FanHouse Brian Westbrook

We're back, albeit a few days late. Matt Snyder and Tom Herrera bring you the weekly FanHouse fantasy football podcast on a Saturday this week, for various administrative reasons -- none of which have anything to do with fantasy football. We will discuss the return of Brian Westbrook and Calvin Johnson. Snyder defends his love of Steve Slaton, even in the face of adversity, we talk about how Austin Collie is who everyone thought Anthony Gonzalez would be and, finally, why Herrera recently had a Seinfeldian experience in New York (not really, but Snyder is Seinfeld obsessed). Take a listen after the jump.

Whether it's torn, sprained, broken or just needs to be taped, Injuries to Watch will keep you up to date on injuries around the NFL and how they'll affect your fantasy football team.

Quarterback

• Aaron Rodgers, Packers - Rodgers sat out of practice on Wednesday with sprained right foot and sore toe on his left foot. He's not expected to participate in practice until Friday, but he is expected to play on Sunday.

• Matthew Stafford, Lions - Stafford practiced on Wednesday, but only as a limited participant. His right knee is banged up.

If the Eagles want to do what's best, both for themselves and Brian Westbook, they'll sit the banged-up running back Sunday against the Giants.

Westbrook took a scary hit Monday night in Washington and left Philadelphia's win with a concussion. Eagles coach Andy Reid confirmed later that Westbrook both lost consciousness and had no memory of the play, where Westbrook's head slammed into the knee of Redskins linebacker London Fletcher.

Art Bartolozzi, the former team physician for the Eagles and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that injuries like Westbrook's are serious.

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Whether it's torn, sprained, broken or just needs to be taped, Injuries to Watch will keep you up to date on injuries around the NFL and how they'll affect your fantasy football team.

Quarterback

• Trent Edwards, Bills - Edwards has been ruled out for Week 8. He participated in practice on Wednesday but only in a limited capacity. He's not recovering as quickly from the concussion as the medical staff would like, even though he's been cleared to play. Ryan Fitzpatrick will start in his place.

• Matthew Stafford, Lions - Stafford practiced fully on Tuesday but was limited on Wednesday with his knee injury. The fact that he practiced two days in a row is a step in the right direction, but it's still not known whether or not he'll be able to start on Sunday.

Steven Jackson has had a rough year, as long as you don't include rushing yards. He hasn't scored a touchdown and his team is winless. That's bad enough, but the games aren't even close most of the time. That makes it even more difficult for the Rams to justify giving the dynamic Jackson carries. Yet he's still managed to rack up 90.7 yards per game on the ground, his highest mark in that stat since his career year in 2006.

This week, things will be different for SJax. It will be a one-week hiatus from his awful fortunes, as the Rams face the slightly-less-hapless Lions. They allow 4.6 yards per carry and were porous enough to make the 2009 version of Matt Forte look like it was 2008. And they'll make Jackson look like he did in 2006.

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Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.

Sunday's Top Riser: We've seen this Tom Brady before, and it was in 2007 when he threw for almost 5,000 yards and totaled 50 touchdown passes. So far in 2009, he'd been good, but not great. And we drafted Brady for great in fantasy football. Enter the Tennessee Titans and the worst pass defense in football. Brady, despite playing in a quasi-blizzard, completed 29-of-34 passes for 380 yards and six touchdowns. That's all he'll need to get that swagger back. Next week against Tampa Bay, he's going to put on a show across the pond in London's Wembley Stadium, and he's a bonafide top-three fantasy QB again -- you can take that to the bank.

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For obvious reasons, it's hard for us to let go of LaDainian Tomlinson as an elite fantasy football running back. This was a guy who gained at least 1,776 yards from scrimmage and scored at least 15 times from 2002-2007 -- with peaks being 2,370 total yards and 31 total touchdowns. Yet, he's reached age 30 and has fallen from his lofty perch atop the fantasy world.

Now, after a bye week to lick his mental and physical wounds, we're left wondering if we're gonna see the LdT of old, or just an old LdT. He's got a tough task against the upstart Denver defense, who check in as the sixth-ranked run defense in the NFL and have only allowed 3.3 yards per carry. If Tomlinson appears to have his old burst and agility but doesn't pile up the stats, he'll be a good buy-low with the Chiefs and Raiders on deck. If not, well, have fun keeping the faith. You'll be doing it without me.

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

In the months of November and December of last year, Pierre Thomas had a coming-out party. He scored nine times in those two months and vaulted his fantasy value into the Top 20 of many fantasy football pundits' preseason rankings.

Unfortunately for fantasy owners that grabbed him early, Thomas missed the first two weeks of play with a knee injury. While gone, Mike Bell stepped into his place and ran extremely well. But, in a twisted turn of events, Thomas became healthy enough to play in Week 3 and Mike Bell has since injured his knee.

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

The bye weeks are finally upon us, but relax it's no time to panic. You see, had you planned your draft accordingly you would have realized that when you drafted Matt Forte, Drew Brees and Greg Jennings they all had a bye in Week 5. OK, show of hands if you're really that on top of things. Listen, I try to cover those bases, but once the beers flow and the clock starts -- I lose focus.

Regardless, we will get through this together. It's October (the best month of the year) with a glorious weekend of sports and fantasy football on tap. There's never a reason to let a few voids in your roster make you worrisome. Come on, you don't want to walk around like Tony Romo on most Sunday afternoons (kinda-sorta kidding). Just check out our weekly player rankings and tune into the Sunday tailgate. We promise to help you get through this.

Now let's poke around and see what's newsworthy this side of fantasy football.

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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