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
• Matt Cassel, Chiefs - Cassel has been limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday. He feels that his knee is making progress every day but head coach Todd Haley said that he and his coaching staff won't be able to make a decision on whether Cassel is healthy enough to play until Sunday.
• Matt Schaub, Texans - Schaub participated fully in practice on Thursday and his ankle looks much better according to coaches. He's expected to play on Sunday.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Atlanta Falcons head to Detroit to play the Lions this Saturday, August 15 for their first preseason game. The team has released a preseason depth chart to show an early glimpse at where players stand. You need to remember that the Falcons are less than two weeks into camp and the start of the regular season is still more then a month away. There are many things that can and will change between now and then.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Atlanta Falcons finished the 2008 season ranked 24th overall in team defense allowing 347.9 yards per game. In response to this lackluster performance, the Falcons used all but one of their 2009 draft choices on the defensive unit. That's brought a lot of youth and energy to training camp this week and it's created a different kind of atmosphere.
Third-year cornerback Chris Houston answered affirmatively as to whether or not the defense has a chip on their shoulder announcing they were, "hungrier than hungry".
Rookie cornerback Chris Owens spoke about linebacker Mike Peterson's monumental ability in the locker room to get the Falcons' defensive unit fired up before practices. Peterson, along with veterans Erik Coleman and Houston, has been, "getting in our ears, especially the rookies", Owens said.
Summer is heating up and so is NFL football, so FanHouse is at Falcons training camp to get you the rundown on the Birds as they get ready for the '09 season.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Spirits were high, the defense was buzzing all morning, and everything seemed to be locked into place as training camp kicked off for the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday .
The only thing missing? Pro Bowl wide receiver Roddy White.
White had a career year in 2008, catching 88 passes for 1,382 yards and seven touchdowns. Now he wants a bigger contract; one more similarly structured towards the top wide receivers in the league. Until he gets his contract renegotiated, he'll likely not show up for training camp.
You have to give the Arizona Cardinals credit. They don't often make the playoffs, but when they do, they get their money's worth. The last time they were in the playoffs was 10 years ago, and they won a game that time around as well.
I guess all those people constantly reminding Arizona fans how much their team sucks needed to check themselves a bit. After a beautifully executed flea-flicker -- resulting in a touchdown by Larry Fitzgerald -- the Cards outplayed the Falcons for most of the game. There was a brief interlude where Atlanta took the lead due to a late first-half interception deep in Cardinals territory. That sequence alone is why the game ended up much closer than it should have been.
The Cardinals controlled this game at the line of scrimmage from start to finish. Coming in, the Atlanta Falcons were the ones with the vaunted rushing attack, while the Cardinals ran the ball less than any team in the league. With John Abraham being rendered basically meaningless and the Cardinals defensive front living in the Falcons backfield, the Cards outran the Falcons.
We have the Falcons, who are just a year away from being the league's laughingstock with a quarterback in prison and a coach who bailed the first time things got tough, against the Cardinals, who make the playoffs about as often as Vanderbilt wins a bowl game.
The Cardinals wrapped up a playoff spot weeks ago, but they're considered potential frauds because of their easy NFC West schedule. The Falcons had to wait a while longer, and they have to carry some skepticism because they've gone from being considered one of the league's worst teams to a playoff team in the span of three months and conventional wisdom often takes longer than that to catch up.
But both of these teams are only three wins away from the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter how they got here, as a couple of wins and fans can start dreaming of a trip to Tampa--even if there aren't enough Cardinals fans to sell out their stadium, much less to travel to the Super Bowl.
In doing these Between The Lines posts, it's always interesting to see if mismatches jump out, or if there is a player that seems either underrated or overrated.
Normally it doesn't happen. The conventional wisdom on most teams is pretty accurate, and it's really hard to find a stud on the offensive or defensive line that hasn't been noticed at all. But as the Falcons get ready to play the Cardinals this weekend, there is a mismatch that jumps out from paying attention to the two team's lines: if the Falcons are wise with where they line up John Abraham, he could dominate this game.
There are a lot of factors to consider in Saturday's game: how will Matt Ryan react to his first playoff start, can the Cardinals slow down Michael Turner and is the Cardinals' triple-threat at receiver too much for the Falcons secondary, but as I see it, this game will first be decided by whether the Cardinals can block Abraham.
It may not get as much notice as Cowboys-Ravens or Steelers-Titans, but there aren't many games this weekend bigger as far as playoff implications than the Falcons-Vikings' game.
With a win the Vikings will wrap up the NFC North division title. With a loss, the Falcons will likely kiss their playoff hopes good-bye. And if you needed a little extra incentive, this will be an infrequent chance for the Vikings to get a little revenge for the 1999 NFC Championship loss to the Falcons. In that game, the 16-1 Vikings saw their Super Bowl trip derailed when Gary Anderson missed a field goal for the first time all season. The loss was crushing enough that nine years later, CBS' How I Met Your Mother was able to use it as the focus of its most recent episode.
If you look hard enough, every team around the NFL has a player on its roster that should have received an invite to the Pro Bowl. The St. Louis Rams, for example, are livid that their punter isn't going. Some guys, like Atlanta's John Abraham, simply brush it off as no big deal, while others, like Tampa Bay's Barrett Ruud talk about how they got the shaft.
Ruud, a fourth-year middle linebacker out of Nebraska, is currently leading the Buccaneers with 117 tackles, while also registering three sacks, six pass defenses and two interceptions for playoff-hopeful Tampa Bay. He's obviously having a great season, though, not great enough to receive an invite to Hawaii. Predictably, he's not exactly thrilled with decision.
From Rick Stroud and Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times:
"I got the shaft," Ruud said. "Somebody's got to get it, though." "The old saying is usually you go a couple years after you're supposed to and you stay a couple years longer. I'm not going to throw a tantrum or anything. I would've liked to have gone. Everybody wants to have that tag as a Pro Bowler, but unfortunately it didn't happen. All I can do is keep playing to get into the playoffs now."
For every Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson who views the game through ego-colored glasses, it's good to know that there are other NFL stars that realize that they aren't the only good player at their position.
Falcons defensive end John Abraham found out this week that he was shut out of the Pro Bowl despite an outstanding season. But instead of complaining about the injustice of it all, he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Everybody deserved to make it," said Abraham. "Everybody who made it, made it. They deserved to make it. I just didn't make it, that's all."
You've got to respect Abraham's very rational response to what had to be a serious disappointment. Abraham had a good enough season to be a Pro Bowler, but realistically he lost his chance to be a Pro Bowler when the Vikings traded for Jared Allen. With Allen in the NFC, there were five outstanding defensive ends for three spots.
Minnesota's Allen, Carolina's Julius Peppers and New York's Justin Tuck ended up making it, while Abraham and Green Bay's Aaron Kampman were left out. While Abraham is having a great year, he doesn't play nearly as many snaps as Allen, Peppers or Tuck, which makes it hard to argue that his absence is any kind of an injustice.
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.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Atlanta Falcons finished the 2008 season ranked 24th overall in team defense allowing 347.9 yards per game. In response to this lackluster performance, the Falcons used all but one of their 2009 draft choices on the defensive unit. That's brought a lot of youth and energy to training camp this week and it's created a different kind of atmosphere.
Summer is heating up and so is NFL football, so FanHouse is at Falcons training camp to get you the rundown on the Birds as they get ready for the '09 season.
Stay on top of all the postseason action with 
In doing these 
It may not get as much notice as Cowboys-Ravens or Steelers-Titans, but there aren't many games this weekend bigger as far as playoff implications than the Falcons-Vikings' game.
If you look hard enough, every team around the NFL has a player on its roster that should have received an invite to the Pro Bowl. The St. Louis Rams, for example, 
For every Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson who views the game through ego-colored glasses, it's good to know that there are other NFL stars that realize that they aren't the only good player at their position.
