Brees has the third best passer rating in the league behind only Culpepper and Manning, and there's no reason to think he'll be stifled by the Saints, who are giving up 8.1 yards per attempt. With Tomlinson still a bit banged up, Brees should come out firing in the first half.

Drew Brees is the man! Five TDs last week, and he's completed 67% of his passes on the season. He's got a 14/3 TD/INT ratio, and is averaging nearly eight yards per attempt. Better still, is that the Saints are allowing over eight yards per pass attempt. At home, this game looks like a dream matchup for Brees, and he's a must start.

He's been on fire - and has shot up the top-200 list (he was the QB25 and around the 125th overall player last week). He was also my pick last week and, heading into Cincy, I see no reason for a slow down - Witten has been superb, Keyshawn Johnson has become a favorite target, Q. Morgan may see some action, and the run game is finally putting up enough support to take the pressure off of Vinny. Should be enough to see him rise above the baseline - he at least has a much better chance than the guys between him and the QB12, who all have either very difficult matchups or bye weeks.

The Kansas City offense has scored 101 points in their last two games, but you should expect Trent Green to slow down this week against a tough Buccaneer pass defense. The Bucs have had an extra week to prepare for the Chiefs, coming off a bye, and their defensive backs match up favorably with the Chiefs' receivers.

I'm sure one of these weeks, Hass will turn things around. However, going against a bad 49ers team with a depleted receiving corps is not the week. Expect Coach Holmgren to call Shaun Alexander's number early and often this week. Hasselbeck has been mediocre all season long, and he's lost his label as a must start stud.

Houston faces Denver and Champ Bailey, mad after back to back losses, and heading into their bye looking for a victory, at home. In the Mile High air, Carr will find the going super tough.

Chatman has averaged 6.9 yards on 20 carries over the past two games. He should get any second-half garbage-time carries once again this week, and ought to be able to get into the endzone against the Saints' porous defense as the Chargers look to control the clock. (Note: Tomlinson will definitely start.)

As painful as this sounds, I'm going to advocate starting a Dolphins RB this week. Miami shouldn't be facing a double digit deficit most of the game, and as a result we'll see a lot of carries for Sammy Morris. He's averaging 3.7 ypc, and the Cards are allowing over 4.5 yards per rush. Dare I say it, but I think we might see our first 100 yard game of the year from Miami. OK, let's just say Morris finishes above the baseline.

This is Barlow's first week on the top-200 list below the baseline of RB24 - so, it might be easy to see him jumping one or two spots to be above the baseline, but the reason *I* selected him is that at home against division rival Seattle, I think Barlow will not just be above the RB24, but will make his owners (who are still forced to start him) proud. Seattle is actually EXCELLENT against the run, and sacrifices few FF points to backs. Call this one my gut play of the week.

Suggs faces an angry Raven defense that has given up only 3.5 yards per carry and three rushing touchdowns. The Ravens are particularly tough in the red zone, so Suggs will not get any easy TDs.

Just as soon as Emmitt Smith cracks our top twenty-four, I'm ready to take him out of it. Smith goes against an angry and embarrassed Dolphins defense, that will wreak havoc on an inexperienced (outside of Emmitt of course) and ugly Cardinals offense. This game has all the makings of a 9-6 shoot-out.

I was bailed out with my selection for this spot last week - when we wrote the piece, Dillon was not on the injury report, by the time the game started, he was unable to play. This week, there are a LOT of choices of RBs who could disappoint you - including Marshal Faulk v. NE, Rudi v. Dallas, Staley v. Philadelphia. But, I went with Lee Suggs against the ferocious Baltimore defense - mostly because I think the Ravens want to force Garcia to pass against them while they stack 8 in the box - they get sacks and picks that way. Plus, the Ravens are #1 in FF points sacrificed to RBs. Since I made a gut call on the other side of the RB chart, that pick should be tempered with the most likely call on this side.

Muhammad got into the swing of things last week with 106 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He will try to keep up with that pace this week against the league's worst pass defense. The Raiders are allowing 8.12 yards per pass attempt, and their secondary is having trouble covering the intermediate routes that Muhammad likes to run.

Eventually, the Giants will let other players touch the ball besides Tiki Barber. The Giants can put up points, and this might be the week Toomer finds the end zone. With all the attention focused on Barber, you have to imagine Toomer explodes one of these next few weeks, right?

Last week's Jerry Porter pick worked out for me. Staying in the AFC West a lot this week, I am picking McCardell to do well because the Saints' defense is REALLY pitiful - they are 27th in the league in FF points given up to WRs. McCardell looked like he really fit in last week while Drew Brees seems to have caught more than fire - he's auditioning for a job next year and he has a hungry big time WR in McCardell to help him showcase. Cowboy up New Orleans, the high flying Chargers are waiting for you in San Diego.

The Steelers are coming off a huge win over the Patriots in which Burress had an impressive two-touchdown performance. Burress is averaging only three catches per game this year, however, and will face one of the league's tougher pass defenses this week as the Steelers host the Eagles.

It's generally not too difficult to predict the Dolphins defense shutting down the Cards. The Monday Night game was an anomaly, and there's no way that Josh McCown will have his way on the Miami secondary. This is the first time McCown has faced a unit this good since he saw the Pats--and completed less than fifty percent of his passes and had two TDs. Boldin's a good player, but this is just not his week.

My pick here last week - Plaxico Burress - really surprised me by doing so well. Meanwhile, Miami gave up a bunch of yards to Pennington on MNF (which also ruined my QBs ready to disappoint pick). This week, at home, there will be a different Dolphin team defending. Even with last week's debacle, the Dolphins remain a top-5 pass defense, and #3 fewest points given up to WRs. Arizona will find it tough to get ANY yards this week against the Miami defense.

QB Kerry Collins has struggled this year, TE Doug Jolley has become a nice security blanket for him over the past couple weeks. In his last two games (combined), Jolley has caught seven passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns. Teyo Johnson will be activated this week for the first time this season, but any playing time he gets should come at Courtney Anderson's expense rather than Jolley's.

Jolley has scored in consecutive weeks, and has totaled ninety-four yards in the process. The Raiders aren't exactly loaded with studs at the skill positions, so Jolley could easily see more production as the season moves on. Remember, Kerry Collins enjoyed throwing to his TE in New York.

The Saints are LIKELY to be involved in a shoot-out. against San Diego. San Diego sacrifices nearly 7 FF points/game to the TE (seemingly because of a tendency to allow the TE to catch TD passes). If Boo was looking for that game to get him on track, this might be the one as the Chargers seem to have a slight tendency to lose the big receiver near the goal line.

Putzier's production so far this season has been up and down. In October, he had decent games in even weeks (week 4, 6, and 8) and was shut out completely during the odd weeks (weeks 5 and 7). He is too inconsistent to count on as an every-week starter, and this is a week I'd sit him.

Graham has been held in to block of late, and I don't think that will change much this week. The Patriots have been ravaged by injuries, and the one man they can't afford to lose is Tom Brady. Until the O-Line in NE returns, Graham is nothing more than an average TE.

As I pointed out last week, it is a weird anomaly, but the Chicago Bears lead the league in fewest FFP/game given up to TEs - now down to 1.2. How'd Eric Johnson do against Chicago last week? 1 catch for 9 yards? This is a bad week for Shockey owners.