FanHouse Steve Smith

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

Riser of the Week: After a five interception game against the Panthers last week, Kurt Warner owners may have been a bit worried, especially since his next task was facing a ball-hawking defense like the Chicago Bears (which, by the way, is more reputation than actuality anymore). Some people were even talking about taking a flier on Matt Leinart in larger leagues. Sunday, Warner put a stop to that, breezing through the Bears' defense like a knife through hot butter. He ended with five touchdown passes and no doubt he's finishing the season as the Cards' starter.

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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With most fantasy trade deadlines fast approaching you've got some tough decisions to make. Do you stand pat or do you let that deal go down? Let me be your voice of reason.

Remember a few weeks back when Steve Smith "North" was all the buzz? At the time, the joke was on Steve Smith "South" owners. The Steve Smith on the Giants went from waiver wire sensation to a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver option.

Well, that knock on the door you hear is reality ready to slap you in the face. The Steve Smith on the Giants is most certainly not an elite fantasy receiver. Sorry to break the news, but somebody had to do it.

It was the fluke catch of the week. Sunday night at the Meadowlands, Giants rookie receiver Hakeem Nicks caught a tipped pass that had been intended for Mario Manningham and carried it all the way to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown against the Cardinals. It was a shake-your-head play -- the kind the defense can write off as an excusable miracle, a bizarre bounce, nothing more than pure luck.

But they say luck is the residue of design, and the people who know Hakeem Nicks say that design is a huge part of his game. Coaches and teammates past and present describe Nicks as an intensely studious, hyper-prepared player who obsesses over his playbook and game scripts and would rather talk about route-running than anything else. Knowing Nicks means knowing that the seeds of that Sunday night play were planted years ago at Independence High School in Charlotte, N.C., where a coach named Tommy Knotts drills 16- and 17-year-old kids on something even NFL coaches struggle to get across -- the importance of film study.

Where do breakout receivers like Mike Sims-Walker, Miles Austin and Hakeem Nicks rank in this week's edition?

Going by Austin's last two games, he should be at the top, but it's not a stretch to think his 150-yard, two-TD per game stretch will come to an end this week. Sooner or later, Nicks will have a game where he doesn't catch a long TD; it would have come in Week 7 if not for a lucky bounce off Steve Smith's hands.

I have nothing bad to say about Sims-Walker, except that he'd better make curfew this week!

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The Washington Redskins aren't the worst team in the NFL, but they're certainly the most chaotic. And the most disdainful of their paying customers.

They flounder on the field and they flounder off it -- especially off it, where owner Daniel Snyder, a self-absorbed billionaire who views his employees as pawns to be manipulated and eventually discarded, is loathed now by fans who are among the most loyal in sports.

Consider this tweet Tuesday night from a fan who calls himself @kn0nothing: "Had to sneak in our Sean Taylor memorial banner last 3 games.''

Why? Because Snyder and his minions have banned banners, many of which were uncomplimentary to them and their 2-5 team.

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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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It's another session of "Sink or Swim," Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekly look at the underachievers still lurking on many fantasy rosters. You've got the tough choices to make and we help you decide which direction to take. Do you cut the bait or give 'em one more chance to swim?

Welcome everyone to the fantasy hot seat. Where do I even begin? Bye weeks are upon us and it's certainly time for you to make a push for the playoffs. Do you have some dead weight sitting on your roster or even starting for you right now? Relax; most of us are in similar situations. Today, I'd like to welcome in a few guys who were snatched in the early rounds of most drafts and our favorite rookie running back pegged to do damage.

Yes, let's give a warm welcome on the hot seat to Beanie Wells, Steve Smith and Ryan Grant.

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

Steve Smith is frustrated and it's not just the 2-3 start by the Carolina Panthers. Some of the problem may be that the Panthers' Smith is now "the other Steve Smith" as Steve Smith of the Giants has four touchdowns and 525 yards receiving, dwarfing the numbers of his counterpart in Carolina. But, the brunt of the frustration comes from his role in the Carolina offense and the fact that he no longer want to be a decoy.

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