Fantasy football managers know injuries are part of the game. While we hope to avoid dealing with injury concerns in Week 1, they seem to be unavoidable. San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey has been dealing with a calf strain/Achilles issue for over a month.
And now, managers are left wondering if the consensus 1.01 pick will play tonight against the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.”
Christian McCaffrey Announced Inactive Against Jets
McCaffrey is inactive for the season’s first “Monday Night Football” game. With McCaffrey out, the entire landscape of this game changes for the San Francisco 49ers offense. The first player you should see rise to the moment is Jordan Mason.
Mason had a strong preseason, and camp reports about the young running back were glowing. Isaac Guerendo will also be thrown into the mix now. Guerendo should be viewed as the third-down back for most of this game, with Mason taking on the workhorse title.
Another player who should be on your radar to see more work is Deebo Samuel Sr.. They will use Samuel’s ability to work out of the backfield to their advantage and to help create a mismatch against a solid Jets defense.
With reports that Brandon Aiyuk will see a decreased workload to allow him to ramp up properly after his contract holdout, Samuel should have the opportunity to take this game over. If you want to keep players like Sauce Gardner off of Samuel, your best bet is to run him out of the backfield and use his strength as a pseudo-running back.
We can also expect a more significant production level from George Kittle. Kittle tends to fade into the background when the slew of pass-catching talent on the 49ers offense are all healthy and available. Whenever any of them misses time, Kittle tends to shine.
We should expect more passing attempts from Brock Purdy in this game down the seam to avoid Gardner and the rest of the defensive backs while trying to create a mismatch against linebackers who can’t stop the uber-athletic Kittle.
McCaffrey’s Inactive Status a Surprise Considering Remarks This Week
Ideally, all of our fantasy players would be healthy going into Week 1. For the ones that aren’t healthy, we will have to settle for them playing through whatever ails them.
McCaffrey strained his calf at the beginning of training camp and missed the entire preseason. He first returned to practice this week.
While it would have been encouraging to see McCaffrey get in a full practice, at the very least, he participated all three days. As a reminder, the “limited” designation merely means the player did not receive a full complement of reps. That could mean he saw 20% of his usual workload or 90%. We simply don’t know.
Players are often overly optimistic about their health and ability to recover from injuries. In this case, McCaffrey was clearly a bit too confident in his abilities.
“It is not a concern for me,” the star running back said when asked about the injury.
Christian McCaffrey said his calf/Achilles is “not a concern for me.” pic.twitter.com/UceeuWarxj
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) September 6, 2024
McCaffrey was also asked if he had any doubts about playing Monday night. He responded that he did not.