It's looking more and more unlikely that Rob Gronkowski will be available for this week's game against the 49ers. Whatever will the poor Patriots do on offense? What's that you say? Just throw it to their other monstrous, athletic tight end? That makes plenty of sense. Time for the Black Unicorn to saddle up and ride once again.

Last week, we held our collective breath awaiting word of whether Jordan Howard was seriously injured or not. His diagnosis: nah. Turns out Dr. Howard might have been pretty spot on with his assessment. The Bears left Howard off this week's injury report. That signals that all systems are go against the Giants this week. If only it was a slightly more favorable matchup.

Jackson's availability for this week's contest against the Green Bay Packers could be one we all need to wait on. The speedy receiver is dealing with a shoulder injury and head coach Jay Gruden hasn't given much indication on Jackson's status other than to say they're monitoring "how he feels with his strength." That's not exactly encouraging.

The chances of Maclin playing this week seem slim to none. And Slim just left town. Maclin continues to recover from a groin injury but even when he's been on the field this season, he's yet to make much of an impact. In recent weeks, the more intriguing Kansas City wideout has been Tyreek Hill, who has more receptions and double-digit fantasy point games than Maclin despite not starting a game this season.

The deck has been cleared for Prosise to take off this week. The 'Hawks released Christine Michael earlier in the week and while Thomas Rawls is slated to make his return against the Eagles, Prosise will reportedly remain the starter and is expected to lead the backfield in touches. This situation might not remain as such for the remainder of the season, but for one week, the rookie is on top.

It's over, y'all. We had a good run with Ty Montgomery as an offensive threat for the Packers. But James Starks returned last week to dominate the backfield snaps. Now Green Bay has added the aforementioned Christine Michael off waivers to add depth to the running back corps. There's no more reason for anyone to have Montgomery on their roster.

Remember way back at the start of the season when Crowell was seeing a lot of touches and producing like a top-10 fantasy runner? That seems like a lifetime ago. But if Browns head coach Hue Jackson has his way, those good times might be back again. Jackson says the team needs to start running the ball more and specifically mentioned getting Crowell more involved. Having him return to form just in time for the fantasy playoffs is a welcome idea, indeed.

Looks like we might be waiting a little longer to see the true return of Dion Lewis. After being made inactive last week, it appears that the Pats running back will be ready to go against San Francisco this week. But all indications are that the Pats are going to take it slowly with Lewis. That means he could once again take a backseat to James White in the rotation. Patience, folks.

You don't need me to tell you that things haven't gone according to plan in Jacksonville -- that includes Thomas' forgettable season. On top of generally not being a productive piece of the offense, Thomas has recently begun losing snaps to Ben Koyack. This week, Thomas will test The Doyle Rules against the Lions, but there's no level of confidence that the Jags tight end will get a passing grade.

Ertz has been battling a hamstring injury that has kept him out of practice at times this week. However, the Eagles tight end feels confident that he'll be ready to go for Sunday's game against the Seahawks. Now if he could feel as confident about getting a significant number of targets this week, a lot of us will feel better.