49ers running back Christian McCaffrey is dealing with an injury to his ribs/oblique, which raises significant questions in the fantasy football community about how to navigate San Francisco’s backfield.
Here is our advice:
Don’t.
Instead of ripping your hair out wondering whether to add and/or start Elijah 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. You’re thinking that you’re going to take advantage of the McCaffrey injury to get and/or start a 49ers RB who’s going to help win you your league.
Here is the flaw in that plan:
You’re already wrong.
Whatever decision you decide to make is the incorrect one.
You can dive into snap counts and touches in past years, and touches in Week 6 when McCaffrey got hurt, and recent production and all that. Your hard work is commended. Seriously.
Your hard work is also worthless.
Here’s what Shanahan had to say about how his backfield might look if McCaffrey misses time:
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
Good start!
He continued:
[RB] Elijah’s [Mitchell] earned a ton with us over these years. I think Elijah, when he has been healthy, has been as good of a back as there is. He’s just had a hard time staying healthy, but I also can’t take away anything from JP. I mean every time JP’s got his opportunities, you guys see how he’s done. So both of those guys have done very well. Elijah came back and practiced late last week on Thursday. So he got really one true day of practice in and that’s why JP got the first nod once Christian came out. But we’ve got two really good players there. I know [RB Tyrion] TY Davis[-Price] is waiting for his opportunity also. So hopefully Christian will be good to go this week, but if not, we’ve got a group of backs that we can rely on.
Do you know what that sounds like? That sounds like a coach who wants nothing more than to put a winning offense on the field destroy your fantasy team.
No matter what happens there’s going to be some modicum of guesswork involved. Give it at minimum two weeks to see if one player emerges as the workhorse back. Given Shanahan’s pre-McCaffrey history though that seems unlikely.
This group screams “running back by committee” which is a fantasy player’s nightmare.
Avoid that nightmare. Skip it entirely. Put your energy into research at other positions. Or maybe put it into knitting, or curling up with a good book.
Ideally for the 49ers this won’t be an issue and McCaffrey will be able to play through whatever his oblique/rib injury turns out to be.
If he’s unable to go, that opens a door no fantasy player should walk through. It’s chaos. It’s like Alice in Wonderland but with more flatbilled snapback hats. And that’s not a place anyone wants to be.
(Editor’s note: Okay, but seriously even if Mitchell winds up starting and getting more touches than Mason, Mason has been the better back this year and even in limited touches in the last two games has 96 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. He’s probably the safer play for anyone who needs to play a 49ers RB, but it’s risky given how sporadic and potentially limited those touches may be. Mitchell is also a huge injury risk who missed Weeks 4 and 5, and in the three games he’s played he has 49 yards on 18 carries. Proceed with caution on all fronts.)
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