24 Hours 'Til Sunday — Andy Richardson

Week 4 is here, and the most important thing to talk about is bye weeks. With regular starters like Michael Turner, Roddy White, Larry Fitzgerald, DeAngelo Williams and Steve Smith -- wow, that's a disappointing group thus far -- on byes, you're probably starting some players you never thought you'd start. Earl Bennett? Chansi Stuckey? Kevin Boss? These and other lesser names have value this week; at least, we can hope.

The Falcons, Cardinals, Panthers and Eagles are off this week, which means some of the above flops and also quality starters like DeSean Jackson and Brent Celek are watching from the comfort of their living rooms. It's time to bench both some of your stars and also some of the guys who have been killing your team, and start some players who in some cases might not do much worse. On to the games:

Lions at Bears: Good week to have some Bears players; I'm actually starting Earl Bennett in one league. Pay no attention to the Lions beating Washington: they're still terrible. I'm benching Kevin Smith, who's questionable; if I hear Sunday morning that he's playing, I'll start him. I picked up Maurice Morris in one league and I really don't know why. Can't imagine using him.

Bengals at Browns: Derek Anderson is in, Brady Quinn is out. I don't see how it could hurt. I mean, the team doesn't score. At all. How could things be worse? Well, I guess if Anderson throws up interceptions that are run back for touchdowns by the other team, which is possible, it's worse. So that answers that. No Jamal Lewis. Again, why would anyone start Jamal Lewis against anyone? I want to know. Jerome Harrison might be a viable start with James Davis hurting too. Bengals, well, I'm starting Laveranues Coles in one league (I'm not excited about it) and considering Andre Caldwell in another. I've got three wide receivers on byes in one league, and the Browns are terrible, so what the hey. Cedric Benson is fine; he should be huge.

Raiders at Texans: The Raiders seriously ought to consider just not passing the ball. Seriously, what good can come of it? Just give the ball to Darren McFadden and Michael Bush and hope good things happen. Chaz Schilens won't play. Darrius Heyward-Bey will. The two have equal value this week. Thank you, I"ll be here all week. For the Texans, I'm rooting for a big game out of Steve Slaton so I can ship him out next week. He just might get it against the Raiders.

Seahawks at Colts: No Matt Hasselbeck. No other injuries of note. I thought about floating trades for Peyton Manning out there this week just because this matchup looked so good. Manning, Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Dallas Clark....should be loads of fun for these guys. I'm also starting Julius Jones in one league; no choice with Kevin Smith hurt. Like we said in the weekly, it's a good matchup, but I don't see the Seahawks hanging in this one for long. But I've been wrong before. Drafting Slaton, for one thing.

Titans at Jaguars: The Jaguars have played a couple of high-scoring affairs in a row. Why not three straight? I like everyone in this game, even though it's really tough to put somebody like Justin Gage or David Garrard into a lineup and feel good about yourself. I could see Mike Sims-Walker having a huge game. (Changed his name from Mike Walker to honor his Dad, by the way. Kind of nice.) Like Chris Johnson, cool on Maurice Jones-Drew (not that I drafted early enough in any of my leagues to have him on my team, of course, but you know. Well, I have him in my dynasty league, my top pick three years ago, but that's a "no starting lineup" league where you get the best scorers each week, and can I just say that I freaking LOVE that system. Not beating myself up over lineup choices eliminates 90 percent of the angst of fantasy football -- it almost enables me to actually enjoy it! Anyway).

Giants at Kansas City: Ahmad Bradshaw is apparently fine. Players who walk around in protective boots on Wednesday and Thursday worry me, but I guess he's OK; he practiced on Friday. He looks better than Brandon Jacobs these days, but probably isn't a better start this week. Kansas City, I have nothing to add. I don't want anything to do with anything on this team, especially against the Giants. And the Giants were my suicide pool pick this week, so I anxiously await the "Sorry about your suicide pool" comment I'll get if they lose. (I just typed "when." Drat! If. I meant if.)

Ravens at Patriots: I bought into the Falcons hype; then they got smoked in Foxborough. So, I'm being cautious here. New England still has a capable defense and they tend to play pretty well at home. I'm benching Ray Rice in leagues where I have a choice. (Not as many as I'd like.) Wes Welker is benched. I hope he doesn't play so I can start Julian Edelman; for now he's just questionable, we'll see Sunday morning.

Buccaneers at Washington: Somebody picked Washington at Detroit in my suicide pool. What, seeing them almost lose at home against the Rams wasn't warning enough? Crazy. The Bucs are horrible, but you never know. I don't know which is the bigger red flag for their players, though; injury issues, or Josh Johnson at quarterback. I want nothing to do with any Bucs in this game. Derrick Ward probably won't play. For Washington, Clinton Portis seems unlikely to play. Didn't practice, hurting. I wouldn't use him and would consider Ladell Betts. That's how bad the Bucs are: I'd consider starting Ladell Betts.

Bills at Dolphins: No Chad Pennington, obviously. Tough to run on the Dolphins, plus who knows how much of the workload Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson will take -- I'm avoiding both this week, and regretting having Lynch, period. I liked Chad Henne coming out of college, but really want little to do with him or the Dolphins this week. OK matchup for Trent Edwards and T.O.

Jets at Saints: Game of Sunday. Surprised by how high the over-under was on this -- clearly most think the Saints will roll. Including in New York, where I suspect Michael Kay just looked at the score of last week's Bills-Saints game and assumed it was a one-sided blowout, rather than pretty close for most of it. But, he's a baseball guy. Lance Moore should play, unfortunate for those of us hoping to start Devery Henderson, but I'll press on regardless. Jets will be without a couple of defensive backs.

Cowboys at Broncos: Marion Barber should play, too bad for those of us hoping to sneak Tashard Choice into a lineup. Felix Jones won't. Will Denver's defense be exposed this week? Dallas having a credible wideout would help, but yeah, I think the Broncos go down here. Cowboys appear pretty strong against the run, so Kyle Orton will have to do more, and we have a good idea how that might turn out.

Rams at 49ers: I just can't figure out how the Rams are this bad. Kyle Boller will start, which is a good thing for them. No Laurent Robinson, who's out for the year -- sad for those of us who picked him up in the preseason and were proud of it. No Frank Gore, so Glen Coffee should be huge; sadly, even my winless team didn't have top priority to get him. And oh yeah, in the league I have Gore I dropped Coffee last week because I needed the roster spot, and couldn't get him back. Ouch.

Chargers at Steelers: Dueling injured running backs. Tomlinson will play, Willie Parker won't. Rashard Mendenhall could be in line to start and get a huge workload, but I don't trust him. I suspect the passing games will be the focus anyway, two really good young quarterbacks from the same draft. Chargers' defense has fallen apart. Should be a good game. Be interesting to see if the small village on commentators in the NBC studio shows their dismay that ESPN has the true Game of the Week, at least from a hype perspective.

Packers at Vikings: Two of the better teams in the NFC square off here. The Packers have some offensive line troubles, which is good news for Jared Allen. They also probably can't stop Adrian Peterson, although that should be the focus. I think Green Bay's passing game could be OK, even with the line trouble; I'm not sure about that Vikings secondary. Pretty good NFC North rivalry. We sometimes talk about how players are facing their former teams; on occasion those players have some extra motivation in that situation. Probably not a big deal in this case. Yeah, right. Brett Favre versus the Packers, you've probably heard about it. I'm about 50-50 on whether to start him or Jay Cutler this week, personally; feel free to let me know who you think I should go with. I think the Vikings will run a lot, but I've got to think if the ball ends up near the goal line, Favre's gonna be passing the thing.

Enjoy the games.

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