1. Jerome Harrison — The Chiefs' defense isn't exactly making the team's fans forget about those fine Kansas City defenses of the late 1980s and early 1990s that included Derrick Thomas, Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry and Bill Maas. (In 14 games, the '09 Chiefs have already given up 126 more points than the '90 Chiefs allowed over the entire regular season.) But how does any team give up 286 rushing yards in a single game to the largely anonymous Harrison? After watching Jamal Lewis repeatedly run into the backsides of his offensive linemen for the last several years, Browns fans would be thrilled if Harrison turned out to be even a poor man's version of Earnest Byner (provided that Harrison, um, doesn't have any memorable, soul-crushing fumbles in the postseason, of course). The Browns face another bad run defense this weekend: that of the Raiders. It makes Harrison an attractive fantasy option, but his owners should still be mildly concerned that just one game before Harrison exploded against K.C., Cleveland's Chris Jennings ran 20 times for 73 yards and a TD against the fierce Pittsburgh run defense, while Harrison ran seven times for nine yards in that game.

2. Andre Johnson — Johnson has a league-high 1,433 receiving yards, which puts him more than 200 yards ahead of his next-closest pursuer, Reggie Wayne. Johnson has been scorching-hot lately, with 488 yards and three TDs over his last three games. This weekend, he and the Texans hit the road for a must-win game against the 23rd-ranked Dolphins pass defense. Put it this way: We probably shouldn't expect the Texans to put their slim playoff hopes in the hands of Ryan Moats or Kevin Walter.

3. Brett Favre — How could Favre be upset with Vikings head coach Brad Childress for wanting to bench the veteran quarterback early in the Vikings' Sunday-night game against the Panthers? Minnesota had already established a commanding 7-6 lead in that game, and everyone knows what an enormous health risk Favre has been throughout his NFL career. (And if you disagree, don't worry; you're getting a sarcasm detector this holiday season.) Yes, the fact that Favre's performance has slipped in recent weeks should be at least mildly alarming to his fantasy owners. Over his first 11 games, he threw 24 TD passes, had four 300-yard passing games and threw only three INTs. Over his last three games, he's thrown three TD passes, he's had zero 300-yard days, and he's thrown four INTs. Perhaps even more alarming to Favre owners in a critical week of fantasy football is the Vikings' matchup against the careening Bears, whom the Vikes would be likely to crush even if Favre were 50 years old rather than 40. A big Minnesota lead early on could tamp down Favre's Week 16 numbers.

4. DeSean Jackson — He has become such an explosive deep-strike threat that it would be almost impossible for fantasy owners to bench him, but beware the Eagles' matchup against the No. 2-ranked Denver pass defense, and realize that Jackson will, in all likelihood, be covered by human blanket Champ Bailey for much of this game.

5. Philip Rivers — He may not qualify as "underrated," but Rivers doesn't get his due vis-à-vis some of the other elite quarterbacks in the NFL. I think I'd rather have Rivers than Tom Brady at this point, either as a fantasy quarterback or as a real-world quarterback. Rivers and the smoking-hot Chargers face another hot team, the Titans, this weekend in Nashville. The Titans' pass defense has been slightly better lately, but Tennessee has still yielded more passing yardage and more TD passes than every team in the league other than Detroit. That bodes pretty well for a quarterback who's exceeded 300 passing yards and thrown multiple TD passes in three of his last four games.

6. Beanie Wells — The rookie runner from Ohio State is steadily maturing as the season trudges on. The Cardinals' coaching staff has become more confident in Wells, giving him at least 13 carries in six of Arizona's last seven games while taking carries away from Tim Hightower. Wells is also on a two-game TD streak, and he had the first 100-yard rushing game of his pro career last week, gouging the Lions for 110 yards. He faces an even worse run defense this week. The Rams rank 27th against the run and are giving up 140.4 rushing yards per game.

7. Vernon Davis — Davis had caught a TD pass in four straight games before being shut out by the Eagles last weekend. But since the 49ers have the hapless Detroit pass defense on the menu for this weekend, Davis has an excellent chance of starting a new TD streak.

8. Derrick Mason — The Ravens' No. 1 receiver needs 72 more receiving yards to hit the 1,000-yard mark for the season. With Baltimore visiting Pittsburgh, that would normally seem to be worse than a 50-50 possibility, But the Steelers' pass defense has been uncharacteristically shabby this season. It should also be noted that Ravens WRs Mark Clayton and Kelley Washington will most likely be listed as "questionable" for this win-or-else tussle for wild-card position, so Mason figures to have a good number of passes thrown his way.

9. Donald Driver — The normally sure-handed Driver had multiple drops last week in Green Bay's one-point road loss to Pittsburgh, but the Packers host the Seahawks at Lambeau Field this weekend, and Seattle's 29th-ranked pass defense could be a nice tonic for The Donald, who's had only eight catches for 118 receiving yards over his three most recent games.

10. Jason Snelling — I don't want to diminish Buffalo's run defense, but Jamaal Anderson has asked the Falcons to let him come out of retirement to fill in for the injured Michael Turner and dance "The Dirty Bird" at least one more time. OK, that's not true, other than the part about Turner being hurt. He hasn't played a full game since Week Nine, and after sitting out Weeks 13 and 14, he returned last week only to re-injure himself after just one carry. Snelling will share rushing duties with Jerious Norwood, but Snelling is the better pure runner, and you can bet that the Falcons will try to wear down the Bills with the ground game.

PFW has launched its brand-new NFL Draft Newsletter series, with the second issue now ready for mailing. Produced by PFW's player personnel department under the direction of Nolan Nawrocki, the series consists of four information-packed issues. For more info or to subscribe — click here for PDF e-pub or here for print format.