Fantasy football truth be told, none of the recent news surrounding NFL quarterbacks should affect your draft very much. Let's go through it:

- Chad Pennington has been named the starter for the Jets. He beat our Patrick Ramsey and rookie sensation, Kellen Clemens. Nevertheless, Pennington can scarecely throw the ball 10 yards and Kevan Barlow won't take a lot of pressure of by running well.

- Kerry Collins has signed with the Titans. It's a good decision in Tennessee - but the advice we'd give fantasy football players is to think about current starter, Billy Volek for your squad. He's racked up a few 400-yard games in his brief career.

- The Raiders signed Jeff George. This is simply hilarious. Don't even think about him as a fantasy football quarterback.

Draft Terrell Owens for your fantasy football league at your own risk. We have no idea what other advice to offer on the Dallas receiver.

"I think everybody has overslept, you know, once or twice in their life," Owens said, in response to the $9,500 fine he received for missing a team meeting.

You'd think the multi, multi-millionaire to afford a better alarm clock. Or perhaps an wake-up service.

Nevertheless, T.O. slowly entering the dog house of Bill Parcells, as well as having an injured hamstring, makes him a risky starter on your squad. We've got him ranked as the number-one fantasy football wide receiver at the moment.

But that's only if he actually gets on the field.

We love Carson Palmer and Brett Favre here at The Files. We hope they each have stellar seasons in 2006.

Based on last night's preseason game, however, that may only be the case for the former.

Making his debut, after a gruesome knee injury to close out the 2005 postseason earlier than he would've liked to, Palmer stood strong in the pocket and threw for three touchdown passes. We feel confident recommending him still as the second or third overall fantasy football quarterbacks.

The Bengals won the game, 48-17. Sadly, Favre's difficult day contriubted to that. He finished the game 12-25, with one fumble, one interception and a touchdown.

Favre could still be a quality starter in a fantasy football league that doesn't punish interceptions too much. Because he'll throw A LOT of those. But the Green Bay QB will also rack up the yards and TD passes.

A trade last night shook up the fantasy football landscape a bit. Ashley Lelie - traded to Atlanta from Denver, who received Washington's 2007 third round draft pick - gives Michael Vick a fairly established deep threat.

Vick is still no top fantasy football quarterback, but he should enjoy the presence of Lelie beating defenses down the field. Even more important for the Falcons - or, to be precise, fantasy owners analying the team - is how many more carries Warrick Dunn will receive now.

He's a surefire second round draft pick, players.

But what about Clinton Portis? The Files felt confident enough to list him as our fourth best running back, but now he's hurt. And Duckett is a goal line specialist.

This affects anyone with the number-four position. We'd recommend trading down. If you can't, Rudi Johnson, Edgerrin James or Tiki Barber are all looking more attractive than Portis, who will lose a few touchdowns this season thanks to the addition of Duckett.

Look, if you were gonna draft Jamal Lewis any time before the 13th round anyway, we're sorry - but you've already lost your fantasy football league.

Now, however, comes news that the Baltimore running back will miss at least two weeks with a strained hip flexor. Coach Brian Billick said:

"Jamal has had a good camp so far. Medically, it's prudent at this point to give him a chance to fully rehab it and get the last bit of soreness — whatever is going on in there — out," coach Brian Billick said. "Between now and the beginning of the season that's what our focus is going."

Lewis sucks. You'd be better off with back-up, Mike Anderson, anyway.

After their trade for Lee Suggs fell through, the Jets have landed Kevan Barlow - formerly of the 49ers - instead. Based on Barlow's poor performance over the last couple seasons, The Files recommend the following:

Don't draft him!

At least not unless he's your third string back at best. With Curtin Martin looking more and more finished, Barlow is supposed to least fill the need for an every down back.

A league source said Sunday night that the pick involved is a fourth-round choice that can become a higher selection if Barlow reaches predetermined performance levels, but neither team confirmed that.

We may have to redo the rankings of our fantasy football quarterbacks. Carson Palmer wouldn't be number-three if we knew he'd miss time during the regular season.

As The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Cincy starter won't play in today's preseason game, that possibility is becoming more and more likely.

Earlier in the week, Marvin Lewis said that his rehabbing quarterback would make the final call about when he was ready for game action. He's now done so.

"I'm not going to cover anything up," Palmer told the paper. "I've got nothing to hide. I'm not going out there until I'm 100 percent. And I don't feel like I have to hide anything about that. If I was going to go out there and do something silly and try to play at 85 percent, then that's not the best thing for me or the organization. This organization wants me to be 100 percent."

Lewis has indicated that if Palmer does not play in any of Cincinnati's four preseason games, he won't start the regular-season opener. In that event, the starter would almost certainly be Anthony Wright, who has performed well in camp and in the preseason. Nevertheless, fantasy players, don't draft him!

We're not even sure who should now follow Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in your fantasy football draft. Kurt Warner? Brett Favre? You're better off waiting for other players to cut the selection down for you.

Fantasy football owners that hold the number-four pick in this year's draft are all muttering the same thing as Clinton Portis right about now:

Do we really need preseason games?!?

Portis separated his shoulder against the Bengals last night, trying to tackle a defender after an interception. The All-Pro - whose status for the season opener is now unclear - what not pleased about being in the game inthe first place.

"After that 8-yard run, I was like, 'Get me out of that game,'" Portis said. "That's what I was thinking. It's football. It can happen to anyone. It happened to me."

And now the injury bug has happened to a number of fantasy football players. After Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson and Shaun Alexander, Portis was pretty much the consensus next pick.

Now? It's up in the air. Tiki Barber is the next back on most people's list, but age must catch up with the Giants star at some point … right? Bottom line: if your draft is not for a couple weeks, refresh the Web every few minutes and check out Portis' status.

Hmmm … perhaps dating a beautiful actress will work out okay for Reggie Bush after after. Or it could just be that incredible talent.

Whatever the reason, the Saints rookie ran up 59 yards on just six carries in his preseason, NFL debut. He also grabbed two passes for 10 years, exciting New Orleans fans down south and rising up fantasy football draft boards around the nation.

Other notable preseason news includes healthy sets of downs for Daunte Culpepper and Ben Roethlisberger. Miami and Pittsburgh may have both lost, but their fans don't care. The quarterbacks walked away from the action in one piece.

He took over fantasy football last season as much as any player since Peyton Manning … the year before.

Nevertheless, Steve Smith dominated his position in 2006 and made himself the obvious first wide receiver taken in any fantasy draft this season. Okay, so the Files still have Terrell Owens going first, but Smith is still really good.

These two wide outs have something else in common, though: both have injured hamstrings. In fact, Smith will miss Carolina's first preseason game this weekend as a result of it. He's missed 13 straight days of training camp overall.

It's a bit early to panic and change up your fantasy draft board - but this is certainly something to keep your eye on.