• Jordan Mason leads the San Francisco 49ers: Christian McCaffrey was surprisingly inactive, giving Mason the chance to show why he is one of the highest-rated running backs of the past few seasons.

• New York Jets rely entirely on Breece Hall And Garret Wilson: For the first 40 minutes of the game, Hall and Wilson were the only talented Jets players to touch the ball.

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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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

New York Jets @ San Francisco 49ers

• Jordan Mason: 28 runs, 147 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 pass reception, 5 receiving yards
• Allen Lazard: 6 receptions, 89 yards, 2 touchdowns

Jordan Mason lights up in Christian McCaffreyAbsence: Mason delivered his first 100-yard performance to give the 49ers the lead.

McCaffrey was dealing with a calf and Achilles injury and was officially questionable before the game. McCaffrey himself stated he had no doubts he would play, but his injury took its toll and the team decided not to play him, leaving many fantasy managers without a plan B.

Mason, who was the NFL’s highest-rated running back over the past two seasons, albeit in a small sample size, took over as the 49ers’ primary running back. It seemed as though he Elijah Mitchell for the job of primary backup, but Mitchell landed on the injured list, ending Mason’s season and securing him the job.

Mason played the clear majority of the snaps and left the field only in a few places to Deebo Samuel Sr. a chance as a running back. Rookie in the fourth round Isaac Guerendo also played short. Mason played effectively, averaging more than five yards per carry in a large sample size.

Mason should be the top target for running back this week. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported before the game that McCaffrey may not games next week. Mason would be a must-have if McCaffrey misses another game. Mason will continue to be one of the top players for the rest of the season, even if McCaffrey plays next week.

Brandon Aiyuk was put into action: The 49ers’ star wide receiver missed most of training camp due to a layoff and did not play as often as usual in this game.

Aiyuk played every snap on the first two drives, but was then clearly switched out. This typically happened on early running plays, so he wasn’t off the field for many pass routes. Whenever it was third-and-long, Aiyuk was on the field the whole time. Whenever he was off the field, it was Chris Conley to replace him.

Just as the 49ers maintained a lead of several points, they also gave up Deebo Samuel Sr. more games, with Ronnie Bell is Samuel’s primary backup. The 49ers often have backup wide receivers to replace certain players, so it would be good to know who will step in for Aiyuk or Samuel if they get injured this season.

We can expect Aiyuk’s playing time to increase soon. He didn’t score many fantasy points in this game, but he did drop a touchdown pass that would have made him a clear fantasy starter for the week. If this game had stayed closer, Aiyuk likely would have played more in this game. He can certainly stay in fantasy starting lineups, although his fantasy production wasn’t high in this game.

Allen Lazard starts with the wide receiver and newer wide receivers: The Jets relied more on their wide receivers from last season when it came to adding new players to the roster.

Garret Wilson And Allen Lazard were wide receivers for every down, with Xavier Gipson as the third wide receiver in sets with three receivers.

The Jets added Michael Williams in free agency, but he only played a fraction of the possible snaps. The Jets had four red zone plays and Williams was on three of them, so it’s possible the game plan called for him to play specifically in those situations at 6’4″. Williams is recovering from a torn ACL a year ago and was listed on the injury report with a knee injury, but was a full participant in practice all week with no reported injury.

It’s clear the team wants to ease him into the game slowly. There’s a chance he could be a starter by midseason. It’s fine to leave him on the fantasy bench until then, but right now he shouldn’t be in fantasy starting lineups. Once Williams gets playing time, Lazard will likely miss time, making it harder for Lazard to be a waiver target.

The Jets also spent the 65th overall pick on a slot receiver Malachi Corley. The fact that he played all of the preseason while the Jets rested other offensive rookies boded poorly for his playing time early in the regular season. He played one snap as a run blocker on offense. While it’s always too early to give up on a rookie in Week 1, I’d rather have several other rookie wide receivers on my roster this season.

Miscellaneous notes

• Second running back of the Jets Israel Abanikanda was the team’s fourth running back and was inactive due to health reasons.

• The Jets decided to record Anthony Firkser from the training squad and make Brenden Bates inactive, although Bates is not on the injured list.

• The Jets relied on a starting tight end Tyler Conklin to be on the field more often in this game than in other games last season, but he was not involved in the passing game.

• Breece Hall‘s playing time slowly but surely increased last season. Before this season, he only played three games with more than 70% offensive snaps, and those were the final 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 time-out before the last few minutes, when Aaron Rodgers was removed from the game.

• 49ers slot receiver Juan Jennings left the game in the third quarter shortly after an apparent 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 for the rest of the game as they stuck with two-wide receiver sets.

Notes on the table

• Snaps include plays that were called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.