. So what do we make of an agent negotiating on Twitter? It's likely far too early in human history to say for sure, but it looks like Drew Rosenhaus is giving it a shot to see how it works.

In a post to his Twitter account earlier today, Rosenhaus took issue with and denied reports that his client, disgruntled Arizona Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin, was seeking $10 million or more per year on his new contract: