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San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey has officially broken the record for causing the most regret in fantasy managers who drafted a player who was injured coming into the season and ate up all the "he's completely fine, we swear" propaganda, and decided not to get his handcuff.
The McCaffrey saga has been absurd this year. It was just a minor calf strain, and he was guaranteed to play with a full workload in Week 1. Then, it was more serious than previously thought, but he would come back soon. Then, it was Achilles tendinitis. Then (when Jordan Mason started smashing, not a coincidence?) it was IR.
It's been a roller coaster keeping up with the 2023 god of fantasy football scoring's injury situation. Will he even come back this season? Let's try to dive in and figure it out.
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Christian McCaffrey Injury Update for Fantasy Football
Don't worry McCaffrey managers, it gets worse. Earlier there was finally a positive update, only for it do get shattered with the force of a nuclear blast hitting a glass mansion. The 49ers had a concept of a plan for getting McCaffrey back soon, but wait, actually he has Achilles tendinitis in both legs!
The Achilles tendonitis that Christian McCaffrey is suffering in his right leg is now in both legs, so there remains a major question on when he will return, according to @AdamSchefter. pic.twitter.com/6Z4ZBwOW6a
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) September 30, 2024
So... he's on IR, not practicing, going to Germany for stem cell treatment, and we're supposed to believe that he magically picked up the tendinitis in the other leg when it's an overuse injury that heals by rest? Lots of fantasy managers are rightfully suspicious of the situation. It seems more likely that he didn't have a chance of playing without risking severe injury.
It's such an odd situation. If there's any takeaway from this, though, it's that when each update is worse than the last one, there should be more reason to believe that the situation is completely screwed rather than not all that bad.
Christian McCaffrey Fantasy Football Outlook
In all likelihood, gone are the days where McCaffrey runs it up the gut on short distances despite backup RB Jordan Mason being more than capable of handling those situations. The touchdown streak, an exercise in arrogance and pointlessness, may not happen again unless Kyle Shanahan wants to see CMC hurt further.
McCaffrey's usage in 2023 was outrageous, and there was no reason he should've seen the field in garbage time. Shanahan's team is known as the "49IRs" for a reason, though. They've always been awful at managing player health and often boast a huge number of star players missing time with injuries.
If McCaffrey does return, he's a must-start. Shanahan may give some touches to Mason, but perhaps he'll also find some ridiculous record for CMC to chase. He's still a monstrously talented runner, but you have to wonder if he's lost playing time in his career over all this.
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