The thinking chair

So you wasted your first round draft pick on Tom Brady. And in the third round, after a run on wide receivers, you grabbed Marques Colston as your WR1. You decided to gamble on a slightly banged-up Willis McGahee because you couldn't trust whether guys like Willie Parker were good enough. And you backed Brady up with a roll of the dice on Vince Young.

And right now, you're wondering whether your fantasy football season is over before it ever really began.

The Thinking Chair is a place to churn around some thoughts, come up with some insight and maybe a different spin on things than you might get elsewhere. And I've been doing some thinking this week, to be sure. In fact, my first thought was, "Holy Schnikes, a lot of players got beat up in Week 1 (Except I didn't use the word "Schnikes.") It's true that a lot of big-name players limped off the field, but I'm not sure it was statistically any different than any other week -- it's just the guys who got hurt were players we've all heard of, instead of a special teams player or a third-string offensive lineman.

By now, your league has scooped up fill-ins like Matt Cassel and Kerry Collins and guys like first-week standout Eddie Royal are probably also long gone off the waiver wire. But there are other guys who benefit from these injuries who might be flying under the radar. Guys such as David Patten and Robert Meachem in New Orleans are going to get some balls thrown their way that otherwise would have gone to Colston. It probably doesn't make Vince Young happy to hear it, but his starting receivers, Justin McCareins and Justin Gage, now have a guy behind center in Collins who throws a pretty tight spiral.

On the flip side, owners who invested in guys like Randy Moss, Wes Welker or Drew Brees might be resetting their expectations. That provides some trade potential for you, especially with someone like Brees, who will likely find outlets across his talented roster to fill the Colston gap for the next month and a half. If his owner is drowning his sorrows on Bourbon Street, pounce. If you have Welker or Moss and can still get draft day value for them, that's also worth exploring because their value is simply lower with anyone else behind center than Mr. Bundchen.

For new readers to this column, I have a daughter who is now turning four months old. As parents of young children know, these kids like to wake up at all hours of the night, and more often than not, are full of more energy at 3:45 a.m. than they are at 3:45 p.m. I don't know what most parents do with their little tykes when they are on diaper duty -- for me, I asked little Charlotte whether she thinks I should have started Jamal Lewis this week against the Steelers, or Matt Forte against the Panthers.

I'm out here on the West Coast, and from the reports I see on CNN, there's some seriously bad news happening down on the coast of Texas. It goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyhow -- all the folks down there, you are in our thoughts. Stay safe, and stay dry.

Is it wrong to transition from a thoughtful message like that to a discussion about reality TV? Probably, but check it out -- I'm going there anyway, because we're almost at the end of Big Brother 10, which has been a little weak around the edges. That being said, Dan has played the game about as well as anyone since Dr. Will, and it would be an upset of Buster Douglas proportions if he lost. But a big hats-off to Jerry, the 75-year-old who made it to the final three despite his age and a voice that sounds like Brenda Vaccaro after gargling with Harvey Fierstein. (Does that reference even work for you? In related news, I'm old.) But just on the reality TV horizon is Survivor and my personal favorite, The Amazing Race. Now, I know I could do better things with my time than watch these shows, but there's a lot of joy in watching egomaniacal people make fools of themselves on national television.

Charlotte just had a serious crying jag ... and the two of us decided together that Felix Jones, although talented, is really no threat at all to Marion Barber III, who is going to play through the pain. However, Charlotte impressed upon me that in Baltimore, Ray Rice is a threat to McGahee's playing time, because of his own talent, coupled with the fact that McGahee is still banged up and apparently not a coach favorite.

That kid of mine, she knows her football.

And she certainly knows about crying, too, so I'll end with this. We've almost completed two weeksof football. I've had friends tell me they hate their teams, their seasons are over, and other dramatic statements that simply need a reality check. I can't remember the last time I was in a league where the winning team didn't have at least one or two major contributors that weren't from their draft. Whether it's through a trade or a free agent pickup, a winning owner is an active owner. So pull your head up off the bar and go make things better.