• Jordan Mason shines before injury: The San Francisco 49ers lead running back averaged 8.1 yards per carry but missed more than half the game due to a shoulder injury.

•Better days lie ahead for Kenneth Walker III: He’s been held under 40 rushing yards each of the past two weeks, but a role increase suggests his ceiling will be higher going forward than last season.

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PFF’s fantasy football overview focuses on player usage and statistics, providing all the essential information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks

• George Kittel: 5 receptions, 58 yards, 2 touchdowns
• Deebo Samuel: 3 receptions, 102 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 carries, 15 rushing yards

Monitor Jordan Mason‘s health: Mason suffered a shoulder injury midway through the second quarter.

Mason started the match well. He was on the field 17 of 21 possible plays and ran eight times for 65 yards, including a run of 38 yards. He left the game and was immediately declared doubtful when he went for x-rays. He was spotted on the sideline again before halftime, but the 49ers did not get the ball back.

In the second half, he returned to the game with a nine-yard run and immediately returned to the sideline. He remained on the sideline in pads and helmet for the rest of the game, but never returned to the field. After Mason’s initial departure, four players played snaps as the primary running back. Isaac Guerendo was the primary one at the time Patrick Taylor And Deebo Samuel mixed in. Kyle Juszczyk was used as a third-down back the entire game.

Guerendo initially had the most chances but could have been more efficient, leading the team to switch to Taylor for most of the fourth quarter. Taylor was briefly inefficient, allowing Guerendo to return for the final two minutes, where he made a 76-yard run to finish the game.

If Mason misses time, you can expect Guerendo to be the primary defender, but he should only get about two-thirds of Mason’s workload. Guerendo may not be worth inserting into a fantasy starting lineup in that role, as the 49ers Kansas City Chiefs next week.

Kenneth Walker III‘s role is expanding: Walker is playing more snaps than last season, which should ultimately lead to more fantasy points.

It’s been a rough two weeks for Walker in the run game after not seeing good volume last week and great efficiency this week. However, there should be better days ahead depending on how Walker is used.

Teams will often vary how they use their third-down running backs if they have them. On third-and-1 it’s often the early-down running back, and on third-and-six it’s often the third-down back. The range of two to five meters is usually a gray area. Last season, Walker played 23.6% of those plays, excluding the two games he missed and one game he left early. Over the first two weeks of this season, this has risen to 42.9%. Since returning from injury last week, he has made 10 of those 11 snaps. During those ten plays, he caught three passes for twelve yards.

Walker also played in passing situations late in the game as Seattle tried to catch up. Last week he set a career-high with seven receptions, and this week he bettered his career-high again with eight receptions.

Zach Charbonnet Now only plays in third-and-six situations and only takes a few early-down snaps. While this isn’t quite a key role for Walker, it’s almost as good as it gets for a running back. He is one buy-low candidate because he should be one of the best fantasy running backs the rest of the season.

Various comments

• Both Deebo Samuel Sr. And Tyler Lockett left the match briefly due to injury, but neither missed much playing time.
• 49ers backup wide receivers Chris Conley And Jacob Cows Missed Week 5 due to injury. Both were active for this game and were the fourth and fifth wide receivers on the depth chart, respectively.
• 49ers tight end Brayden Willis was moved from the practice squad to the 53-man roster yesterday, but was healthy inactive.
• During Amazon’s pregame show, Albert Breer reported that the 49ers first-round rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall Back at practice next week. Pearsall is currently on the list of non-football injuries after he was shot in late August.
• The Seahawks opted to have just five active wide receivers Dareke Jong a healthy inactive one for the first time this season. Young had barely played on offense but had 97 special teams snaps through the first five weeks, fifth-most for Seattle.
• The Seahawks started the game in punt formation with Jake Bobo And Jaxon Smith-Njigba at wide receiver. This was only the second match DK Metcalf‘s career where he played but didn’t start.
• For the second week in a row, Noah Fant played in over 60% of the 12 personnel shots, while most of the 11 personnel shots were taken in passing situations. He’s either an injury to a Seahawks wide receiver, a tight end away from being someone worth drafting into fantasy leagues, or a few injuries to other teams’ tight ends so he can’t be drafted .

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Objectives may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be the result of an obviously thrown pass, where the NFL could give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data does not.
• Carries are only possible on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.