From the MISC File...News You Can Use Doug Coutts, Fantasy Football Senior Staff Writer Oct 14, 2005 | More

Good news for all you non-night owls, now that the local interest in the baseball playoffs is gone, we got moved back into "Block C"!!  That's 10:20pm in normal terms.  Hopefully people are watching and are getting something out of the segment?  Any suggestions or ideas for the segment itself, or the 'recap' that I try to get published on Friday for those that missed it, please drop me a line at dcoutts@fantasysharks.com. 

Quick story from last night, I'm getting dolled up in the makeup room last night when it's announced that "Matt's here".  Not unusual since there are usually multiple guests on the show, but in this case the buzz was a little different....once I'm finished, there's Matt Reis, starting goalie for my New England Revolution!!  He's looking over Ed's shoulder at his PC while on his cell phone, and unfortunately, he's not scheduled to be on the show until the 27th.  Ugh!  One of my worst nightmares!!  I check at least a dozen times that it is Thursday before I head into the studio. 

So Matt seems to take it in stride and disappears.  There's still a couple minutes before the show begins, and after some shuffling, Ed's going to try and squeeze Matt onto the show.  But Matt has really disappeared, not to be found.  Hopefully he'll be back on the 27th, see you then, Matt!  In the meantime, thanks for leaving the waiting room televtion on Gol TV, I didn't realize the channel existed!!  And GO REVS! 

Anyway, back to the reason you're reading this....we knew it was going to happen sooner or later, and hopefully you took my advice from a few weeks ago regarding the waiver wire and backup RBs in the NFL.  The first four weeks of the NFL season were relatively injury free, but in week five, injuries are in.  Those of you that troll our message boards are aware of a weekly thread aptly titled, "Week x Sunday Morning Injury Report".  For those of you that don't, this is a must read right up to your league's starting lineup deadline.  Many thanks to assassin for keeping this up to date.  You can check it out here: http://www.fantasysharks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54186&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

In addition to our usual discussions of the Start/Bench List, Waiver Wire Wonders, and rankings based on the weekly projections, here's what we talked about last night...

New Orleans RB - By now everyone knows that Duece McAllister is done for the season, tough break for the Saints.  This means that we're going to see Antowain Smith move into the starting role.  Smith has always been, and will continue to be a "three yards and a pile of synthetic earth" type of runner.  He'll play on first and second down, get a few yards and perhaps get a TD or two.  For third down, we're going to see Aaron Stecker, who will come out of the backfield to catch the ball.  My feeling is that I think the Saints will end up passing more, so in the long run this would mean slightly more value for Stecker than Smith, especially in those leagues that award a point per catch.  Both should be picked up. 

Green Bay RB - The Packers have a bye this week, and that's good news for Ahman Green owners.  Najeh Davenport is out of the season after being hurt last week, and the week off should give Green enough time to get back into the starting lineup.  Tony Fisher will be his backup.

Miami RB - Ricky IS BACK!!  The Dolphins don't seem to be sold on Ronnie Brown, his fumble last week cost them a chance at winning.  My feeling is that Miami will get Ricky out there right away, go 50-50 with Brown from the start, but eventually Ricky will earn himself more of a percentage of the carries. 

Dallas RB - Earlier this week, it was looking like Julius Jones wasn't going to play, opening the door for Tyson Thompson to step into the starting role.  This still could happen, but at best this is a very short term solution.  Jones will be back soon, and my feeling is that even if it is Thompson this week, he won't be a great fantasy option. 

Chicago RB - The Bears are being mum on whether Thomas Jones will be playing this week.  We keep hearing that they'd love to get the ball to Cedric Benson more often, but like Brown in Miami, he hasn't done much with the opportunity he's been given.  Keep an eye on this situation, if Jones doesn't go, look for Benson to get some work as well as Adrian Peterson, who could sneak past Benson on the depth chart. 

Denver RB - Tatum Bell and Mike Anderson continue to split carries, nearly exactly down the middle last week.  Bell seems to be maturing, and last week he broke two long runs for TDs.  He matches up better against New England this week, and Shanahan is a guy who likes to go with the hot hand.  We thought Bell would eventually take over the starting role, that seems to be happening sooner rather than later, maybe even now. 

Jacksonville RB - Late word is that Fred Taylor won't be able to go this week, who would have thought?  Hopefully, Taylor owners were tipped off that Alvin Pearman had been elevated to RB2, Pearman could be the surprise starter and if so, will be a decent fantasy option. 

In summary, there are a ton of uncertain RB situations around the league, find some room at the end of your roster for some of these backups and injury fill ins, you never know when someone does well enough to run away with the starting job.