The diminutive Chargers running back has become a relevant fantasy player for the first time in his fourth NFL season, mainly because of LaDainian Tomlinson’s nagging injuries, but also because he’s shown flashes of being an explosive offensive force.

Up until now, he’s been primairly known as a return-specialist, averaging 27.2 yard per kickoff return last year and 9.5 yard per punt return.

But he has shown, albeit in very limited chances, that he can be an effecitve ball-carrier, too. In the only game that he has touched the ball more than 10 times, Sproles busted up the Lions for 122 yards on 25 carries in a game last year.

Unfortunately, we’re talking about an extremely small sample size when we’re discussing Sproles. Other than that game, Sproles has touched the ball 10 times in one other game (a total of 24 yards) and has touched the ball as many as four times just three other times.

Despite these things, I still think Sproles is worth owning and maybe even worth starting this week.

I base this recommendation on two things: 1. If you watched Monday’s game against the Jets, you saw how hard it is for the opposition to tackle the 5-foot-6, 181-pound lightning bug. He only had 77 total yards, but most of those were products of YAC and he nearly broke two of those plays for lengthy touchdowns. 2. If Tomlinson goes down, Sproles will produce. As good as Tomlinson is, he’s also a product of a very solid offensive philophy, the beneficiary of a above-average offensive line and a quarterback who knows how to get the ball to his running backs in space.

The last part may be the most important. If Sproles is allowed to use his quickness, he has proven nearly impossible to tackle. Mark my words, if he starts touching the ball 10 times a game, he’ll be this year’s Maurice Jones-Drew.

Throw in the fact that he’s playing the Raiders on Sunday, and this could be his coming out party.