The first teams up in Week 13 each suffered demoralizing home losses on Thanksgiving and have some injury issues at running back. The New Orleans Saints have been without star Alvin Kamara for three games and backup Mark Ingram II for one, each due to knee woes, but they practiced on Sunday, days after their blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills.
It certainly appears that Kamara and Ingram are trending toward being active on Thursday, which is obviously good news for the reeling Saints (losers of four consecutive) and fantasy managers burned by relying on backup Tony Jones Jr. last week.
Things are a bit different for the first-place Dallas Cowboys, losers of three of four games, as the surprising news following their 36-33 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders was whether starting running back Ezekiel Elliott and his sore knee needed a rest. Elliott entered Week 12 among the top 10 running backs in ESPN PPR scoring, averaging better than 17 points per game and on his way to his fourth 1,000-yard rushing season and third with double-digit touchdowns, but he has single-digit rushing attempts in each of his past two games.