• Jordan Mason leads the San Francisco 49ers: Christian McCaffrey was a surprise inactive, giving Mason a chance to show why he’s one of the highest-graded running backs of the past few seasons.
• New York Jets rely completely on Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson: For the first 40 minutes of the game, Hall and Wilson were the only skill players to touch the ball for the Jets.
• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full access to all of our in-season fantasy tools, including weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and more. Sign up now!
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.
New York Jets @ San Francisco 49ers
- Jordan Mason: 28 carries, 147 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 reception, 5 receiving yards
- Allen Lazard: 6 receptions, 89 yards, 2 touchdowns
Jordan Mason shines in Christian McCaffrey’s absence: Mason put together his first 100-yard performance, helping the 49ers pull away.
McCaffrey has been dealing with a calf and Achilles injury and was officially questionable heading into the game. McCaffrey himself declared he had no doubt he would play, but his injury acted up, so the team opted to make him inactive, leaving plenty of fantasy managers without a backup plan.
Mason, who has been the NFL’s highest-graded running back of the past two seasons, albeit on a small sample size, took over as the 49ers’ primary running back. It seemed like he was beating out Elijah Mitchell for the primary backup job, but Mitchell landed on season-ending injured reserve, assuring Mason the job.
Mason played the clear majority of snaps, leaving the field for only a handful of places to give Deebo Samuel Sr. a shot at running back. Fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo also briefly played. Mason played effectively, averaging more than five yards per carry on a high sample size.
Mason should be the top waiver wire target at running back this week. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported before the game there is a chance McCaffrey won’t play next week. Mason would be a must-start if McCaffrey misses another game. Mason will also be one of the top handcuffs the rest of the season, even if McCaffrey plays next week.
Brandon Aiyuk was eased into action: The 49ers star wide receiver missed most of training camp with a holdout and didn’t see his usual amount of playing time in this game.
Aiyuk played every snap on the first two drives, but he was then rotated out significantly. This was typically on early-down run plays, so he wasn’t off the field for too many pass routes. Whenever it was third-and-long, Aiyuk was consistently on the field. Whenever he was off the field, it was Chris Conley replacing him.
Similarly, as the 49ers maintained a multiple-score lead, they also gave Deebo Samuel Sr. more plays off, with Ronnie Bell being Samuel’s primary replacement. The 49ers tend to have backup wide receivers act as backups to particular players, so if Aiyuk or Samuel gets injured this season, it would be good to know their replacement.
We can expect Aiyuk’s playing time to increase soon. He didn’t put up many fantasy points in this game, but he dropped a touchdown pass that would have made him a clear fantasy starter for the week. If this game stayed closer, Aiyuk would have likely played more in this game. He can safely remain in fantasy starting lineups despite his fantasy production not being high in this game.
Allen Lazard starts at wide receiver over newer wide receivers: The Jets relied on their wide receivers from last season over the new additions to the roster.
Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard were every-down wide receivers, with Xavier Gipson as the third wide receiver in three-receiver sets more often than not.
The Jets added Mike Williams in free agency, but he played only a fraction of the possible snaps. The Jets had four plays in the red zone, and Williams was in for three of them, so it’s possible the game plan was for him to play specifically in those situations, given his 6-foot-4 frame. Williams was returning from an ACL tear from a year ago and was listed on the injury report as having a knee injury, but he was a full participant in practice all week with no injury designation.
It’s clear the team wants to ease him into action. There’s a chance he could be a starter by midseason. It’s fine to leave him on fantasy benches until then, but for now, he shouldn’t be in fantasy starting lineups. Once Williams gains playing time, Lazard will likely lose time, making it harder for Lazard to be a waiver target.
The Jets also spent the 65th overall pick on slot receiver Malachi Corley. The fact that he was playing throughout the preseason while the Jets rested other offensive rookies was a bad sign for his playing time early in the regular season. He played one snap as a run-blocker on offense. While Week 1 is always too early to give up on a rookie, I'd rather have several other different rookie wide receivers on my roster this season.
Miscellaneous Notes
• Jets sophomore running back Israel Abanikanda was a healthy inactive as the team’s fourth running back.
• The Jets opted to add Anthony Firkser from the practice squad and make Brenden Bates inactive, despite Bates not being on the injury report.
• The Jets relied on starting tight end Tyler Conklin to be on the field more in this game than in other games last season, but he was not part of the passing game.
• Breece Hall’s playing time slowly but surely increased last season. He played only three games with more than 70% of offensive snaps before this season, and they were the last three weeks of 2023. His playing time reached new heights in this game and was ideal for a first-round fantasy draft pick. He only took one play off before the final few minutes when Aaron Rodgers was removed from the game.
• 49ers slot receiver Jauan Jennings left the game briefly in the third quarter after what looked like a hip-drop tackle. Jennings was limited in practice earlier in the week with an ankle injury. He was able to return to the game later in the quarter, but the 49ers didn’t need him much the rest of the game because they stayed in two-wide receiver sets.
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.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.