Here we are at Election Day, and our long national nightmare is about to end. That’s right, Christian McCaffrey is on the cusp of making his season debut.
Week 10 has been the target for his return from a calf-turned-Achilles issue, which was initially revealed in early August. And here we are at Week 10. So, you automatically plug him into your lineup, right?
Well … maybe, perhaps, we guess, in the right situation. The decision depends on what replacement option you have fostered in the meantime, and what we hear this week from 49ers camp.
The 49ers basically went through a mock prep for CMC last week — having him pretend to prepare for a game during their bye week to see how he responded. That’s good.
But… we really haven’t heard how that went, and we likely won’t until the Niners issue their first required injury update Wednesday. And the manner in which they have handled this injury from the start has us skeptical that we will get the full story.
Recall he was expected to play in Week 1 — at least, he said on that Friday that he was planning to play in the season opener the following Monday. Then Monday came and the Niners ruled him out.
So let’s just say we are not going to discard our backup plans until we see McCaffrey on the field. And even then, it might be a week or two before he ramps all the way up. In the meantime, we expect he will split work with Jordan Mason.
Thus, upon CMC’s initial return, we’re going to treat him as if won’t get enough work to be an automatic start, but he will get enough to undermine Mason’s value.
If you have Mason, hang onto him, or try to trade him to whoever has McCaffrey. If you have McCaffrey, try to acquire Mason. And if you have outside options you can use for the next week or two, have those ready to go — with the possibility of leaving both 49ers RBs on your bench.
We’re not as worried about potentially waiting a week or two to play Jauan Jennings upon his return for the 49ers, for a couple of reasons. Jennings has been strong when either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel are out. Jennings even had a ridiculous 46.5 PPR game in Week 3 with no Samuel.
Aiyuk is gone for the season. Samuel is dealing with rib/oblique problems, but could play. Jennings has been out with a hip injury. If Jennings plays, he is a solid flex if Samuel also plays. But if it is Jennings with no Samuel, plus no Aiyuk, then Jennings is a must-start.
The Madman normally likes to wait a week or so for players coming off multi-week absences. Having missed two games then a bye, Jennings hasn’t played in a while, but it isn’t so long that we worry about any rust or fatigue. Plus, his role once he returns will be robust.
We’re more inclined to wait to play CMC, because of the length of absence and the likelihood of shared duties upon his return. But if midweek comments about him are absolutely glowing, we hear statements like “looks like his old self,” he practices in full, there are promises of a full workload, that type of stuff, at that point we gain the confidence to immediately thrust him into our lineups.
So as little as we trust what the 49ers have to say, we do trust McCaffrey to produce when getting volume. So if that volume appears guaranteed …
It is the type of risk our analytic brain says not to take, but our primal, fantasy brain says: Hey, it’s CMC!
Coming off a 2023 knee injury, he likely won’t return to normal until next year. Unload him before your league’s trade deadline.
Expected back from IR this week after a hamstring injury. The Texans offense can fully support two fantasy WRs, so Tank Dell’s value remains high.
Quentin Johnston had a big game Sunday, thanks largely to one play. But with Chark (groin) inching close to his LA debut, he could present a more reliable option. As a potential Robin to Ladd McConkey’s Batman, we like Chark’s upside better than the current ho-hum Chargers WRs Johnston or Joshua Palmer.
Made season debut Sunday coming off a knee injury. We’re going to give it one more week before getting him into our lineup, unless desperate.
Got an amazing amount of work with Zack Moss (neck) out. A great Band-Aid. But he has a couple of tough matchups ahead of a late bye week and Moss will return. Try to leverage Brown’s big game into a lopsided trade.
What his Week 9 workload (11-for-52) shows is that we can’t rely on an Austin Ekeler bump if Brian Robinson Jr. is out. Leave Rodriguez on waivers.
Early reports suggest A.J. Brown (knee) avoided serious injury. But if things go sideways, Dotson would get the most significant bump if Brown misses time.
Take care of those hands, Khalil, because Buffalo can be hard on wrists. Amari Cooper missed Week 9 and Keon Coleman left late — both with wrist injuries. Shakir is the one healthy Bills WR and he has scored double-digits in PPR every week but one this season.