Detroit Lions running back Kevin Smith has made a nice recovery from his 2009 ACL tear to become a factor in the team's backfield over the past six games. But now he'll be forced to miss some more time after he undergoes thumb surgery. The operation is scheduled for Thursday and Smith has already been ruled out of Sunday's game versus Dallas. The surgery became needed after Smith suffered a thumb injury during the first half of last week's game at Buffalo. "There's a big difference in dealing with sore knees and ankles and shoulders and hamstrings, all those things that running backs deal with, and dealing with a thumb when you're talking about ball security and being able to catch the ball and things like that," head coach Jim Schwartz said. "So [Smith is] very disappointed, but it's something that needs to be done." Teammate Jerome Felton described the thumb injury as such: "It was just hanging down, it looked like the ligament -- like nothing was holding it." Schwartz didn't say how long he expects Smith to be out of action, but said Aaron Brown will be active for the first time all season. He will join Maurice Morris and Felton to help spell Detroit's top running back, Jahvid Best .

Fantasy Analysis:

Smith was becoming useful in really deep leagues, but you can probably take him off your radars for a while. I don't expect Best's workload to change much without Smith. He'll still touch the ball about 20 times against the Cowboys. Granted, he hasn't done much of anything since week two, the relatively large amount of opportunity still makes him a mid-level flex play in 12-team leagues.