49ers running back Christian McCaffrey is dealing with a ribs/oblique injury, which raises significant questions in the fantasy football community about how to navigate San Francisco’s backfield.
Here’s our advice:
No.
Instead of cutting your hair off wondering whether to add and/or start Eliza Mitchell or Jordan Mason or Ty Davis-Price, maybe go for a walk or watch a movie or something.
I know what you’re thinking. Thinking you’ll take advantage of McCaffrey’s injury to get and/or start a 49ers RB that will help you win the league.
Here’s the flaw in that plan:
You are already wrong.
Whatever decision you decide to make is wrong.
You can dive into snap count and touches in past years, and touches in Week 6 when McCaffrey got hurt, and recent production and all that. Your hard work is commendable. seriously.
Your hard work is also useless.
Shanahan had this to say about what his backfield could look like if McCaffrey misses time:
“Yes, we will see.”
Good Start!
He continued:
[RB] Elijah [Mitchell] has earned a lot with us over the years. I think Eliza’s back has been as good as it’s been since she’s been healthy. He’s having a hard time staying healthy, but I can’t take anything away from JP. I mean, whenever JP gets an opportunity, you guys see how he has performed. So both of those guys have performed very well. Elijah came back and practiced on Thursday last weekend. So he actually got a true day of practice and that’s why JP got the first nod when Christian came out. But we have two very good players. I know [RB Tyrion] TY Davis [-Price] is waiting for his chance, too. So hopefully Christian will be good to go this week, but if not, we have a group of supporters we can rely on.
Do you know how it feels? This sounds like a coach who wants nothing more than to destroy your fantasy team by storming the field victoriously.
It doesn’t matter that there will be some degree of guesswork involved. Allow at least two weeks to see if a player emerges as a workhorse. However, this seems unlikely given Shanahan’s pre-McCaffrey history.
This group screams “running back by committee” which is a fantasy player’s nightmare.
Avoid that nightmare. Skip it completely. Put your energy into researching other positions. Or maybe put it into knitting, or curl up with a good book.
Ideally this won’t be an issue for the 49ers and McCaffrey will be able to play despite any oblique/rib injuries he may have.
If he is unable to go, it opens a door that no fantasy player should pass through. This is chaos. It’s like Alice in Wonderland but with more flatbill snapback hats. And that’s not a place anyone wants to be.