RB Selvin Young, Denver Broncos: He's been on savvy fantasy players' minds since the start of the season simply because of Denver's habit of making RB chumps into champs. He's become an even hotter commodity in recent weeks with Travis Henry battling injuries and staring at a possible drug suspension. We got our first glimpse Monday at what a Young-led Broncos backfield might look like with Henry on the bench, and it was good: 124 total yards for the rookie from Texas, plus another 48-yard run that was called back on a holding penalty. If for some reason Young hasn't already been scooped up in your league, now is the time to act. FOUR STARS
RB Adimchinobe Echemandu, Houston Texans: Houston's been through as many running backs lately as there are letters in good ol' Adi's name. If you haven't already heard of him (and let's face it, why would you have?) Echemandu, a fourth-year player from Nigeria (by way of Cal) was just picked up off the practice squad to replace former fantasy flame and fellow Nigerian Samkon Gado, who was cut. Echemandu was called to duty last week against the Chargers with Ahman Green still rubbing Bengay on his creaky knees. He busted out 62 yards on 11 carries in San Diego and caught two passes for 11 yards - nothing earth-shattering, but it's as good as anything Green and Ron Dayne have done lately, and it's a surprising amount of work for a guy who up until a week earlier had been a glorified tackling dummy. Echemandu did "tweak" his knee during last Sunday's game but was able to play through the injury and has already practiced this week. If Green's still out this Sunday against Oakland there's a decent chance Echemandu will at least get half the carries and perhaps beat out Dayne altogether for No. 2 on the depth chart. That's reason enough to give him a look in deep leagues. THREE STARS
QB Kellen Clemens, New York Jets: The Gang Green faithful have been calling this kid's name since the preseason, and they finally get their wish this Sunday, with Clemens officially being named the starter against Washington and Chad Pennington headed for the bench. The second-year signal-caller from Oregon is still a little, uh, green, but has at least one major advantage over Pennington: a big-league arm. He's also got two nice targets to work with (Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery), though it has yet to be seen if he's ready to take advantage of them. I wouldn't recommend starting him this week against a red-faced Redskins defense that just got taken to the woodshed by New England, but Clemens is an interesting long-term prospect, and he does have some attractive matchups (at Miami, Cleveland) on the schedule in December. THREE STARS
WR David Patten, New Orleans Saints: The former Patriot seems to have secured the Saints' No. 2 receiver slot. Patten caught five passes for 109 yards in Sunday's win over San Francisco, his second 100-yard output in three games. Make no mistake, the much bigger and younger Marques Colston is still the team's top red zone target, but Patten seems to have distanced himself from Devery Henderson and Lance Moore when it comes to getting more consistent looks, and with Drew Brees looking more and more like the stud he was last year, that's good enough. THREE STARS
Photo by The Associated Press
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