After a week of millions of fantasy owners focusing their combined hope on Donovan McNabb’s broken rib, he’s listed on the injury report as doubtful.  While this doesn’t guarantee he’ll miss the game it’s not a very good sign, and it means that if he does play he’ll be injured and not have the benefit of any practice.

What I’m saying is that the hope was for naught.  You’re going to have to bench him.

So what can a desperate person do to fill that giant void?  While many of you have a solid backup option, most probably don’t.  But fortunately there are some passable options out there.  Not good mind you, but passable.

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Remember that list from a few days ago about hail mary free agents to pick up if you’re desperate, at least until Week 1 rolls around and someone breaks out?

Week 1 has rolled around.  Players have broken out.

Here’s five players you probably should have submitted a waiver claim for by now.

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For last-minute news even more breaking than this follow us on Twitter.

Playing

Kyle Orton, QB, DEN
Knowshon Moreno, RB, DEN (with a reduced workload)
Bernard Berrian, WR, MIN

Not Playing

Matt Cassell, QB, KC
Pierre Thomas, RB, NO
Anquan Boldin, WR, ARI (probably not, but a gametime call)
Deion Branch, WR, SEA (probably not, and not a starter anyway)

That’s right, Start/Bench is back!

If you’re just joining us, every week I choose a starting lineup of non-obvious players for an All-Start Team and an All-Bench Team, and pit them against each other using default Yahoo scoring. Basically, these are borderline guys who I think will have a good or bad week.

Last season All-Start (thankfully) won with a 9-3 record.  Their total scores were 1,167 for All-Start and 893 for All-Bench.  Can I beat that?  I really hope so.  And the quest starts…now.

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Over the weekend I was in Seattle at the Penny Arcade Expo, which is like Burning Man for nerds, for the other blog I contribute to.  And also because I love video games.  It was a great time, there was much gaming and I didn’t even catch Swine Flu.

Unfortunately it conflicted with a fantasy draft on Sunday morning.  And not just any fantasy draft.  The office fantasy draft, the one that will probably generate the most trash talking.

I had to autodraft.

Fortunately it didn’t go as poorly as I’d feared.  I got the best at two positions, Adrian Peterson and Antonio Gates, and I was solid all around.  But it didn’t autodraft me a backup quarterback.  And my coworkers apparently decided to hoard QBs like gold during a bank run.

So what’s a guy to do in this situation?  Or a similar one, say if your starter got a late injury?  Here’s some players who, in a pinch, can hold a spot as a backup until someone breaks out…

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Not bad fantasy team roundup - that comes after you draft.  No, I mean bad NFL team roundup.

There’s no better place to find sleepers than really bad football teams.  Good players get caught up with their less good teammates and slip under the radar, and even the players widely seen as diamonds in the rough are underrated compared to their status if they were on the Colts or Eagles.

So let’s go through the bottom five in ESPN’s preseason power rankings and find some diamonds in the rough…

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I thought I would expand slightly on my inaugural Twitter tip: Do not draft Brett Favre.

Seriously, don’t do it.

I know he’s got a long and storied career and I know people who apparently haven’t seen Minnesota’s roster are saying this makes them a lock to reach the Super Bowl, but let’s think about this for a moment.  This is a quarterback coming off a serious shoulder injury who’s practically old enough to collect Social Security.  Take away the name, take away the hype and drama, does he look like a good play to you?

No.  No it does not.

And that’s not even covering the interceptions.  The last two seasons ended with Brett Favre picks, which only makes sense considering he’s thrown more than any player in the entire history of the NFL.  And now rather than throwing to halfway decent receivers he’s got a motley crew of castoffs and a rookie who’s also a RB.

That said, the possibility exists that he might have a good season.  Adrian Peterson will take a lot of pressure off him and the offensive line is pretty good.  But it’s a huge, huge gamble for a guy who, at best, will be a backup.  Someone like Trent Edwards has roughly the same or better upside with significantly less downside.

So like I said: Do not draft Brett Favre.

It’s a new season and Inside Fantasy Sports is back.  And, if I might borrow a cliche, it’s better than ever.

The main addition is that we’re now on Twitter.  Follow us at IBABuzzFantasy for breaking NFL updates that matter to your fantasy team.  We’ll scour the Internet for tips all day so you don’t have to (or if you’re like us and actually like scouring the Internet for tips all day we’ll fill you in on anything you may have missed).

Of course that doesn’t mean the blog will suffer.  In fact we’re going to provide more updates in addition to the Start/Bench, Mailbag, Fantasy on TV and Gametime Decision from last season.

And, of course, we’re taking suggestions.  If there’s anything else you want to see let us know in the comments, by email or on Twitter and we’ll give it a shot.

Here’s your championship injury reports.

12:30 Update: Portis and Lynch are starting.

Playing

Clinton Portis
Marshawn Lynch
Brandon Jacobs
Kevin Smith
Jeff Garcia
Trent Edwards
Matt Forte

Not Playing

Frank Gore
Anquan Boldin

It’s championship week, the first game’s tonight, let’s get this thing started.

Pop in between noon and 1:00 to get all your title game (or third place game, or fifth place game…or in one of my leagues seventh place game) roster advice.