Why the 49ers ‘fragile offense’ could spell trouble for McCaffrey
Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks look at ways the 49ers top running back could be a fantasy bust. Check out the full conversation on the "Yahoo Fantasy Forecast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I mean, if everyone else stays injured and the offensive line doesn't materialize, then the 49ers could finish 16th in scoring this year.
I've never said that about the 49ers with, with Shanahan.
This feels like the most fragile offense that they've had, just because- Yeah like they're reliant on all the old players, and all the old players are also injured aside from Christian McCaffrey.
So, I think it'd be a combination of this is not a top 10 offense.
The Christian McCaffrey run game numbers still look bad.
I think that's partially a CMC thing, but also partially the offensive line's not very good.
Trent Williams is old as well.
Like if he is not part of that offensive line for, for a stretch, like the offensive line to me looks pretty weak across the board.
So it's just, yeah, like all of a sudden they're projected for 22 points per game instead of currently projected 25.
And if you just like look at the history of the Shanahan offenses, typically they're way, way above 25.
I, I think this is less a Christian McCaffrey conversation and more like pull the thread on what you just said there that I think this is on paper gotta be o- I mean, one of the worst Niners offenses in a minute.
There's a- Yes there's a lot of issues with this team right now to the point that like I've, I've ma- I've made no bones about this.
I'm, I'm, I am Cardinals curious this year.
I don't know how- I know.
I don't know how long it's gonna take.
Like can I get 20, 20 more days, August 26th, can I convince myself that the Cardinals are gonna finish higher than the 49ers in the, in the NFC West?
It probably r- r- involves a lot more injuries, a lot more substation talk, but- Yeah it's, it's wor- it's concerning that that's even-- and obviously my brain's poisoned, but it, it's concerning that that's even in my mind at, at any point.
That's just how rough it looks on paper right now for the Niners.
Yeah, and that their defense is still a work in progress coming back from a lot of injuries on that side of the ball.
So like that could be, you know, closer to, to average to below average, which first stints of the year they were definitely below average.
And then the schedule, we'd have to get B- Boone on the phone real quick to, to hit us with the exact- Yeah schedule numbers.
But just looking at the, the rest of the division, it's, it's can't be, an easy schedule versus last year where the talk of the town was always, "Well, it doesn't matter.
The 49ers schedule is just so cake that Christian McCaffrey's gonna walk to a, a number one finish," which he did.
So I still draft McCaffrey with the concerns, but I have more concerns about just, you know, Brock Purdy, George Kittle coming back from injury, Mike Evans, where I'm like looking around like, man, this team is really fragile.
Like just look at the players that right there.
Like that's not like the most steadily starting 11 there, and then I think the depth for the most part is pretty weak too.
