Sunday Breaking News

Reggie Bush will play.

Steven Jackson is active.

Michael Turner is out.

DeAngelo Williams is out.

Roddy White is active.

Thursday, December 3

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills

Start – The state of New York football hasn’t exactly looked promising lately. Ever since Eli Manning lost his “blankey,” Mark Sanchez started experimenting with interceptions, and the Buffalo Bills just decided "football wasn't really their thing," there hasn’t been much to cheer about in the greater New York area. Fortunately, in this game – one of these teams has to win, meaning the only real losers here are the fans. If the Jets are going to be the ones coming out on top they’re going to need Thomas Jones to put up yet another big game against the league’s worst rush defense. He’ll get a little help from his tight end Dustin Keller (21 receptions in his last four games) and will still be the focus of the Jets offense. Up the road, who would've thought that a Harvard graduate playing quarterback would be the answer to Terrell Owens’ problems? Since the Bills have started Ryan Fitzpatrick (don’t start him against the Jets second-ranked pass defense, by the way), Owens has had three straight monster fantasy weeks and is finally becoming “less useless” on an irrelevant team. He will be facing a difficult match-up against Darrelle Revis, but is still the only receiving threat on the team.

Sit – The Jets passing game has struggled like a fat kid on Valentine's Day and shouldn’t get much better against the Bills’ seventh-ranked pass defense. Both Jerricho Cotchery and Braylon Edwards struggled last week against a similar Panthers defense, and shouldn’t fare much better in this one. Marshawn Lynch is a great example of why missing early games in order to commit crimes can hurt your season (six yards last week), while Fred Jackson is still struggling to become a consistent fantasy threat with Lee Evans (three receptions in his last two games).

Sunday. December 5

St. Louis Rams at Chicago Bears

Start – If there’s one game where you look up midway through the second quarter and think “I know I have Steven Jackson continuing to rush for 100 yards every game, but there is no reason I should have invested two hours into this crapfest” – this would be it. These are two non-playoff teams that will spend more time scouting bowl games than at team practices over the next month. Jackson is listed as questionable, but played through injury last week. Check this space Sunday before kickoff for the update. Matt Forte is worth the start this week against a Rams team giving up nearly 150 rushing yards per game, while Jay Cutler should be able to score a pair of touchdowns against St. Louis’ 30th-ranked scoring defense. Greg Olsen has 20 receptions in his past three games and continues to be one of the lone bright spots on the Chicago offense. Donnie Avery is putting up a nice end to a dismal season for his team with three straight games banking at least four receptions and three touchdowns over that span.

Sit – Kyle Boller is getting a nice chance to remind general managers around the league why he should never be a starting quarterback again, while the entire Bears receiving corps has decided to get an early audition for next year’s third WR spot. You can try playing a guy like Devin Hester (and he may get you a touchdown), but nobody on this unit is stepping up and becoming a serious threat every week.

Detroit Lions at Cincinnati Bengals

Start – Anybody who said they assumed the Bengals would have a chance to go 9-3 with a home win over Detroit at the beginning of this season is a filthy liar or someone who bases their life choices around Chad Ochocinco’s Twitter updates. And now that Cedric Benson is expected to come back after a two-week vacation to help Carson Palmer dismantle the NFL’s worst passing defense, the Bengals should be able to score at least 28-35 points - which means Ochocinco should have yet another banner day. As always, Calvin Johnson is a 20-point fantasy football threat, and even scored a touchdown despite playing hurt last week. Reports from Detroit claim he has participated fully in practice headed into week 13 and is excited to make the loss a little easier for fans.

Sit – Andre Caldwell and Laveranues Coles have both struggled to find consistency this year, while Kevin Smith (zero touchdowns since week 4) is becoming less likely to break 75 yards every passing week. Unfortunately for Matthew Stafford, his shoulder seems to be getting worse, and it’s unclear whether he will be able to make it through the entire game. Daunte Culpepper would get the start unless he refuses to come in. He had a connection with Calvin Johnson when he played before so it shouldn't hurt Megatron's output.