Ray Rice has a hip pointer that limited him in practice today. The injury doesn’t appear serious and we would be very, very surprised to see him not start and play the majority of the snaps on Sunday against the Broncos. New OC Jim Caldwell is going to be anxious to get the most out of Rice and get the Ravens offense moving.

After missing four weeks with an ankle injury, Oakland running back Darren McFadden appears ready to return for the Week 14 when the Raiders host the Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football. Marcel Reece has filled in admirably especially for PPR leaguers but is dealing with quad and hamstring injuries that have him listed as questionable (short week won’t do him any favors). If Reece is unable to suit up, Mcfadden could be worth rolling the dice on as he should see 15-20 touches in his return as the Raiders look to keep Peyton on the sidelines.

The Steelers are expecting their star QB back against the Chargers for Week 14. None too soon for the receivers who have struggled to post legitimate numbers without Big Ben at the helm.

The official timeline for Rob Gronkowski’s return is 4-8 weeks. Albert Breer and others are saying that Gronk will be pushing to return in Week 14 after just 2 weeks missed. We find that unlikely. If he does return in Week 14 then he will have a couple challenging matchups against the 49ers who are surrendering the 4th fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends (5.9) and the Texans who are not quite as tough, but are still only giving up 7.9 fantasy points per game.

A few big name pass catchers will be sidelined by the BYE in week 11 including Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks, Percy Harvin, and, or what it’s worth, the unpredictable receivers in Tennessee and Seattle are off. Julio Jones is a game time decision. As always, injuries will surely play a role in your lineup decisions and our interactive injury chart/fantasy advice feature will keep you up to date.

The Saints defense is ranked 28th in the league against the run and with Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson likely to sit for another week Reece is looking attractive. He played the majority of downs last Sunday against the Ravens. While he didn’t wow anyone on the stat sheet the Saints are a different story.

Rashard Mendenhall may finally be ready to return. He’s the big name with the largest paycheck and most proven history so it stands to reason he’ll get a chance to reclaim the starting gig in light of the other rushers struggling. Against the Chiefs on Monday night Jonathan Dwyer (19/56) and Isaac Redman (8/21) couldn’t get anything going. The ground game will be critical with Byron Leftwich at QB. Mendenhall is officially listed as ‘Questionable’ and we will know more when we learn about who did and didn’t practice today.

Byron Leftwich will get the start. Leftwich is so immobile that they haven’t a word to adequately describe his lack of mobility. Think of a 85 year-old man with knee and hip replacements and a walker that about sums it up. He also isn’t so good at throwing the ball any longer.