It's been a difficult start to the season for the defending champions of the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers. Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle have all missed time while the team has started 1-2. In Week 3, Jauan Jennings took advantage of their absences and put together one of the most impressive, and surprising Fantasy performances in recent memory. Now, Dynasty managers have to figure out how to value him.
To be completely honest, I didn't have Jennings ranked at all going into last week. Not in redraft or Dynasty. That feels pretty dumb now, but it's not hard to see why. He's a 26-year-old former seventh-round pick who had topped 50 receiving yards six times in 57 career regular season and playoff games. He had scored two touchdowns in his last 31 NFL games before scoring three last week. It would be easy to hear all that just write Jennings' Week 3 off. But how do you write off a 46.5-point performance that was just as impressive on tape as it was in the box score?
For Week 3, I have Jennings ranked as a top-25 wide receiver, though he'll fall outside the top 30 if George Kittle returns. For Dynasty, he moves all the way up to WR73, with room to grow from there if he continues to produce. For reference, that's just behind Jalen McMillan and just ahead of Dontayvion Wicks. Not nothing, but not earth-shattering, either.
The 49er who is moving the other direction is McCaffrey. He visited a doctor in Germany to try to get help with his Achilles injury. It now seems as though he'll be out until at least the middle of the season. Considering he's a 28-year-old running back, you have to at least entertain the idea that we may never see another full season of McCaffrey at full strength. At the same time, if he's 100% in the second half, he could be the best player in Fantasy. I've dropped McCaffrey just outside my top-10 Dynasty running backs for now.
This past Tuesday on Fantasy Football Today Dynasty, we did a two-man mock of the first two rounds of a Dynasty Superflex startup with Joshua Cho. McCaffrey was nowhere to be found, and I am not sure he would have been selected if we had gone two more rounds. You can listen to that podcast here:
As a reminder, you can find links to my full rankings for QB, RB, WR, and TE on our Dynasty Fantasy Football Landing Page. You can also find my Dynasty trade charts for both one-QB and Superflex leagues on SportsLine. During the season, the rankings and the trade charts will be updated on a weekly basis, on Wednesday or Thursday.
Other rankings risers: Jayden Daniels, Justin Fields, Andy Dalton, Bucky Irving, Carson Steele, Roschon Johnson, Tyler Badie, Rashee Rice, Diontae Johnson, Allen Lazard,
Other rankings fallers: Javonte Williams, Isiah Pacheco, D'Andre Swift, Jaylen Warren, Ezekiel Elliott, Marvin Mims, Travis Kelce,