After a couple weeks of speculating just when Ryan Mathews will once again earn the lion's share of carries in the San Diego Chargers' backfield, he gave us reason to think that maybe this Sunday will be that time. The big news is Mathews wasn't limited during Thursday's practice, just one day after sitting out to rest his sprained ankle. Now, Mathews did go through a full practice last Thursday as well. Unfortunately, it hurt him in the long run as he was too sore to give it a go Friday and ended up playing his second consecutive game with just nine carries. Head coach Norv Turner hopes one-week history doesn't repeat itself; he wants to get Mathews on the field more. "We want to push it and get him as many carries as we can," Turner said of Mathews. "...I think from watching him today, and hopefully everything goes smooth tonight and he feels good in the morning, that we will be able to up his load a little bit."

Fantasy Analysis:

As it is every week with these "50-50" players, Friday's practice will tell us a lot. Another full practice from Mathews would be huge for his prospects this week against the Rams. Mike Tolbert isn't going away, but if Mathews shows no ill effects from today's activities and is able to reach Sunday feeling no worse than he does now, he may FINALLY return to the neighborhood of 15-20 carries. If so, he's a No. 2 RB in 12-team leagues for week six.