NFL Week 12 Fantasy Football Recap: San Francisco 49ers vs. New Orleans Saints

• Jauan Jennings: 6 receptions, 49 yards, 1 touchdown

• Brandon Aiyuk: 5 receptions, 65 yards

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

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Monitor Elijah Mitchell‘s health: Mitchell reportedly suffered a possible MCL sprain, although it’s not believed to be as serious as his previous MCL sprain.

Mitchell played 11-of-42 snaps in the first half, more first-half snaps than he had been playing recently. He had largely been playing in the second half while the 49ers were playing with a lead.
He left the game early in the third quarter and didn’t return.
Jordan Mason took over as the backup and largely split snaps with Christian McCaffrey in the fourth quarter.
There is a chance Tevin Coleman gets activated if Mitchell misses time. Coleman became the No. 2 back earlier in the season before the McCaffrey trade.
McCaffrey’s playing time was consistent with recent weeks, but he didn’t run the ball as much and wasn’t targeted on as many passes.
The 49ers have much more competitive matchups coming up, which could lead the team to rely more on McCaffrey and less on the backups, regardless of Mitchell's status.

Monitor the health of Alvin Kamara: Kamara went to the medical tent at one point and was also sick yesterday.

Kamara put together a forgettable performance, averaging less than 2.0 yards per carry and losing two fumbles.
This was his fourth straight game under 45 rushing yards and 3.5 yards per carry.
Taysom Hill ran the ball nearly as much as Kamara. They had kept Hill at three carries or fewer in three of the last six games but have run him a bit more in the last two games.
Mark Ingram had missed nearly a month of football but returned to the Saints to be the primary backup for this game. He gained 10 yards on four carries.
The Saints have an equally difficult matchup next week against the Buccaneers and then have a bye week. It’s not out of the question to bench Kamara, though it depends on the other running backs you have.
New Orleans will have much more favorable matchups in the fantasy playoffs.

Drop Juwan Johnson: The Saints tight end had scored five touchdowns in the previous five weeks, but his playing time has slowly been on the decline.

The Saints rotate players more than most teams but typically have clear players playing in passing situations. That’s how someone like Chris Olave can play only 38 snaps but still be a must-start.
Johnson used to have similar splits, as he played a lot on passing downs and not much in rushing situations, but that has slowly changed.
He played only half of the team’s snaps from 11 personnel. This has been a combo of Taysom Hill getting more involved in the passing game, as well as Adam Trautman slowly but surely getting more snaps.
Johnson was an okay option as a touchdown-dependent player when he was almost always in for passing situations. Playing barely over half of the passing snaps isn’t enough to trust him.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.