FanHouse Randy Moss

It's looking like Anquan Boldin will miss this week's game, so he doesn't appear in our rankings (*until now). Everyone else, including Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne and any other injured receiver, has been ranked as if they'll play on Sunday.

Unsure whether you'll actually have your top wideout available to you for Week 9? Join us Sunday morning for our Tailgate chat, where we dole out lineup advice and keep you apprised of all the notable gameday inactives.

And if you're curious, no, Mike Sims-Walker didn't get hurt last week. The Titans finally manned up and played a little pass defense. Is this cause for concern with MSW, or just a blip on the radar? More after the jump.

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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

• 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.

After a 37-7 drubbing of his Chiefs on Sunday, running back Larry Johnson spent post-game energy focused on his Twitter stream instead of reflecting on the 1-6 start to the season in Kansas City. He called out head coach Todd Haley in a way most employees don't recover from when speaking poorly of their employers.

"My father played for the coach from "rememeber the titans". Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn"

Johnson is obviously upset at how the Chiefs are playing. He may even be upset at the fact that he's not getting enough touches. But, we won't know what's bothering Johnson because not only did he delete his controversial tweets, he also protected his Twitter stream from being viewed unless Johnson gives explicit permission. According to Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star, he's also not happy with the media asking about his tweets.

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

Risers of the Week: Alex Smith and Vernon Davis were first-round picks of the 49ers in consecutive seasons (Smith was first overall in 2005, Davis went sixth overall in 2006). They were supposed to be the main building blocks of a highly successful passing attack in the Bay Area for years to come. Instead, each was a colossal bust for several years. Sunday, 49ers fans -- and fantasy owners of Davis -- were treated with a much-belated version of what was originally planned.

Once Smith took over for the struggling Shaun Hill, he threw three touchdown passes, all to his dreadlocked tight end. Davis is clearly a must-start every week at this point. Smith wouldn't be a QB1, but would certainly be worth owning if handed the keys. Wait and see.

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

Here's how it works. We throw some intriguing matchups at the FanHouse staff and ask whether each player will be over or under a certain point total. The result? Fantasy Football Over/Under. Makes sense, right?

We correctly forecasted the Drew Brees explosion and Eli Manning implosion, while I hit the nail on the head with regards to Matt Hasselbeck. Not that I'm 100 percent right -- I was the only one wrong about Steve Slaton last week. We were accurate about Julius Jones and Chris Johnson, and if you want to check the rest of last week's picks, refer to this link.

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Go to your league's ranking page and sort the wide receivers by average production per game. It's probably not a shock to see two Patriots in the top six, but did you realize that there were three Giants receivers in the top 15? Steve Smith has obviously caught our attention, and Mario Manningham has caught TDs in back-to-back weeks to remain fantasy relevant. Coming up in a blaze of points is Hakeem Nicks, who has scored over 10 points in each of his last three contests by catching long touchdown after long touchdown -- in fact, he only had one catch in Week 4 and took it 54 yards for a score for an 11.4-point game. Are all three starter-worthy this week?

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It's hard to feel too bad for Tom Brady and the Patriots. Much has been made of Brady's struggle to find a groove after returning from last year's season-ending knee surgery -- but even at less than top form, Brady's fourth in the league in yards passing, and the Patriots are tied for first in the AFC East.

New England's golden boy has looked very un-Brady-like at times, though, and his struggles have transferred over to Randy Moss, who -- despite 30 catches -- has found the end zone just once.

Both Brady and Moss are in need of a confidence-boosting breakthrough performance. They could get just that against Tennessee's disheveled secondary on Sunday.

You might be surprised by the name at the top of the rankings this week. After all, he's gained just 227 yards this season and scored only one touchdown. But playing against the rag-tag Tennessee secondary, Wes Welker should have a field day. I wouldn't be surprised to see him with double-digit catches and a couple TDs, especially if Randy Moss continues to struggle. After all, Welker already has 41 targets in just three games played.

1. Wes Welker, NE vs. TEN
2. Greg Jennings, GB vs. DET
3. Steve Smith, NYG at NO
4. Larry Fitzgerald, ARI at SEA
5. Randy Moss, NE vs. TEN

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