FanHouse Shonngreene

With the announcement earlier Wednesday morning that Braylon Edwards had been traded to the New York Jets, we figured we'd fire up a mini-version of the value machine. We'll take a look at the shift in value for all fantasy relevant players on both the Jets and Braylon's former team, the Cleveland Browns, who is effected.

Braylon Edwards - Tough choice here (please note sarcasm). It wasn't possible for his value to fall any further. I do think this trade really helps him, due to his attitude. He's a selfish player who wants to be in the spotlight and there's no bigger spotlight than New York. I believe he falls in line due to the fact that he's out of Cleveland, in New York and playing for a winning team. We'll place him in WR3 territory for now, with the chance to move up to WR2 by season's end.

While it doesn't really come as a shock, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz announced today that Jewel Hampton (blocking, right), the man tasked with taking over Shonn Greene's running back job, will miss the entire 2009 season with a knee injury. While the exact injury Hampton suffered was not disclosed, Ferentz confirmed that Hampton will have surgery and is likely to redshirt this season.

Hampton's injury seriously dims Iowa's hopes for improving upon last season's success. Hampton was Greene's backup last season and was the only running back on the roster with significant game experience. Former walkon Paki O'Meara (pictured. with ball), who has played a little, moves into the starting spot, though it is likely Ferentz will use multiple backs.

O'Meara isn't the only Hawkeye who must now step up his game.

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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Here's the deal: Upper Deck got a bunch of NFL rookies together and offered up a free autographed Michael Jordan jersey to the guy with the best touchdown celebration.

Random, sure. But also worth the four minutes you would otherwise spend staring at an Excel spreadsheet while thinking about taking a smoke break.

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 Jets raised a few eyebrows at the draft in April when they sent three picks to Detroit for the 65th-overall selection, then took Iowa running back Shonn Greene -- despite having both Thomas Jones and Leon Washington on their roster. But now, New York's aggressive move is looking smarter and smarter by the day.

Jones, upset with his contract situation, had already skipped a voluntary offseason workout prior to the draft, and now Washington has joined him on the sidelines. According to a report, Washington also wants a new deal and skipped the start of New York's OTA (organized team activity) on Monday.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

One of the most common criticisms of draft grades is that you can't possibly judge a draft until the players selected have spent some time playing in the NFL. It's a common criticism, because it's absolutely true and it may never be more true of any team than it is of the 2009 New York Jets.

Whatever winds up at the bottom of this post, the Jets draft grade will either be an A+ or F. There's no middle ground when you do something as gutsy, as fraught with risk as trading up to the fifth pick to take a quarterback.

NEW YORK -- A strange scene unfolded here at Radio City Music Hall this morning. Jets fans were brought into a room and offered the chance to ask questions (via teleconference) of Jets coach Rex Ryan at 10 a.m. The fans showed up early, wrote their questions on white cards, got the questions approved by the event's organizers and ... waited.

Ryan would be about 20 minutes late, because at that very time the Jets were trading their third, fourth and seventh-round picks to Detroit for the No. 65 pick and starting the day by taking Iowa running back Shonn Greene. The fans, assembled in a downstairs room where there's no cell phone reception, were totally unaware of the deal (and had already submitted their questions), so they couldn't ask Ryan about the move.

In most drafts, the thought of giving up a handful of picks to move up the board and take a flier on a player usually smacks of desperation. History is littered with examples, none bigger than the Chargers trading up for Ryan Leaf.

But 2009 is different. It's a decidedly weak class, and players who went in the first round on Saturday would be lucky to hear their names called on Day 1 in other years. Which is why the Jets have happily traded up and jettisoned picks all weekend: they have a few needs, targeted specific players, and went out and got them.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

The Texans have been an 8-8 team for the last two years -- a record I find astonishingly good considering how terrible their defense has been.

Allegedly, this is the year that the defense gets fixed.

The Texans fired the defensive coordinator, the defensive line coach and the defensive backs coach, mostly because they can't fire all the players who aren't particularly good. (Though they did get rid of a number of them.) In short, this is a defense that needs more playmakers.