Heading into the preseason, Jamaal Charles’s stock was quite high, and for good reason. The 23 year-old had just come off an eight-game stretch where he averaged 140.8 total yards and 1.0 TD per game. He was going in the early second — I even saw a few drafts where he was going in the late first — but with the acquisition of Thomas Jones and the beginning of Todd Haley’s mind games (i.e. refusing to list Charles atop the Chiefs’ depth chart), Charles’s stock has slipped into the late 3rd/early 4th.

I just snagged him in a slow email draft at 3.10 on the heels of his first start of the preseason. He fumbled his first attempt, but finished with 40 yards on six carries and caught a 20-yard pass. During the preseason, Charles has averaged 8.2 yards per touch versus TJ’s 3.2. Even Haley said that he’d “be a fool” if he didn’t play Charles given that type of disparity in production:

“We want this guy to be playing when the games count,” said Haley. “He’s coming off a pretty significant (surgery). … We want him to be playing at a high level.” Haley admitted he’d “be a fool” to not play Charles if he’s severely outproducing Thomas Jones in terms of yards per carry. Added the coach: “We’ve got great competition. Both of those guys want to be pretty good.”

Moreover, Footballguys lists KC’s schedule as the second-easiest for RBs, predicting four favorable matchups through Week 16 (along with zero unfavorable matchups).

I’d still take Pierre Thomas and maybe even Ryan Grant ahead of Charles, but once they’re off the board and I’m staring at guys like LeSean McCoy, Matt Forte, Knowshon Moreno, Chris Wells and Jahvid Best, Charles is looking awfully good.

There were a couple of pieces of good news for Owen Daniels this week. First, he had an MRI that said he was fully healed. Later, he was cleared to play by the noted sports physician Dr. James Andrews, who was the one who surgically repaired the torn ACL in Daniels’ right knee.

“Owen’s been cleared; totally healthy,” Kubiak said on Wednesday. “I was out on the practice field during special teams and he called (head athletic trainer Geoff Kaplan) and we talked to Dr. Andrews, and boy, he’s fired up. It’s great for our team.”

Daniels has been going in the late 7th for the whole month of August, but when you look at his average numbers for the first seven games of the season — 5.6 catches for 71 yards and 0.7 TDs — that’s 17.0 fantasy points per game in a PPR league, which are TE1-type numbers.

Sure, he’s a risk, and he’s probably not going to come out in Week 1 and tear up the Colts’ defense, but he is a proven player and the doctors are saying that he’s ready to go.

After Tony Gonzalez and Brent Celek are off the board, I’d start thinking about Daniels in the 6th round. I’ve been targeting Zach Miller in the 8th, and will continue to do so, but Daniels is the more proven player, so it’s a different kind of risk.

Earlier this week, I summarized my draft in the FSWA Industry Insiders League. My colleague (and Bullz-Eye Editor-In-Chief), Jamey Codding, is also in the league this year and the draft for his division was held last night.

The results for each round are below. For the first 10 rounds, I’ll analyze each pick while comparing his strategy to mine, and Jamey will provide an outline of his thinking for each selection.

Round 1
#1 Team Bob Harris – Chris Johnson, RB, TEN
#2 KFFL- R. Bonini – Adrian Peterson, RB, MIN
#3 Rotowire Houston-Smith – Ray Rice, RB, BAL
#4 Sporting News – Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, JAC
#5 Fantasy Insights – Smitty – Andre Johnson, WR, HOU
#6 Team Shaw – Michael Turner, RB, ATL
#7 Draft Sharks – Smola – Frank Gore, RB, SFO
#8 Team J. Levit – Randy Moss, WR, NWE
#9 ProSportsBlogging Brian Moore – Steven Jackson, RB, STL
#10 The Scores Report – Reggie Wayne, WR, IND
#11 CBSSports – Eisenberg – Calvin Johnson, WR, DET
#12 KFFL – McRae – Ryan Mathews, RB, SDG

JP’s Analysis: There were no huge surprises in the 1st, and Jamey did well to grab arguably the most consistent WR of the last five years in Reggie Wayne. It’s a PPR league where owners can start up to four wideouts, so it makes a lot of sense to draft a WR late in the first when all of the top RBs are already gone.

Jamey’s Thoughts: I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve taken a receiver in the first round, but after doing a couple of mock drafts and getting a feel for the kind of RB and WR that would be available at the 3/4 turn, I did the unthinkable (for me) and committed to going WR/WR with my first two picks. I was hoping to get Moss here but, despite some concerns about the crowded receiving corps in Indy, I was happy to land Peyton Manning’s #1 in Wayne, a PPR rock.

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TMZ has the details…

As we previously reported, Chad is all set to appear on the show next season — as the love interest of his current girlfriend Evelyn Lozada.

Now, sources connected to the show tell us Chad has inked a deal to shoot several scenes between September and October … and the shoots will be scheduled around his football obligations.

We’re told some of Chad’s scenes will take place in Miami — where the show is based — whenever he can spare the time. However, sources tell us VH1 wants Ochocinco material so badly … they’re willing to shoot scenes out in Cincinnati too.

Lozada is the ex-fiancee of Antonie Walker, so technically she’s not a basketball wife, but the devil isn’t in the details as far as reality television is concerned.

From a fantasy football perspective, the more and more I think about Ochocinco, the less I like him as a WR1/WR2 this year. Terrell Owens is in town, he spent part of his summer on his own dating reality show and now he’s going to be flying back and forth to Miami to shoot scenes for “Basketball Wives.” This all adds up to distraction, and that can’t be good for his numbers this season.

Bottom line — I wouldn’t take him before the 5th round.

Wondering who to keep, who to draft at a certain pick or general football strategy? Click here to ask your question on our official preseason Q&A.