Stay away from the desperation trades. The panicking of teams trying to get into fantasy football playoffs is causing plenty of athletes to be dropped everyday on the waiver wire. We recently heard from a reader that they scooped up Larry Johnson last week on the waiver wire. The owner that dropped Johnson was either the worst team in the league or an owner overanalyzing their week to week match ups. Keep your poise and you’ll catch the right breaks to get your team in he playoffs.

Quarterbacks

Marc Bulger
Bulger is about a week away from returning to the lineup. Since he has been away the Rams have incorporated a running game. That’ll alleviate the extra hits and even give Bulger extra time in the pocket to hit his big play receivers. The Rams are getting healthy just in time to try to make a run for a wild card. Bulger will have weapons Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce, as they’re coming back this week.

Brooks Bollinger
The Jets will take their chances with Bollinger. After Vinny Testaverde showed that he isn’t capable of leading the Jets anymore. Bollinger’s value in fantasy leagues is merely a bench roster spot. Every league should have a solid quarterback and since byes are over after this week, you should be able to ride your starter the rest of the year. The only time Bollinger may have value is toward the fantasy playoffs. The Jets will likely be out of contention and want to test Bollinger completely. That means lots of passes against teams in the AFC that’ll be resting their starters if they’ve clinched a playoff birth.

Billy Volek
The time has come for the Titans to move on from McNair. McNair is the type of veteran quarterback stuck on a team that he can’t help because they’re too far away from being a contender. The Titans need to ride Volek and build their youth towards the future. Head coach Jeff Fisher won’t pull his starter since 1995, but the front office will. Don’t expect Jeff Fisher or Steve McNair to be on the Titans sideline next season. Their great careers with their organization has timed out.

Running Backs

Duce Staley
Staley averaged over five yards a carry last week. When he first appeared on the field we thought that he was Jerome Bettis for a minute. Staley has gained obvious weight. His time off from injury doesn’t appear to be hurting him. Staley has fresh legs and at his size will be able to be more nimbler than Bettis, even with the weight. The crowded backfield is Staley’s for the time being, as Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis try to get back to 100 percent.

Greg Jones or Alvin Pearman
Fred Taylor’s season may be in jeopardy. Even if it isn’t, Taylor’s injury woes won’t go anywhere. A lot of people like to rag on Taylor for his constant attraction to injuries, but give the guy credit. Year in and year out he plays. This season he probably shouldn’t have came back so quickly from his off-season knee surgery. He played through the pain though and had a few big games. Now the Jaguars will use both Greg Jones and Alvin Pearman in selective spots. It’ll be hard to tell who will get more carries, but look for Jones to have more value because the Jaguars will bring him in around the goal line.

Julius Jones
Jones has practiced two weeks in a row, and will try to get back in the thick of things. The Cowboys have been fine without him, and may take it easy with him the rest of the season to prevent further injury. It seems every time the Cowboys bulk up on his carries he gets hurt. With Marion Barber and Tyson Thompson playing above anticipated, the Cowboys will likely share the load with everyone. Why risk the durability of Jones when there is no need to? That’ll hurt Jones value a bit, but add to his big play ability. He gets chunks of yards whenever he wants, and being fresh all the time will help him in that phase.

Sam Gado
The Packers have dropped running backs worse than Pee Wee Herman with pants. Gado now is living the life of a starter. Brett Favre needs something from Gado to get the Packers some life. Their team isn’t that bad. Even though they keep losing they’re staying in every game. The division may be a game away from being out of reach, but don’t count them out yet. Detroit and Minnesota aren’t better than Green Bay, and who can trust Chicago?

Michael Bennett
It’s a mystery to why the Vikings use Bennett so rarely. Every time he gets touches he has a nice game. After last week maybe the Vikings will finally pay attention to what Bennett can bring compared to the rest of the Vikings backs. He is a great back for a quarterback like Brad Johnson to have. A solid screen alternative and a back who will keep the defense honest.

Wide Receivers

Terrell Owens
His season is presumably over at this state. His back and forth saga with Philadelphia may have come to an end, but the Eagles have no right to end his season. He’ll likely win his case and the Eagles with either deal with him or cut him. So if he is on any waiver wire pick him up immediately.

Isaac Bruce
It’s been rocky for Bruce this season. People will question if he still has it, and that won’t last for long. He just suffered a bit from an injury. Due to the great play of Kevin Curtis and other St. Louis receivers he didn’t have to rush back. That will help Bruce in the immediate future and allow the Rams to spread teams out in four wide receiver sets.

Robert Ferguson
Favre could use Ferguson. He gets open a lot, and Favre needs that presence on the field. The two things that have prevented Ferguson from getting noticed in the league are dropped passes and injuries.

Mike Williams
He may be another week or even two from returning. Detroit is going to expand the offense in the second half of the season. They need to spring Kevin Jones loose, and that’s not going to happen until the passing game opens up. They’ll try again to get their young receivers involved. The question is who will be the quarterback?

Darrell Jackson
Surprisingly the Seahawks have been able to live off of Joe Jurevicious. The drawing board of the Seahawks offense is back to the old form of running away with Shaun Alexander. That’s been working to plan, but the Seahawks will slump soon if they can’t get the air attack going. Jackson’s return in the next week or two should keep that from happening.

Tight Ends

Michael Gaines
With Kris Magnum banged up, Gaines steps into Jake Delhomme’s target zone. We all know that Delhomme has been struck with hypnotism in Steve Smith’s direction, but Gaines should be able to draw Delhomme’s attention on five to seven plays.