If you're someone who doesn't like to set your fantasy lineup until late in the week — once you've gathered all the pertinent information — prepare to change your strategy. With Thursday Night Football returning this week with a matchup of the Bears and 49ers, you no longer have the luxury of waiting until the weekend to finalize your starters.

While having a game on Thursday might not matter in some leagues — other than forcing you to make a call on your Thursday players by midweek — it makes a big difference in others. While most leagues have done away with it, there are still some out there that lock lineups at the kickoff of the week's first game. That means your starting lineup needs to be completely finalized by Thursday afternoon, almost three full days earlier than usual.

If you're dealing with injured players, this can cause major issues. What if your No. 1 RB is limited in early-week practices and reports indicate he'll be a game-time decision on Sunday, yet you have to make your lineup choices on Thursday? Should you take a chance and start him, knowing he might not play? Or do you take the safe approach and bench him, starting a guy with much less potential? These are the sort of tough dilemmas that arise in some leagues thanks to Thursday NFL action.

Although each situation must be evaluated individually, playing it safe is probably the way to go when it comes to choosing your starters days in advance. As we head down the home stretch of the fantasy regular season, every point matters, and you'd hate to stubbornly start your banged-up top RB just to watch him be inactive and get you nothing. While playing your No. 3 or 4 RB isn't quite as exciting, at least you know he'll be good for some production.

So be sure to choose which Bears and Niners who want in your lineup in advance of Thursday night's kickoff. And good luck to anyone who has to make an early-week call on injured guys like Anquan Boldin or Brian Westbrook.