Fantasy Football Cut-N-Go: Backfield Disasters Afoot

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.

With the weekend narrowly approaching, Week 4 will provide a handful of backfield conundrums for fantasy owners to ponder, including the Steelers, Lions, Browns, Cowboys and Buccaneers raising the most complicated questions.

Let's start with the Steelers. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that with Willie Parker's injury, the Steelers may return to Rashard Mendenhall. After the benching of Mendenhall during Sunday's game against the Bengals, many expected coach Mike Tomlin to look to Mewelde Moore, but Tomlin reiterated that Mendenhall "is not in the doghouse."

Perhaps, like Snoopy, Mendenhall merely spent time supine on top of his doghouse.

Despite fantasy owners grabbing Tashard Choice off the wires faster than wedding guests grab lamb chops, the Dallas Morning News reports that owner Jerry Jones expects Marion Barber to be ready to play come Sunday.

According to Rick Stroud on Twitter, Derrick Ward did not practice on Thursday while Earnest Graham did. Hence, if Derrick Ward cannot go on Sunday, expect a split load between Carnell Williams and Earnest Graham. It looks like Cadillac gained some value back just as fantasy owners got around to dropping him after his net 17 yards rushing over the past two games.

ProFootballTalk reports that Kevin Smith missed practice Wednesday, making Maurice Morris a potentially decent pickup. Realistically, given the Lions' silence on Smith's injury, this will come down to a game-time decision. Making a play out of Morris will be awfully tough, unless fantasy owners want to take a leap of faith that Jim Schwartz's silence implies that Smith will be out of action come Sunday.

Last but not least, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Cleveland Browns are counting Jamal Lewis out for this Sunday's game against their in-state neighbors, the Bengals. This makes Jerome Harrison the safest bet of any pickups on this list (although Glen Coffee provides the real mustard this week). We may see a little bit of James Davis, but last week proved that Harrison maintains a clear lead on the backup spot, and with any luck should keep the job regardless.

Other Fantasy Football Notes

• Fantasy Football Toolbox considers Kevin Walter one of this week's six player upgrades amidst some good company like Glen Coffee, Fred Taylor and Cedric Benson.

• In Wide Write, one of my new favorite fantasy blogs, John Halpin suggests picking up Chad Henne in his weekly sit 'em, start 'em column. He talks to Football Outsiders columnist Russ Levine, who says he will make a very solid pro. As a fellow Michigan fan who watched Henne play a lot of games, I remember always saying the same thing that he would make a great pro. Oddly, it was the game against USC in the Rose Bowl, when the defensive line just crushed him, that really made me realize it. He got sacked some ungodly number of times, but stood strong in the pocket all game and continued to deliver great passes (when he actually remained upright long enough to do so). Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

• The Bruno Boys, who always offer a plethora of sound fantasy advice, take an addition by attrition approach and not only help tell you who to add from the waiver wire each week, but also who to drop.