Brown, Dion Lewis & Shady, back when we thought Philly wasn't terrible (Getty)

The first thing you need to know about Bryce Brown is that he was, at one time, a pretty big deal.

Brown was rated as the nation's No. 1 overall recruit by Rivals in the class of '09, following a dominant prep career at Wichita East HS. Every major university wanted him — and he committed to half of them. He spent a season at Tennessee running behind Montario Hardesty, then transferred to K-State, sat out a year, and played a supporting role in a handful of games for the Wildcats before tapping out, then dropping out. Brown was mixed up in the Nevin Shapiro scandal at Miami, too.

If Brown sounds like he was a bust at the collegiate level, well ... yeah. He was a serious disappointment.

And then he ran a 4.37 at his pro day, so the NFL welcomed him.

Andre Johnson, en route to a 273-yard day (Getty)

Hey, wait, hold up. Who invited the 2008 Texans to the 2012 season?

Houston's defense is no longer supposed to be a team weakness, but an asset. In fact, the Texans D entered the week ranked second in the NFL in yards-allowed (281.6) and third in points (15.9). Sure, they were destroyed by the Packers in Week 6, but they've still held six opponents to 14 points or less this season. Ever since the Green Bay loss, this defense has been absolutely dominant.

This isn't a team that finds itself in weekly shootouts anymore, as was the case early in the Gary Kubiak era. These days, Houston holds your offense to a low number and they steamroll your defense with Arian Foster. That's the formula. Game over.

Thus, when Jacksonville rolled into town in Week 11, most of us gave the Jaguars almost no shot to reach the 20-point plateau — forget winning, forget respectability. Jacksonville has been a fantasy sinkhole all year. And when the Jags lost starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert to an elbow injury in the first quarter on Sunday, whatever modest expectations we had for their miserable offense were dialed down.

That's when the Chad Henne-to-Justin Blackmon show began.

LeSean McCoy, before the concussion (USP)

With less than two minutes remaining in a game his team trailed by 25 points, Philadelphia's LeSean McCoy sustained a helmet-to-helmet hit, suffering a concussion. McCoy was carted off the field after the play.

Why was he still on the field so late, when the score was 31-6?

"We were trying to catch up and win the game," said Andy Reid.

Yeah, OK. The way things were going on Sunday, Reid's team would have needed a lot more than two minutes to catch up. What a big green steaming mess.

Let's hope for the best with McCoy. He has the concussion protocol ahead, and, at this point in a lost season, there's no obvious reason to rush him back. Bryce Brown is the handcuff, and he's legit (even if his team isn't). Brown carried five times for 35 yards against the 'Skins in Week 11; the Panthers are up next on the schedule, so the match-up shouldn't scare you off.

Darren Sproles is a no-go (Getty)Repeat: Darren Sproles is inactive for the Week 11 match-up with the Raiders.

Take evasive action, gamers. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Fox's Jay Glazer had the scoop earlier in the day, and now it's official: No Sproles.

Hopefully you've got another New Orleans back on your roster available for use. Chris Ivory and Mark Ingram have been terrific in back-to-back games, as we discussed earlier in the week. Oakland's defense has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to RBs this season.

One quick Raiders note: Darrius Heyward-Bey (hamstring) is active, but dinged. If you need him, he's on the board, expected to start.

AJ Green, still beasting (US Presswire)

This week, AJ Green got his house call out of the way early, hauling in a four-yard TD in the first quarter at Kansas City.

Check out the degree-of-difficulty on his latest score. That's just evil. Unfair. Green caught the ball with one hand (his left) over two defenders, then somehow got both feet in-bounds.

Sunday's score gives Green TD receptions in nine straight games, which puts him just one shy of Carl Pickens' franchise record (1994-95) and four short of Jerry Rice's all-time mark (1986-87).* The Bengals face Oakland next week, so that's basically a layup. After the match-up with the Raiders, AJ will terrorize San Diego, Dallas, Philly and Pittsburgh. Eventually this TD streak will end, but probably not 'til December.

CJ Spiller, leaving behind a trail of would-be tacklers (US Presswire)

After Buffalo managed to hold off Miami on Thursday night, winning a messy game that featured only one offensive touchdown, Bills running back CJ Spiller sat down for a postgame interview with NFL Network's collection of dudes who peaked in the '90s distinguished analysts. Here's the full discussion. Spiller had just gained 130 total yards on 25 touches against the 'Fins, carrying the ball a career-high 22 times.

Before the on-air crew could ask their first question, CJ offered this...

"I answered the critics tonight. I told 'em I could tote it 20-plus times."

Indeed he did. Spiller didn't mention (nor did he need to) that the only critic who actually matters is his head coach, Chan Gailey, the guy who'd prevented CJ from ever reaching the 20-carry plateau.

That's three-fourths of the Saints backfield committee, officially a quorum. Enough to conduct business (US Presswire)

New Orleans running back Darren Sproles returned to a limited practice on Wednesday, and looked "dynamite" according to interim head coach Joe Vitt. So that's an encouraging assessment. Sproles has missed the Saints' last two games, but it sounds as if he'll soon be back in the mix, wearing a protective glove on his surgically repaired left hand.

When No. 43 reappears, he'll further complicate a murky yet increasingly productive running-back-by-committee arrangement. New Orleans has totaled 288 rushing yards over the past two weeks in wins over Philadelphia and Atlanta. The team has relied on a three-headed attack, with Mark Ingram running surprisingly well (23 carries, 111 yards), Chris Ivory absolutely beasting (17 carries, 120 yards, 2 TDs, this thing), and Pierre Thomas collecting the scraps (11 carries, 54 yards).

Sproles, without question, is one of the NFL's most dangerous ball carriers, and his role in the Saints' offense is actually somewhat predictable: typically 3-5 carries, 6-9 targets per week. Assuming he's active at Oakland on Sunday, you can pencil him in for 9-12 touches.

As for the rest of this backfield ... well, that's a riddle. At this point, the New Orleans committee is large enough to form subcommittees.

Megatron, beasting (Getty)

So it turns out that even when Megatron is operating at  less than full capacity, he's still ... well, he's still the LEADER OF THE [EXPLETIVE] DECEPTICONS.

Calvin Johnson is a dangerous man, and he proved it again at Minnesota in Week 10. 'Tron drew 13 targets on Sunday, catching 12 for 207 yards, scoring a late touchdown. Not such a bad day's work. Let's recall that Calvin is still battling a left knee injury, still on a limited practice schedule, still presumably expecting to deal with pain all year.

Johnson has only visited the end zone twice this season, which is no doubt a disappointment to some of his owners, but the man is nonetheless on pace to catch 107 balls and gain 1732 yards. That'll play, with or without the TDs (which of course will come. He's been involved in a weird number of tackled-at-the-goal-line plays this year).

Over the past two weeks, 'Tron has 19 receptions on 21 targets for 336 yards, and he's reestablished himself atop the league's receiver hierarchy. (No disrespect, AJ). If you bought low during the slow weeks (7 & 8), please share your heroic story in comments, after the usual target table...