FanHouse Fredjackson

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

Faller of the Week: Everyone on the Oakland Raiders. The Houston Texans entered the game as one of the league's worst defenses. They were the worst in the NFL against the run. Sunday, the Raiders gained just 165 yards and only a single first down on the ground against those same Texans. I'm done with Darren McFadden. Michael Bush and Justin Fargas shouldn't be considered viable fantasy contributors in any format, and I'd even give up on Zach Miller (which isn't his fault, but he's not going to put up stats for this embarrassingly inept offense). This team is dead to me, and they should be to you, too.

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

It's your Friday installment of "CNG" and we're taking you into the weekend. You've had the whole week to circle the wagons, analyze your fantasy rosters, read all the experts and gather the various weekly rankings around the Internet. The easy part is done, now comes the hard part -- the waiting for Sunday morning. At least you're prepped and ready.

Let's take a quick-hitter look around the NFL on this Friday and piece together any fantasy-worthy news that may have slipped through the cracks.

Are you ready for some football? A Monday Night Partaaay? The NFL Monday Night Football season kicks off in grand style with a double-feature, which means double the fantasy impact. Tonight's matchups feature a lot of exciting fantasy angles, so we thought it fitting to provide a quick MNF preview to give you the key storylines.

- Arguably one of the biggest question marks of the 2009 fantasy season rests on the chest of longtime juggernaut, LaDainian Tomlinson. San Diego signed backup Darren Sproles to a mega-contract and Tomlinson posted just slightly less than fantastic numbers in 2008, so his value ground lowered this draft season. Monday night, LdT will prove to all those Forte, Slaton and Turner owners that you should never second-guess a legend.

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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Sleeper is such a "yada word" come fantasy draft time. Everyone on the Internet is trying to tell you who's going to bust out and become the "next big thing" that eventually, some sort of saturation occurs and said person becomes overrated. Happens every year.

Instead, the smartest plan most of the time is to approach the landscape of a position as a whole and determine who is underrated overall (meaning, who's not getting the sleeper love and therefore falling too far on draft day). With that said, let's talk underrated fantasy quarterbacks, shall we?

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Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch are a bizarre duo for the Buffalo Bills -- but only because of the way in which they're treated by the team. Lynch is still considered "the guy" despite multiple run-ins with the law and a set of suspension-filled games looming.

Meanwhile, Jackson, the consistently humble and fantastic person who also performs on the field, was given the cold shoulder with respect to his contract extension until late in the offseason. However, running backs coach Eric Studesville recently told BuffaloBills.com that he expects Jackson to get "more touches" in 2009.

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?"

The Bills finished with the 14th-best running attack in the NFL last season. Marshawn Lynch led Buffalo with 1,036 yards and eight touchdowns last season -- but the emergence of Fred Jackson (571 yards on 130 carries) made the Bills realize they have something special.

On Tuesday, the club announced the signing of Jackson to a contract extension. Financial terms were not disclosed. Jackson was an exclusive rights free agent which meant he couldn't sign with any other team.

The Bills initially offered him a one-year contract worth $460,000, but Jackson balked at that deal.

The Buffalo Bills added some depth to their backfield on Friday, agreeing to a two-year deal with running back Dominic Rhodes, according to NFL.com. Rhodes, a nine-year veteran out of Midwestern State, spent the 2008 season as a member of the Indianapolis Colts -- his second stint with the team -- after spending one season with the Oakland Raiders.

He rushed for 538 yards on 152 carries, while scoring six touchdowns.