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Part of being a fantasy owner is being prepared to identify the new trends, anticipating them even before they happen. After all, player values change every day, especially on game day, which is why it's so important to watch your players play, and keep tabs regularly on the latest news. I'm a big proponent of watching a lot of football in order to stay up to date on all the latest happenings, and as you watch those Week 1 contests, take stock of the following 10 situations and how they shake out. Each week of the season, I'll provide a similar list of the 10 things I'm watching, so you'll be reasonably prepared for some of the week's biggest developments in advance of them happening.

The Broncos' merry-go-running backs: Let's face it; you can't trust anything Mike Shanahan says. He doesn't care about your fantasy team, nor should he, so the only way you're going to get any actual information about how he's handling his running back situation is by watching Broncos games, and watching them often. I'm sure I could list this as an item to monitor for all 16 of Denver's games this season, but Week 1 is the key, because it's going to answer the question, "Does Shanahan believe in Mike Bell, or was all that talk about him starting a big, fat lie?" Here's something for you: Shanahan's now singing the praises of Tatum Bell, so maybe he's zigging now that fantasy owners are zagging because he just loves giving us all headaches. I actually think Shanahan hasn't been entirely untruthful; he likens Mike Bell to 2005's Mike Anderson, and Tatum Bell to 2005's Tatum Bell. That means maybe 15-17 carries a game for Mike, 10-12 for Tatum, but that's not so bad for fantasy. Whatever the plan, we're finally going to see it on Sunday.

Daunte Culpepper's knee: One week's all I need to know what kind of quarterback we can expect Culpepper to be in 2006, the scrambler he was the first seven years of his career or a pocket passer like Dan Marino once was for more than a decade in Miami. I really don't think it matters all that much to fantasy owners which one, because all we care about is that he's healthy and under center for 16 games. I'm thinking pocket passer, and if that's the case, it'll be great news for those receivers. And I'm not only talking about everyone's favorite breakout candidate Chris Chambers; Marty Booker could be a sleeper!

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