The 49ers head to Green Bay in the spotlight matchup of the late window on Sunday afternoon, but there is serious concern about the status of their starting QB. Brock Purdy (shoulder) has been officially ruled out after not practicing all week. Purdy’s backup is Brandon Allen ($4,000), who has appeared in just one game all season and has yet to attempt a pass. With Allen now starting, what does that mean for Jauan Jennings ($5,600), Deebo Samuel Sr. ($6,500) and the rest of the offense? Let’s take a look:
The latest on Brock Purdy
Purdy didn’t practice Wednesday, threw only a few passes Thursday and wasn’t on the field for the start of practice on Friday. While an MRI revealed no significant injury, he’ll miss his first game of 2024.
This is a critical game for the Niners, who are 5-5 and trying to stay in the playoff race, yet they’ll now be forced to start Allen for the first time since signing him as a free agent before the 2023 season. The veteran started three games in 2019 for the Broncos and five games for the Bengals in 2020, but only went 2-6 as a starter, averaging 180 passing yards per game with eight touchdowns and six interceptions.
We really don’t know what to expect from Allen since he hasn’t started since 2021 and hasn’t started for coach Kyle Shanahan.
Downgrading Deebo and Jennings
With Allen, both Samuel and Jennings will be high-risk starts.
Samuel has had a few down games, lately, and on Monday, I wrote that Jennings is a better play on a weekly basis at this point. However, that was all based on Purdy under center.
Without Purdy, both are much higher risk and should probably be avoided, if possible. Jennings still has touchdown-dependent upside and Deebo has big-play potential, but both have very low floors if things go wrong. I’m dropping them both out of my top 25, even in a week with so many teams on bye.
49ers you can still start
While the passing game is very uncertain without Purdy, Christian McCaffrey ($8,500) will likely be the focus of the offense. He had 19 carries and four catches last week against the Seahawks for 14.6 fantasy points.
After his long layoff, it looks like CMC is back to full strength, which could lead to a huge workload against the Packers. It’s not an ideal matchup, but he’s still a RB1 because of his upside and volume.
Since the position is thin, TE George Kittle ($6,000) is still a starting option, as well, although both CMC and Kittle are too high-risk at their salaries in DFS contests like the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st].
The Bottom Line
Downgrade the whole 49ers offense with Purdy sidelined. Jennings and Samuel are still fliers if you have no options in season-long leagues, but don’t count on them if you can figure out alternative options.
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