by John Juhasz

Fantasy Football

John Juhasz analyzes the fantasy impact of Ronnie Brown's season-ending foot injury and Larry Johnson's signing by Cincinnati. Who are this week's top 10 fantasy studs and duds? Who are the top 10 waiver claims or the top 10 sleepers? Or who are this week's top 300 fantasy players? Roger Rotter answers. Have a fantasy football question? Ask our experts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. ET! Roger Rotter also chats on Sundays from 11-1 p.m. ET!

Priest Holmes seemed to rush for 100 yards and score at least one touchdown every single week. He was so good that he kept Larry Johnson at bay for a few years, and when L.J. finally got his chance, he did the exact same thing his predecessor did. That tandem terrorized defenses for nearly a decade. But, like all good things, it finally came to an end.

The Chiefs claim the reason they released L.J. today was because of his Twitter pontifications, but I think it was really an excuse to get him, his bad attitude and his cap-unfriendly salary off the books and begin evaluating what they have and what they may still need at the running back position.

Jamaal Charles and Kolby Smith will split the rushing workload on a team that has had major problems running the ball this season. Not that they haven't tried like hell to do so — they've run the ball a total of 218 times this year, and only 12 teams in the league have had more attempts.

I think even that number is a little skewed since the Chiefs probably would have tried to run a lot more if they didn't find themselves behind by multiple scores so often. But the problem is they have tallied the ninth-lowest total number of rushing yards (769) in the league.

If you wonder what some of the reasons are behind their 1-7 record, well, look no further. You can't win in the NFL if you can't at least make your opponents respect your potential to run.

The problem isn't Charles or Smith, though. Kansas City's patchwork offensive line has been giving its running backs, L.J. included, no room to maneuver. Charles hasn't scored a touchdown or cracked 40 rushing yards in any game this year ,while Smith made an unceremonious debut with four carries for 17 yards against the Jags in Week 9.

Yet, we really can't judge how good either of them are since they are forced to almost instantly elude angry linebackers the second they get the ball. But I'm not really prepared to claim either of them in order to find out. These guys may have the most potential of any running back you find on the waiver wire to produce, but the waiver wire is where I'd leave them until they prove to me I shouldn't.

As far as L.J., a few teams have reportedly expressed interest in picking him up, most notably the Redskins. Clinton Portis took a big blow to the head and didn't really look like he knew where he was on the sidelines in Atlanta last week. Guess what, though? The Redskins are another team that's had trouble running the ball. Ladell Betts did a nice job in relief of Portis, but the team has some offensive line issues that need to be addressed before next year.

I wonder if the Chargers may be a wildcard in this process since LaDainian Tomlinson has been such a big disappointment?

Some team out there will give L.J. a chance, but because it will probably be a team whose offense hasn't been scoring, I'm not too excited about L.J.'s fantasy prospects for the rest of this season. Let's at least see where he winds up, then we can reevaluate.