_jpg)
Following up an ongoing story . . . Christian McCaffrey injured his calf on Thursday, showing up on the injury report as a limited participant. He didn't practice on Friday and earned a questionable designation on the team's final injury report ahead of Sunday's regular-season opener in Seattle.
While McCaffrey told reporters immediately after Friday's session was over the situation was being blown out of proportion, Kyle Shanahan's refusal to comment on it fueled concerns.
According to NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport, Mike Garafolo and Tom Pelissero, those concerns have lessened Saturday, as signs point to McCaffrey playing against the Seahawks.
Assuming McCaffrey is active and available, fantasy investors are unlikely to have a player with similar upside.
There's a reason he had moved into the the first round of drafts this summer: McCaffrey, at his peak, is capable of delivering RB1 overall numbers any given Sunday.
Can he do that at less than full speed? Or with a slightly diminished role?
Much will depend on the workload Shanahan will let McCaffrey handle. Likewise, how much the Niners use running back Brian Robinson Jr., who was acquired via trade just a few weeks ago, and Isaac Guerendo will be a key to the San Francisco offense on Sunday.
We've dialed our projections and rankings back to reflect all this.
But to be clear, if active, we're viewing McCaffrey as a high-end RB2/borderline RB1 because of that upside.
Your willingness to roll him out as that will depend on your options.
The late-afternoon kickoff will be both a curse and a blessing. The later time might give us more information, but it also limits our potential pivots.
McCaffrey investors should do two things in order to prep their teams:
- If you have McCaffrey in a dedicated running back slot, move him to a flex position (if available) to give you maximum flexibility if he's a late scratch.
- Have a fallback option in place in one of the remaining late-afternoon window games, the Sunday night game, or Monday night game.
One more time: There's a wide range of possible outcomes here.
In his first full season with the 49ers in 2023, McCaffrey won the NFL rushing title with 1,459 yards and was voted AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year. However, he was held to a career-low 202 rushing yards during four games in 2024.
Adding to that, McCaffrey has played against Seattle six times and enjoyed considerable success, averaging 109.7 yards rushing and a touchdown per game (658 rushing yards and six TDs total).
This isn't just a question of whether McCaffrey plays -- it's whether he can deliver the kind of game-breaking production that can swing a week.
Whatever the case, smart fantasy managers will have a plan in place to get the most our of their roster whether McCaffrey hits the field or not.
We'll have more on this via our Gameday Update page as Sunday's kickoff draws nearer. Subscribers should check back often for all the latest on McCaffrey and other players of interest throughout the day.