Darren Sproles out indefinitely

New Orleans Saints running back Darren Sproles will not play on Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles due to a broken hand that needed surgery, per Mike Triplett. The timetable of the hand injury is unknown at this point, but he was not at practice yesterday during the Saints first practice of the week.

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The news regarding Sproles is quite sudden, and New Orleans will certainly miss their star playmaker in the backfield. Sproles has already caught 39 passes this season and is averaging 4.5 yards per carry on the ground. When he missed practice yesterday, it was assumed that the Saints were giving him rest. Now we know that it is something much more serious, and Sproles’s hand has caused a shake up in the team’s backfield and offense as a whole.

Mark Ingram should see an increase in carries, but Pierre Thomas is the player who sets to gain the most from this injury that will likely cause Sproles a few games. Thomas is definitely not the weapon Sproles is, but he still has 15 catches so far this season and is another good two-way running back. He is a solid rusher with the football and is sometimes underrated. Thomas has averaged 4.4 yards per carry and definitely deserves more carries.

Last season, Thomas was very productive and averaged 5.3 yards per pop. Ingram hasn’t even averaged three yards per carry this year, and I have no idea why there is a 55-45 split between Thomas and Ingram. The gap should be wider in Thomas’s favor, because he is clearly the more productive back. Ingram has an atrocious 27.5% success rate.

I hope Sproles heals faster than expected and sees a complete recovery. I also hope that Pierre Thomas can take this opportunity and show the Saints and he deserves to receive a larger share of the workload due to his solid, consistent production. He has averaged 4.8 yards per carry in his career, and that’s no easy feat over the course of 624 carries.

Fantasy owners, do yourself a favor and pick this guy up.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.