At this point of the fantasy season, you’re one of three things: hopelessly out of contention, still fighting for a playoff spot or basically on cruise control for the rest of the regular season. If you find yourself in the first category, then I’m sure you’re either doing A) your best to ruin others’ seasons or B) refusing to pick up players, set your team (Tony Romo or Brett Favre are your starting QBs) and just in general giving your opponents easy victories. Shame on you option B followers, you’re taking a lot of the fun out of it for the rest of us. We’re not the ones that drafted Pierre Thomas in the 3rd or Ryan Mathews in the 1st.

For the rest of us, however, we’re looking around at our opponent’s teams and trying to figure out where we stack up. Unless you drafted amazingly well, chances are that you have holes on your team which may concern you come playoff time. Maybe you’re lacking that true second RB or WR, maybe you’re just getting by on your group of RBs putting up a consistent 10 points or so, or maybe you just lack that true stud on your team. You look around and see the teams you’ll more than likely have to face in the playoffs and quiver in fear of their Adrian Petersons, Arian Fosters and Roddy Whites.

It’s a disheartening place to be, knowing that though you’re a lock to make it into the playoffs, your odds at winning a championship are less than favorable. So what do you do? You know you need to fill out your roster, but options are extremely scarce at this time of year. In my experience, most people are pretty well set with their lineups by now, making trades hard to come by.

Next you turn to the free agent pool, and unless you’re in a league full of uninformed morons, you’ll find the players waiting there to be less than appealing. That reaction, however, is wrong. Where you see coal, I see diamonds, just like Superman in his terrible third film with Richard Pryor. I’ve taken the time to compile a short list of who I think will absolutely have a strong fantasy impact for the remainder of the season, who I think will be worthy of the occasional start and who will more than likely not do much, yet could surprise.

Cream of the Crop

Get to know LeGarrette Blount and his awkwardly spelled name. He’s received a fair amount of media attention this past week, but chances are, he’s available in most–if not all–of your leagues. According to ESPN, in fact, he is only owned in 12.7 percent of their leagues; this is a number which I expect to go up considerably. His low ownership may be attributed to the difficulty in spelling his name, causing owners to type one misspelling after another into their leagues player search, but that’s another matter entirely.

You probably know Blount as the Oregon Duck RB that hit a Boise State player in the face after the first game of last year’s college football season, and then promptly began to swing at fans who heckled him. He was suspended for a majority of the season, then went undrafted in the NFL and then bounced around from team to team in the offseason, finally ending up on the Buccaneers. He couldn’t have found a better fit.

Now after six weeks (the Bucs have already had their Bye) of the Buccaneers largely being unable to run the ball, for which the blame can be equally split on Cadillac Williams and a poor offensive line, the team is ready to feed Blount. Last week, he managed 11 carries for 72 yards, most of which came in the second half. He looked strong and showed good speed, picking a hole and dragging defenders through it. Against the poor Cardinals run defense and virtually no threat from the Arizona offense to make this a scoring race, I fully expect Blount to come close to the century mark and at least one goal line TD. He’ll be a hot name next week, but you can say that you started him a week early. How smart of you!

Players Who Could Surprise

Robert Meachem–He might have already had his best two weeks of the season, catching a TD in back-to-back weeks against Arizona and Tampa Bay, but I look at his schedule and see some pretty good matchups. Word was that he had moved up to second on the depth chart before last weekend’s 31-yard debacle against the CLEVELAND BROWNS, excuse me but c’mon! But my feeling is that he’ll have good weeks against some of the weaker teams the Saints will face. Certainly don’t start him this week against the Steelers, but he may be a good play for the rest of the season as the quality of opponents significantly drops off. Hopefully he’ll string together a few strong weeks, which will make playing him easier and less guess work, but knowing how the Saints use their offensive players, I’ll have to assume that that won’t happen.

Anthony Gonzalez–If he burned you like he burned me last season, then I’m sure just saying his name brings the forgotten pits of rage in your stomach to 212 degrees Fahrenheit (water’s boiling point, ya dungus). The Colts’ receiving corps have been decimated by injuries however and Gonzalez appears as though he’ll return for Monday’s matchup against the porous Texans secondary. I’m not saying start him this week, injuries have piled up too often for the kid in the past year or so, but he’s worth a speculative grab if you have the roster space. I’m actually starting him in the one league that I’m not doing well in (draft time was changed, I wasn’t informed and was left with a computer drafted team featuring Ronnie Brown as my No. 1 RB), hoping for a spark and perhaps more poignantly, redemption. Zero points last year after I drafted him in the 5th round–simply unforgivable. Make me forget AG, make me forget…

The “I’m Digging Real Deep for this Guy” Section

It’s a down year for fantasy QBs. Presumed studs who were probably taken high in your draft such a Tom Brady, Tony Romo and Brett Favre have for one reason or another been ineffective. So grab Tarvaris Jackson and add some credibility to the position.

I know, it’s a stretch, but you read the section heading so what else do you expect? I’m not sure if Favre will play this weekend, but my gut tells me he won’t. Brad Childress knows that Favre is sucking for reasons which I’ve been over already and he knows that if he wants to keep his job, then he can’t let Favre run the show. Jackson is his hand-picked QB, whom he traded up for to draft in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft, Childress’s first draft with the team. Jackson’s been in the same system for five years now, he’s sat behind a Hall of Fame QB, learning from him (sorry Brad Johnson/Gus Frerotte, “The Frerotte-wiler,” but you guys just don’t cut it) and now he finally has some credible offensive threats around him.

In his first and second seasons of starting, Jackson saw his confidence shaken by receivers like Troy Williamson and Robert Ferguson (who?); Williamson in particular who has a highlight reel of perfectly thrown passes going un-caught/embarrassingly dropped. See HERE. Yeah, he was that bad.

Then the Vikings finally grabbed a “No. 1” WR in the form of Bernard Berrian; I believe we have all seen how that has worked out. He can’t even find his way on the field. Basically, my point is that Jackson finally has a loaded offensive team around him and not just at the RB position. He has just as good of an arm as Favre and is extremely athletic and mobile. I remember one game he had two years ago against the Falcons in which he passed for over 200 yards, threw 2 TDs and rushed for 80 yards. Who wouldn’t love that fantasy total? I think he helped me win a matchup that week on my way to a Fantasy Championship.

Even if Favre plays this week, there is the looming possibility of his suspension, one which is looking more likely as Jenn Sterger begins to take legal action. I wouldn’t even put it pass Childress to bench a continuously ineffective Favre. He’s been playing that bad.

The last time Jackson started any meaningful series of games came in the final four games of the 2008 season. He passed for 8 TDs and only threw one INT. He has shown the ability to be a fantasy difference maker when given the chance. Now, the only question is, will he be given a chance?

I don’t know, but like I said, I’m reaching deep.