FanHouse Nfl Fantasy Felony

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow team owners.

Injuries happen in football every week -- it's the nature of the game. But gracious, last week sure seemed to feature a lot of people getting hurt, and a lot of big names too. I won't run over everyone -- Knox already did that. What I will do is point out some opportunities for you to make a late-season trade by playing these injury angles.

Because remember, for every player that gets hurt, there are usually at least one or two other players who are affected, which means at least one other fantasy owner in your league.

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow team owners.

Ever come up with an awesome idea, start executing it, get halfway through and stare at yourself in the mirror while repeating, "I've made a huge, tiny mistake"? Because that was my reaction about a half-hour into creating the graph you'll see after the jump which breaks down -- in color-coded form, where green is "top 10", yellow is middle of the road, and red is "bottom-10" -- all the playoff matchups (presuming your playoffs are Week 15 and 16).

Now, you can use this for a bunch of different purposes: free agency pickups, checking out what your prospective roster would look like right now in the playoffs and, most importantly, making trades at the deadline. I mentioned it last week, but it bears repeating -- if you're in contention, look at this chart and make some plays to assure yourself that you have good playoff matchups.

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow team owners.

If at any point during your fantasy football season, barring injury, you typically want to add a first or second-rounder onto your team. There are exceptions of course (that's what we refer to as the Shaun Alexander Clause, of course), but for the most part, you want to invite elite talent into your already elite team.

However, this year there's an interesting case of a LOT of early rounders underperforming, which makes them somewhat available on the trade market. Lest you doubt me, let's look at the following: LaDainian Tomlinson, Matt Forte and Calvin Johnson.

The last one is because of injury, but the point remains: these high profile players are available because their owners are likely sick of their inconsistent performance. The question remains though, as we roll into the trading deadline: do you want them? (Oh, we'll also discuss some value playoff matchups as well, after the jump.)

The Rams-Lions contest this weekend has the potential to be one of the most unwatchable games in years. The Lions have only won once in the past two seasons and the Rams are 2-21 in that span. Remember, though, in fantasy football every game is exciting to some extent. In FanHouse's latest fantasy football podcast, Tom Herrera and Matt Snyder explain why they like both running backs -- Kevin Smith and Steven Jackson -- to have a good game Sunday. We also tackle why T.O. reminds Herrera of a smelly homeless guy on the subway this week, reveal our Starting Six Pack and discuss several deep league plug-n-play options (like Brian Hartline).

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.

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow team owners.

Look at Matt Forte over there. He looks so forlorn, doesn't he? Like he's carrying a rotting cantaloupe instead of a football.

Forte is just one of many reasons your team might be 2-5, or even 1-6 (yikes territory). Or maybe you don't have underperforming players at all, and have just been hit by bad luck and bitten hard by the injury bug. Regardless of the scenario, time is running out for all you cellar-dwellers. This is the week you need to make trades in an attempt to save your season. And even if it's beyond the point of saving, at least you can say you tried. Time to blow this squad up and go for broke.

Terrell Owens is an albatross. Mike Sims-Walker redeemed himself after a booty-call inflicted goose-egg. Just how good is Matt Schaub? Does Hakeem Nicks have his "big boy pants" on yet? How big an impact is Michael Crabtree going to have on the 49ers offense? Join Matt Snyder and Tom Herrera for this and much, much more in the Week 7 fantasy football podcast, as we welcome Frank Gore back and mock a fellow employee in the process.

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow owners.

Bye weeks are a seriously annoying hazard of fantasy football, but if you plan correctly heading into your draft, they're not a huge deal. For instance, you didn't have to spend much to CYA for your Drew Brees absence in Week 5: Matt Hasselbeck, Kyle Orton, and Chad Henne all did just fine, thank you very much.

However, bye week issues don't end after your players are done. No sir. In fact, if you believe that, you've failed at a heightened opportunity to pry something away from your fellow owner. Fortunately, I'm here to help you out before it's too late.

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Former fantasy football stars Braylon Edwards and Jamal Lewis were left for dead in leagues across the Internet after abysmal beginnings. Lo and behold, a trade and a return from injury (against the hapless Bills) made them both look like their old selves in Week 5. Was it a rebirth or an aberration? Fantasy FanHouse's dynamic duo, Tom Herrera and Matt Snyder, discuss this and many other things (including Herrera's underwhelming movie experience and Snyder channeling his inner 2Pac to forgive Mike Sims-Walker) in this week's cram session.

Fantasy Felony helps you hijack your fellow owners.

To say that Randy Moss has been underwhelming at points this season might not tell the entire story. He's been said to be "kinda-sorta" nursing a back injury. And let's face it, he and Tom Brady haven't exactly been on the same page as much as we'd like to see. Who gets the blame is for another time and another place. The bottom line is that Moss has been hit-or-miss this season and last week was a major whiff. Moss registered only one catch on the day and yes, Tom Brady missed him for what would've been a deep score.

So, now's the time to go out and try to pry Moss away from a bitter owner.