Fantasy Impact: Christian McCaffrey and Mike Evans Get Encouraging Week 1 Injury News

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Aug 13, 2026; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey watches warmups before a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans at Levi's Stadium.

| IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect WR Mike Evans has had injury concerns all of the offseason, while RB for the San Francisco 49ers, Christian McCaffrey, has had real fantasy football threatening injury concerns starting just a few days before the 49ers' Week 1 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Aug 13, 2026; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Mike Evans watches from the sideline during a game against the Tennessee Titans in the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium.

| IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect Evans, in the lead-up to his first season with the 49ers, has been dealing with a quad strain and a groin injury. However, going into their game against the Rams, as of Sep. 8, he is not listed on the 49ers' injury report. With Evans being 33 years old, his health constantly being in question could be a common theme moving forward in the 2026 season.

So when fantasy managers see that Evans is a non-participant or limited in practice, full-blown panic does not need to automatically break out. The 49ers will unfortunately have to take on one of the most heavily touted defenses going into the 2026 season: the Rams. With the pairing of Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald on their defensive line, they could put constant pressure on San Francisco's QB Brock Purdy. They also improved their secondary in the offseason.

Los Angeles acquired two-time All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie via trade from the Kansas City Chiefs, and they also signed former Chiefs CB Jaylen Watson in free agency. Those two could make Evans's life hard in Week 1, but with the sure volume he could receive, especially with George Kittle’s status up in the air, he is still a more than startable WR fantasy option.

While Los Angeles did address their struggles in defending the pass, that does not fully take away from how they performed last season. The Rams in 2025 allowed the 11th most passing yards per game in the NFL, 225.6. They also allowed the 11th most PPR fantasy points to WRs. Aug 6, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey during training camp at SAP Performance Facility.

| IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect There will always be injury concerns with McCaffrey, given all the time he has missed due to serious injuries previously in his career. But up until a couple of days ago, those worries were pretty minimal with McCaffrey. He did miss a couple of weeks of practice in August due to general tightness; however, it did not seem like something serious that would linger into the regular season.

Then game week arrived, and McCaffrey was listed as a non-participant in the 49ers' practice on Monday, Sep.7. Lucky for fantasy managers, those injury alarm bells stopped ringing fairly quickly. McCaffrey was back at practice on Tuesday, Sep.8. He, like Evans, is not on the injury report that was recently released ahead of their game on Thursday.

The time McCaffrey missed this week and earlier in the offseason seems to be mostly for precautionary reasons. McCaffrey is an obvious must-start despite the Rams being set to have one of the best defensive lines in the NFL in 2026 and having an above-average rushing defense in 2025. Los Angeles last season allowed the 11th fewest rushing yards per game, 110.1. They also allowed the 13th fewest PPR fantasy points per game in 2025 to RBs.

Gray Deyo is a Nashville-based sportswriter who graduated with a sports management bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has covered prep sports, college sports, the WNBA, and the NBA for the past four years.

In addition to writing for SI, Gray also currently contributes to Prep Girls Hoops

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