Chicago Bears wide receiver Johnny Knox will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing back surgery on Monday.

Chicago Bears wide receiver Johnny Knox was carted off the field with a mid-back injury during Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Let 's begin with a review of how accurate Vinnie has been against the spread 12 weeks in: 35-29-3 Were it not for Buffalo's resilient effort against the New York Jets, Vinnie's picks would have gone without a hitch last week. Oh well, time to shoot for perfection in Week 13. Or better yet for your purposes, perhaps there 's analysis for a game or two here that helps catapult you back to the top of your favorite pigskin pick ' em league. Dallas Cowboys at Arizona Cardinals (+4.5): With Kevin Kolb out of the lineup, Arizona has been winning on the legs of Chris ‘Beanie' Wells and special teams magic of Patrick Peterson. The Cowboys are well prepared for Wells, though, boasting an underrated run defense and as focused as ever on the slim lead they currently have atop the NFC East standings. Tony Romo has been unstoppable here lately, helped quite a bit by the sensational rushing numbers DeMarco Murray is putting up as a rookie. Expect very good things from both against the Cardinals on Sunday. Gimme the Cowboys minus the points. Kansas City Chiefs at Chicago Bears (-7.5): Chicago had won four consecutive games prior to losing at Oakland last week. Even with Caleb Hanie taking over at quarterback, this remains a formidable team. It shouldn 't surprise if Johnny Knox picks up another big gainer or two, but the real damage will come from Matt Forte and possibly Marion Barber because the Chiefs run defense is awful. Speaking of awful, Tyler Palko is back under center for Kansas City with recently signed Kyle Orton not yet acclimated to the offense. This hurts Dwayne Bowe 's chances of making any real contributions, of course, which in turns hurts the visiting team 's chances of keeping this game close. Gimme the Bears minus the points. Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3.5): Here we have a pair of basement dwellers which have each, at times this season, been a model of inconsistency. Considering this and how well yo u'd think these teams know one another, not the safest pick either way, right? At this point, Tampa Bay has lost six of its last seven games, and Josh Freeman has fallen on hard times. Carolina, meanwhile, has been hit bitten by the injury bug on defense but is doing a lot of things the right way offensively. Expect Cam Newton to have quite a day against the hapless Buccaneers defense, alongside effective running on the part of DeAngelo Williams and/or Jonathan Stewart. Gimme the Panthers plus the points. Atlanta Falcons at Houston ...

Running Wild After his Week 12 performance, Roy Helu finally gained the endorsement from head coach Mike Shanahan as the team's starting running back. This decision should have been made weeks ago, but fantasy owners should be happy that it's now official. Helu had a monster game last week, rushing for 108 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries and also catching seven passes for 54 yards. He's only received 74 carries on the season, but is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and has 38 receptions on the year, so it was inevitable that Helu deserved to be named the lead back. He does draw a tough challenge in his first start though as Washington is home against a very good New York Jets' run defense. They have given up the second-fewest fantasy points to running backs over the last five weeks, but the fact that Helu is such a great receiver certainly helps his cause. He should be used in most formats this weekend and is a great flex option at the very least. He may not rack up the rushing yards, but expect the Redskins to find ways to get him the ball. They are struggling as a team, but Helu should still get no fewer than 20 touches on Sunday. It's been an up and down season for Chris ‘Beanie' Wells' owners, but he has to be considered a must-start after last week. Wells ran the ball 27 times for 228 yards and a score. He had a few big runs, breaking off a 71-yarder in the first half and his day could have been even bigger if he didn't get tackled inside the 10 on a few instances. Even still, it was a huge day for him, especially since he's been banged up with a minor knee injury. There are a few things to point out with Wells, though. He did this against a terrible Rams defense, and this week it will be much more difficult with the Cowboys coming to town. Also, Wells has lost a fumble in each of the last two games. That's another thing to watch, but I like him a lot in Week 13. Arizona should be getting Kevin Kolb back for this game and that will help Wells' production greatly. The good news is he received a big workload last week and his knee responded well, so look for the Cardinals to give him around 20 carries again on Sunday. Who would have thought that Chris Johnson would have this bad of a season? At this point he can only be used as a matchup guy, so with that being said his matchup is very favorable in Week 13. Johnson draws a struggling Buffalo defense which has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to running backs this season. I know it kills ...

As fantasy players, we tend to lock into beliefs that we never give up or change. These beliefs can be developed over the course of many seasons or just over the course of one preseason. It's very easy to look at last year's stats and this year's rankings and form an opinion. But every year, players break from the patterns we expect. Old veterans return to prominence. Superstars fade into oblivion. Injury-prone players stay healthy while bastions of health are lost for the season. As always, you're trying to stay ahead of the curve. It's not going to do you nearly as much good to figure out this stuff after the draft. Now, Ms. Cleo I am not. My Jamaican accent is terrible. So these are educated guesses, based on every available piece of information I can get my grubby little paws on. So, taking it from the top ... AHMAD BRADSHAW/BRANDON JACOBS - Pay attention here. The New York Giants are going to use basically a 50/50 RBBC (running back by committee) split. It's what they used at the end of last season. Bradshaw averaged just two carries more per game over the last month of the season. That has continued throughout the preseason. That means that Bradshaw is being overdrafted while Jacobs represents a steal. You'd definitely still rather have Bradshaw in a PPR (points per reception) league. But Jacobs has a shot to be just as valuable in standard leagues. Just make sure that you do not draft Bradshaw as your RB1 (No. 1 fantasy running back). And if Jacobs is there in Round 8 and you need a running back ? REGGIE BUSH/ DANIEL THOMAS - This is a tough one. There's no way that Bush can stay healthy. Right? Could moving out of the dome (and it's turf) really help him? We know that the Miami Dolphins are going to run the ball. Now we now that they are going to use Bush as a featured back if healthy. Thomas has looked very ordinary in the preseason while Bush has looked explosive. The only reason Thomas was so highly regarded by fantasy owners was the fact that we knew that the Dolphins were going to run the ball and Thomas was all they had. The signing of Larry Johnson indicates that the Dolphins aren't completely comfortable with Thomas being "the guy" if/when Bush gets injured. So I would pretty much flip-flop Bush and Thomas in your rankings, especially in PPR leagues. Don't overdraft Bush, but if you can get him in the sixth or seventh round as your RB3, I'm probably pulling the trigger. He has RB2 upside now. Thomas should be no more than your RB4 and ...