Christian McCaffrey's Injury Has Fantasy Managers Lamenting Pick amid 49ers IR Rumors

A disaster scenario has hit fantasy football managers who spent an early first-round pick on San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey.

After missing Week 1 due to a calf and Achilles injury, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported on Saturday that McCaffrey will be placed on injured reserve.

The move ensures that McCaffrey, who had already been ruled out for Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings, will be out at least through Week 5.

Now, fantasy managers are stuck lamenting their decision to select McCaffrey with no clear timetable for him to play in games this season.

Per FantasyPros, McCaffrey was the unanimous No. 1 pick coming into this season. It was a more than justified ranking because he was coming off a 2023 campaign in which he led the league in rushing yards (1,459), touches (330), yards from scrimmage (2,023) and total touchdowns (21).

Making matters even worse for managers trying to find a replacement at this point is Jordan Mason is almost certainly gone on the waiver wire. He ran for 147 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries as San Francisco's starting back in Week 1.

FantasyPros still has Mason available in 81 percent of ESPN leagues, but that probably hasn't been updated to account for waiver adds so far this week. If that is true, though, you need to immediately put in a claim to see if you can get him.

Complicating matters for McCaffrey is that it's not clear when he will be back. He's been dealing with the calf and Achilles issues since early in training camp. Head coach Kyle Shanahan initially only mentioned the calf injury.

After the Achilles issue was included on the 49ers' injury report prior to Week 1, Shanahan said it was related to the original calf injury. The Niners coach then said that Thursday was McCaffrey's "worst day" in terms of pain.

All of these problems add up to a situation that doesn't have an obvious end in sight for McCaffrey or fantasy managers. The only thing that's for certain is he won't play until at least Oct. 10 against the Seattle Seahawks.