FanHouse Deangelo Williams

Am I scared about the prospects of Steve Slaton losing carries to Ryan Moats (and even Chris Brown)? Absolutely. I'm more concerned about the overreactions from across the fantasy football world. Sure, I took it on the chin with Slaton in one league, but last week was hardly indicative of what will transpire from here on out.

Consider the following:
- If Gary Kubiak was going to send a message to his second-year running back with problems holding onto the football, what better opponent than the league's worst run defense?

- Slaton shredded the Colts in Indy last year, and that was without Matt Schaub at the helm to take pressure off him.

- Frank Gore got loose for a 64-yard touchdown against the Colts and added 43 receiving yards. Slaton is faster, more elusive and a better pass-catcher than Gore.

So, yeah, of course last week made me worried about Slaton. But I live by the "no guts, no glory" credo. You'll find Slaton in my top 15. You can have Ryan Moats.

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

Faller of the Week: Steve Slaton was most likely a first-round pick, the centerpiece of your fantasy football squad. Obviously, his being benched after just three touches and a lost fumble had a huge impact on your fantasy game this week, but looking to the future, it's much more scary. Ryan Moats was impressive with Slaton out, which does not bode well for Slaton's future. The Texans are in the midst of chasing their first-ever playoff berth, so they aren't going to run someone out there who repeatedly gives the ball away. It's entirely possible Slaton loses his job at some point this season. Thus, he easily takes the biggest hit in fantasy value for this week.

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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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Blame it on the $42.5 million contract extension he signed in the offseason, but whatever the reason, Jake Delhomme just can't get himself benched.

Delhomme threw three interceptions in Carolina's 20-9 home loss to Buffalo last season, upping his season turnover total to 15 -- which is more than 29 teams through seven weeks of the NFL season. But with 2-4 Carolina on the verge of becoming a team playing for draft position, Panthers coach John Fox announced Wednesday that Delhomme would start at Arizona this week.

Each Monday of the fantasy football season, we'll cut through the fantasy numbers put up by individuals and tell you what they really mean.

A few years ago, I used to swear by the draft-day method of avoiding all wide receivers for at least the first three rounds -- and sometimes up to the fifth in leagues with multiple flex positions. The reasoning was simple: the incredibly fickle nature of receivers. Not only is there more turnover from season to season in terms of production than at any other position, there is week-to-week turnover. Maybe it's time to get back to that theory. Witness, Miles Austin has accrued 16 catches for 421 yards and four touchdowns over his last two games. Anquan Boldin, an upper-tier wideout before the season, entered Week 7 with 306 yards and one touchdown for the entire season.

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With attention spans dwindling, we forgo 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.

The Early Games

New England (4-2) at Tampa Bay (0-6): Tom Brady threw for six touchdown passes last week, five in one quarter alone. And to be honest, it gets easier for him this week in London against the Bucs. Expect fireworks from the Patriots offense, as Brady is beginning to click with Randy Moss, and he's extremely happy that Wes Welker is back in action.

On defense, the Buccaneers don't have the speed or skill at the cornerback position to defend against Brady and the Patriots' aerial attack. On offense, the Bucs are young and inexperienced -- especially at the quarterback position where Josh Johnson is already looking in the rear-view mirror at competition from Josh Freeman.

Pick: New England

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

Since there appears to be little to nothing of real fantasy interest today, we'll just pick on T.O. with our lead in today. Halloween is just around the corner, so let's call attention to two of the most bizarre stories of 2009 to date: 1) We haven't heard a peep out of Terrell Owens and 2) Terrell Owens averages just two and half catches per game.

In even stranger news, according to Rotoworld via the Bills' Web site, coach Dick Jauron gave Terrell Owens the day off on Friday. Considering Owens' uncharacteristically poor performance thus far this season, this does not seem to be the most logical of times for Owens to be missing practice. Who knows, maybe coach Jauron thinks T.O. needs a good day out on the town with Ferris and Sloane in the old man's Ferrari to get his season back on track.

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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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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