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On Wednesday in New Jersey, golfer Thomas Brady stepped up to a 179-yard par-3 and holed it. High-fives all around, and beers to come. Playing partner Dennis Gerhart, a 57-year-old "weekend hacker," was probably still shaking his head when he smacked his 5-iron. Didn't matter. His ball landed in almost the same spot, and it ended up in exactly the same spot: the jar. Back-to-back aces, a 17 million to 1 stunt, according to Golf Digest. In honor of those two, we're putting our preseason Top 10 running back rankings back on the tee and taking a mulligan. Of all the early surprises, the slow-starting studs and overachieving middle-tier guys have us baffled the most:
1. LaDainian Tomlinson (17th in scoring/1 preseason rank): Still has to be the king, despite the worst yards per carry (1.9) in the league.
2. Frank Gore (2/4): The yardage (20th) will catch up with his TD production (1st).
3. Steven Jackson (28/2): Currently a walking argument for taking the preseason seriously.
4. Marion Barber (1/21): We thought Julius Jones (contract year) would get half the points in that backfield. We don't think that anymore.
5. Joseph Addai (4/5): He gave us a scare on the season's first play, but he's been solid since. A lock for the Top 5.
6. Larry Johnson (26/3): Can the vibe out of KC be any worse? A tough schedule, but c'mon.
7. Shaun Alexander (6/7): He should make his good start a great one this week vs. Cincinnati.
8. Rudi Johnson (9/10): Our favorite workhorse is somehow still under the fantasy radar.
9. Willie Parker (12/8): We thought he could make the leap to the Top 5 this year, and he's done nothing so far to scare us away from that.
10. Edgerrin James (3/18): He leads the league in carries (50). Another bet we would've lost.
Bonus RB thoughts: Travis Henry belongs on this list, but his schedule scares us. And is it Amber Alert time yet for Maurice Jones-Drew? ... Maurice?
THE LINE LAST WEEK: 2-1 / SEASON: 2-4
Nate Burleson -3 over Lee Evans
Speaking of Amber Alert, who's that guy wearing Evans' No. 83 Bills jersey?
Santana Moss -4 over Braylon Edwards
Start your WRs vs. N.Y. And let's not all get on that spacious Browns bandwagon until we see a repeat performance.
Ladell Betts -1 over Deshawn Wynn
We'll play the matchup game in this waiver-wire battle.
PICK 'EM UP
Brandon Marshall (Den), Roydell Williams (Ten) and Dwayne Bowe (KC) are three receivers to watch. Jacoby Jones (Hou) is a sneaky start this week. We like Wynn, just not vs. SD. And we'll take Jason Campbell over Derek Anderson.
Chris Carr fantasy@startribune.com

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| Date/Opponent | Time | W | L | Score |
| Sep 13 - at Cleveland | 12:00 PM | 1 | 0 | 34-20 |
| Sep 20 - at Detroit | 12:00 PM | 2 | 0 | 27-13 |
| Sep 27 - vs. San Francisco | 12:00 PM | 3 | 0 | 27-24 |
| Oct 5 - vs. Green Bay | 7:30 PM | 4 | 0 | 30-23 |
| Oct 11 - at St. Louis | 12:00 PM | 5 | 0 | 38-10 |
| Oct 18 - vs. Baltimore | 12:00 PM | 6 | 0 | 33-31 |
| Oct 25 - at Pittsburgh | 12:00 PM | 6 | 1 | 17-27 |
| Nov 1 - at Green Bay | 3:15 PM | 7 | 1 | 38-26 |
| Open | ||||
| Nov 15 - vs. Detroit | 12:00 PM | |||
| Nov 22 - vs. Seattle | 12:00 PM | |||
| Nov 29 - vs. Chicago | 12:00 PM | |||
| Dec 6 - at Arizona | 3:15 PM | |||
| Dec 13 - vs. Cincinnati | 12:00 PM | |||
| Dec 20 - at Carolina | 7:20 PM | |||
| Dec 28 - at Chicago | 7:30 PM | |||
| Jan 3 - vs. NY Giants | 12:00 PM |
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