San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason put in a tremendous season-opening performance in reigning Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey’s absence, as he helped lead his team to a big win over Aaron Rodgers and the visiting New York Jets. Fans learned shortly before the game that McCaffrey was out, but Mason implied in his postgame interview that he’d known for a bit longer.
Jordan Mason Shares He Expected To Start in Week 1 Since Friday
After stealing the show on Monday Night Football, Mason was featured in the postgame interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters who asked him when he found out he would be starting.
Jordan Mason says after the game he found out he'd be starting on Friday nightpic.twitter.com/Hjn9U6ju0H
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 10, 2024
Mason indicates that he knew as early as Friday that he would be the 49ers’ starting running back on Monday Night. This statement has significant implications, as the NFL requires teams to publicly and transparently disclose when players’ statuses change, and it seems like they failed to do so with McCaffrey’s injury situation.
Of course, the 49ers could certainly have known that McCaffrey would at least be limited before they knew he was going to be ruled entirely out. Mason’s statement could be entirely true without the 49ers having known before Monday that McCaffrey would be missing the game. McCaffrey’s status for the game was listed as questionable before the announcement that he’d be sitting out.
#49ers RB Jordan Mason said during his postgame interview on the ESPN broadcast he was told he was starting Friday night. Kyle Shanahan said that wasn’t the case and only told him he’d likely have to play a bunch: “He didn’t know for sure he was (starting) until today.”
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 10, 2024
However, the messaging from the team and McCaffrey himself heading into Week 1 was that the injury that had hampered him throughout the preseason would not prohibit his participation against the Jets. If on Friday, they had enough of an idea that McCaffrey was struggling to return to the field that they told Mason he’d be starting, the league could easily make the case that McCaffrey should have been downgraded to doubtful, even if not out.