The 49ers’ offense will be without multiple key playmakers this week when they take on the also-injury-riddled Los Angeles Rams. Coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense is usually a very profitable one for fantasy football, and Jauan Jennings ($4,100) should be in a place to step up and post a big game in Week 3.
With Christian McCaffrey (Achilles/calf) sidelined, the Niners have turned to Jordan Mason ($6,200) in the backfield, but Mason has been much less involved in the passing game than CMC with only one catch in each of his two starts.
Deebo Samuel (calf) was getting some work in the backfield and drew a massive 19 targets the first two weeks, but he has been ruled out with an injury this week. TE George Kittle ($5,700) is likely joining him and McCaffrey on the sidelines after being listed as doubtful due to a hamstring injury. Last week, Kittle and Samuel combined for 15 targets on Brock Purdy’s ($6,000) 36 pass attempts.
With so much work available, both Brandon Aiyuk ($6,200) and Jennings should have plenty of work this week. Hopefully, you were able to grab Jennings off waivers earlier this week, like my colleague Dan Johnson recommended earlier this week. Jennings made sense then as a Deebo replacement, and he gets another bump from Kittle’s injury.
DK Network’s Meghan Townsley and Steve Buchanan broke down Jennings’s potential on Friday as well in the following video:
Jennings is a big target at 6’3″ and 212 pounds and should be able to help carry the load on possession catches and in the red zone like Kittle normally does. He also has the trust of Purdy and the coaches, who dubbed him “Third-and-Jauan,” since he so often comes up big converting third downs into first downs.
So far this year, Jennings has been involved on the fringes. He had five catches on five targets for a team-high 64 receiving yards in a solid Week 1 but only managed two catches on four targets for 37 yards last week. He was dealing with an ankle injury during the week leading up to the game, which may be why the team leaned more on Kittle and Samuel. Without those stars, Jennings will need to step into the spotlight this week.
Jennings gets a great matchup this week against the Rams, who have allowed 483 receiving yards over their first two games—eighth most in the league. They have also given up the seventh-most fantasy points to the position.
Even though Jennings doesn’t have blinding downfield speed with the potential for big plays, his target share gives him a very high floor this week. He’s a strong flex play and a fringe WR3 with low risk and a high ceiling. He’s also an elite value play in DFS at only $4,100 in Week 3 contests, highlighted by the NFL $3.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st].
Despite all their injuries, the 49ers are 6.5-point favorites for their road game in Los Angeles. Jennings is +260 to score a touchdown and +125 to get 50+ receiving yards.
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