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In a couple weeks we’ll hit the midpoint of fantasy football seasons. Those of you whose teams are struggling, it’s too early to give up hope. And for those of you that have gotten out of the gates strong – don’t start resting just yet.

Paul Charchian, who is founder of LeagueSafe.com, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and a renowned fantasy football expert, has returned to Zoneblitz.com to offer some advice on who to keep, who to shop, and how to turn that fast start into a fantasy championship.

Thanks again for the time, Charch.

Zoneblitz: Five weeks into the season who are the biggest fantasy football surprises for the good so far?

Charchian: Each year only one or two receivers rise from relative obscurity to make an impact. This year it’s Steve Smith’s turn. I’m not ready to call him a great receiver. But he’s in a great position for sustained fantasy impact. He’s earned the trust of Eli Manning and defenses are forced to play to stop the Giants’ running attack. His production is not a fluke.

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Early this week Michael Crabtree finally ended his moronic holdout in San Francisco. And the New York Jets, in an effort to provide their rookie quarterback with another weapon, acquired potential stud Braylon Edwards for spare parts and draft picks.

While these were higher-profile roster moves than you usually read about at this stage of the season, neither move will have a dramatic impact on fantasy football, at least in the short term.

Lets start with the Jets. In “real” football, Edwards will give Mark Sanchez another target. And Edwards will have a better team around him. A change of scenery could help him, so he’s got the potential to improve his situation as a fantasy player more than anyone else involved in the deal. But that’s only if he can A) keep himself from getting suspended for off the field actions and B) start catching the ball. If he continues leading the league in drops the fans in New York will tear this guy apart.

And Sanchez, while impressive as a rookie starter thus far, was and still is certainly only a backup and bye week plug-in at this point, even with Edwards.

For Jerricho Cotchery, the Edwards acquisition will likely take some coverage off of him. At the same time, as the better player, Edwards also will likely take some targets away from Cotchery. At best, this is a lateral situation for him.

Thomas Jones and Leon Washington may benefit from having more coverage dedicated to the pass game. But in splitting carries, neither are putting up particularly fantasy-worthy numbers as it is and I would expect that, for the most part, that will continue.

Now the Browns. I’ve heard a few people talk about Mohamed Massaquoi as a free agent target.

Sure, he’s now the number one wide receiver for the Browns. But he’s still a rookie playing for a bad team with a horrible offense and with inept quarterbacks. If it were me I’d leave Massaquoi for others. See if they drop someone worthwhile onto the free agent heap instead.

Really, there weren’t any Browns I would have targeted before and there still aren’t. That’s a bad, bad team, both in real football and fantasy football.

Michael Crabtree could be a bit of a different story – if you have a roster spot and a month to wait.

Crabtree isn’t going to make an immediate impact. The team is 3-1 and they don’t need him to step up immediately.

But Crabtree’s skillset is one of the few things the team is truly missing. And say it takes him four weeks to get enough of the offense down to be a truly impactful player. Look at the schedule San Francisco plays late in the season.

Weeks nine through 16 include games against Tennessee (31st against the pass), Green Bay (tied for 30th), Jacksonville (tied for 27th), Seattle, Arizona (tied for 27th), Philadelphia and Detroit (32nd). That’s six pretty good matchups. And a guy like Crabtree doesn’t need a lot of touches to add a lot of potential firepower to your lineup.

So, in the short term, if you have strong receivers I’d probably let someone else grab Crabtree and see if they toss something better on to the waiver wire.

But if you are running a team that looks to have playoff aspirations, you are looking for a wide receiver with some high upside and you have a roster spot available, he might be worth rolling the dice on.

Anthony Maggio spent two years as an associate editor at Fanball, one of the earlier fantasy sports sites on the Internet. He has moved on from there but he’s still a freelance writer, covering both real and fantasy sports, the latter for FFChamps.com. You can read the rest of his writing at the blog puntingbaxter.wordpress.com, where he also provides additional fantasy sports analysis – including some kick ass team defense rankings.

There’s a strong possibility – talks are underway – that Maggio may team up with the proprietors of Zoneblitz to share some fantasy football thoughts via various technological means during the upcoming season. For now he has agreed to answer some questions. His answers are below.

Zoneblitz: With Tomlinson’s tough season last year, how do you rank the top of the draft? Is it Adrian Peterson without question or are there others you could consider with the top pick?

Maggio:  I think that Peterson is the only back that belongs in the discussion for the top pick regardless of scoring system. That said, a strong PPR league could have guys like Matt Forte and Maurice Jones-Drew in the conversation. A touchdown-heavy league gets Michael Turner in the mix. Keeper and dynasty league, depending again on scoring system, could thrust Larry Fitzgerald in the conversation as well. As for Tomlinson, the drop in carries, touchdowns and yards per game each of the last two seasons is worrisome and he’s definitely not in the conversation for a top three pick, but I think he’s got one more season as a No. 1 fantasy back left in him.

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A caller to KFAN Radio this morning told hosts Paul Allen and Paul Charchian that a friend of his in the south had an order for 50,000 purple Brett Favre jerseys.

Okay, it would be preposterous to assume that the Vikings are officially signing Favre based on the musings of a guy who may or may not have a friend in the south who knows anything about pending jersey orders.

But the combination of that coupled with a Pioneer Press report that Favre has put a deposit down on a condo in suburban Edina and another from WCCO.com indicating that a contract has already been signed contingent upon Favre’s arm being alright are enough of an indication that it’s likely that this transaction has more like a 95/5 chance of happening than a 50/50 chance.

So someone should look at the fantasy football ramifications of this potential deal. First, not that you can help Adrian Peterson’s draft status much – he’s number one on most lists and top two in almost all projections. But Favre, even with not much left in the tank, has to be taken more seriously than teams have taken Tarvaris Jackson in the passing game.

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The Associated Press is reporting that Yahoo! settled the suit it filed against the NFL Players Association over licensing fees for player stats for fantasy football purposes last month.

A previous licensing agreement had expired in March of this year, and the NFLPA has argued in the past that such information is proprietary–but a similar suit brought last year was decided in favor of CBS  Interactive, although the NFLPA is appealing that decision.

In the mean time, Yahoo! apparently has decided that the licensing fees would cost less than the legal fees–and the NFLPA apparently has decided that they should take what they can get now, rather than possibly miss out on it all down the road.