Halftime substitutions in fantasy football?

Did you notice what happened when Darren McFadden left in the second quarter Sunday with an ankle injury? Oakland sent out Mike Goodson to carry the ball.

When Jordy Nelson's day ended after his first target against the Cardinals, the Packers offense wasn't forced to finish out the game with 10 players.

Crazy, isn't it? A player gets hurt during an NFL game, and another one steps right in and takes over.

So why is it that once McFadden left Sunday, my fantasy team was stuck with zippo thereafter? And why were Nelson's owners forced to take a goose egg when a perfectly healthy receiver was surely sitting on their bench twiddling his thumbs?

I was similarly burned in Week 7, when Maurice Jones-Drew pulled up lame after his second carry of the day. My top RB left me hamstrung at the worst possible time and gave my opponent an undeserved advantage that cost me the matchup.

I know you have felt my pain in similar circumstances.

Fantasy football was never intended to operate like real football (the operative word being fantasy). Most of us relish the challenge of selecting our starting lineups each week, even though it sometimes means leaving Mikel LeShoure's three-TD breakout game on our bench.

So while I can appreciate the less-stressful aspects of playing in one of those rare leagues in which one's optimal starting lineup is determined after the fact, I'm not a proponent of that approach.

Rather, I propose a simpler solution to address the unfair aspects of the early injury exit: If a player at any position is injured in the first half of his game and does not return, that player's owner may substitute one bench player of his choosing at the same position into his starting lineup.

As it turns out, I won my matchup in spite of McFadden's ill-timed departure, but the rule would have turned my Week 7 loss into a victory. And I'll bet it would have saved many a Nelson owner this weekend as well.

Would that have been unfair to their competitors? Only if you think it's fair that they won with one receiver tied behind their opponent's back.

Here's a look at players worth considering, and others who would look better in someone else's lineup.

Ryan Tannehill, QB, Dolphins. He won't carry you to the promised land, but the rookie could see you through the last week or two of byes. Miami faces the awful Tennessee and Buffalo secondaries over the next two weeks, and Tannehill exhibited no signs of his knee injury in Sunday's shootout with the Colts.

Isaac Redman, RB, Steelers. If you didn't grab him prior to Sunday's outing, you may have missed out on Redman's best performance of the season. But with all the instability in the Steelers backfield, he's worth picking up anyway. He could get another start if Rashard Mendenhall or Jonathan Dwyer aren't ready to return in Week 10, and you have to love the Monday night matchup with the Chiefs. He's from South Jersey.

Emmanuel Sanders, WR, Steelers. Antonio Brown's owners may want to scoop up Sanders as insurance in case Brown's ankle injury costs him a game or more. Sanders would be a decent flex play in that tantalizing Monday nighter.

Marcel Reece, RB, Raiders. Well, we can't say we weren't warned. The knock on McFadden has always been his fragility, and the injury bug bit again on Sunday. In the meantime, his backup situation is somewhat unclear, though Reece may be the strongest candidate. Oft-injured Goodson (who also hurt his ankle Sunday) and Taiwan Jones are also in the mix. This backfield quacks like a committee.

T.Y. Hilton, WR, Colts. The rookie was all the rage after his Week 3 outburst against the Jaguars. We cautioned then that his 113-yard, one-TD performance was likely an aberration, and, as expected, he was virtually invisible over the next four games.

Jermichael Finley, TE, Packers. I reluctantly dropped Finley last week to make room for another player. So far, so good. As Green Bay heads into its bye, feel free to eject Finley as well.