Target him as an undervalued RB in fantasy football drafts. Now that he is finally healthy, and the former pass-catching running back Matt Breida has signed with the Miami Dolphins, the door for McKinnon to contribute is wide open in San Fran. The news out of camp has been good for Valdes-Scantling and he may finally put together enough consistency to be useful in fantasy. 49ers GM John Lynch said McKinnon will be … Go to Who Should I Start. With over 25 years of fantasy experience, Mike has a very unique style when picking sleepers and gems. Head coach Kyle Shanahan is a wizard when it comes to designing run plays, and he chose McKinnon to be an integral part of his scheme when McKinnon signed a contract for four years worth up to $36.9M in 2018. That's not a player worth drafting in almost any format. Add in that he has Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Rob Gronkowski and a strong set of ancillary receivers, and his upside is great. Running back Jerick McKinnon wasn't able to take the field in his first season for the San Francisco 49ers. So naturally, because it is definitely one of those seasons across the league, he had to exit the Chargers' Week... Read More. What is Deebo Samuel’s fantasy football value when he returns? Between shipping out Breida and trading for Trent Wiliams, Mostert saw some huge Draft Day bumps up in fantasy value. While both of those are more per game touches than he saw in Minnesota, it is hardly the ideal workload for you to build a fantasy team around. I'm confident the starting running back for the 49ers this season will have fantasy value, I'm just not confident Mostert will be that guy all year long. This is concerning for any player, but with McKinnon's injury history it's something that should push him completely off draft boards. We’ll be tracking the scores and odds performances through the rest of the slate. Jerick McKinnon, 49ers vs. Cardinals, $4,000. Draft New Orleans Defense or Jerick McKinnon? In all likelihood, McKinnon will now take a backseat to Mostert for the early-down work. Target him as an undervalued RB in fantasy football drafts. Start Giovani Bernard or Jerick McKinnon? Currently, McKinnon is benefitting from a lack of top-level competition in Coleman and McKinnon and still is not commanding over 50% of the running back opportunities. Mostert’s running mates are Jerick McKinnon … If you haven’t been paying attention, McKinnon, a player you could have drafted in 16th round last year, a player that has never had more than 600 rushing yards in his career, peaked as a mid-second round running back on July 13th of this year. McKinnon carried the ball 14 times out of the 28 running back carries. Week 1 is always tough to navigate due to not having a firm grasp on how defenses will look, but we can make educated guesses based on personnel and last season’s performance. Trade demands produced desired results of getting paid more money - should now be headed for a Touch/PG boost in lucrative SF backfield in 2020. When Kyle Shanahan became the head coach of the 49ers, it was the same story different player. I’ll have a lot of Jackson in my Week 1 lineups now that Jalen Reagor and Alshon Jeffery are out. He’s still more of a GPP play, as he’s likely to still be a deep ball threat while Davante Adams and Allen Lazard could see more work underneath. What’s even more interesting is where these running backs were being drafted in those years? Since the injury, McKinnon has returned to being a 3rd round running back, however, his actual fantasy value is still left up for debate.