Instant fantasy football takeaways from Seahawks-49ers Thursday Night Football

• Jordan Mason shines before injury: The San Francisco 49ers The lead running back averaged 8.1 yards per carry but missed more than half the game due to a shoulder injury.

• Better days for Kenneth Walker III: He managed fewer than 40 rushing yards in each of the last two weeks, but an increase in roles suggests his ceiling will be higher going forward than it was last season.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF's fantasy football roundup focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the key information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks

• George Kittle: 5 receptions, 58 yards, 2 touchdowns
• Deebo Samuel: 3 receptions, 102 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 carries, 15 rushing yards

monitor Jordan MasonHealth: Mason suffered a shoulder injury midway through the second quarter.

Mason started the game well. He was on the field for 17 of 21 possible games and ran eight times for 65 yards, including a 38-yard run. He left the game and was immediately declared a suspect when he had an X-ray. He was spotted on the sideline again before halftime, but the 49ers didn't get the ball back.

He got back into the game with a nine-yard run in the second half and immediately returned to the sideline. He remained on the sidelines wearing pads and a helmet for the remainder of the game, but never returned to the field. After Mason's initial departure, four players played snaps as the primary running back. Isaac Guerendo was the first back then Patrick Taylor And Deebo Samuel mixed in. Kyle Juszczyk was used as a third-down back throughout the game.

Guerendo had the most opportunities initially but could have been more efficient, which led to the team switching to Taylor for most of the fourth quarter. Taylor was equally inefficient, leading to Guerendo's return in the final two minutes where he made a 76-yard run to end the game.

If Mason misses time, you can expect Guerendo to be the primary defender, but he should only get about two-thirds of Mason's workload. Guerendo might not be worth making a fantasy starting lineup in that role considering the 49ers play the role Kansas City Chiefs next week.

Kenneth Walker IIIThe role expands: Walker is playing more snaps than last season, which should ultimately lead to more fantasy points.

It's been a tough two weeks for Walker in the running game after not seeing good volume last week and not seeing great efficiency this week. However, based on Walker's usage, better days may be ahead.

Teams often vary in how they use their third-down running backs if they have one. On third-and-1 it's often the early-down running back and on third-and-6-plus it's often the third-down back. The range of two to five meters is usually a gray area. Last season, Walker played in 23.6% of those games, excluding the two games he missed and one game he left early. In the first two weeks of this season, that number rose to 42.9%. Since returning from injury last week, he has taken 10 of those 11 snaps. In those 10 plays, he caught three passes for 12 yards.

Walker also played in passing situations late in the game as Seattle tried to catch up. Last week he set a career-high with seven receptions, and this week he surpassed his career-high again with eight receptions.

Zach Charbonnet Now only plays in third-and-6-plus situations and only takes a few early-down snaps. While this isn't a unique role for Walker, it's almost as good as it gets for a running back. He is a Buy-low candidate because he should be one of the best fantasy running backs for the rest of the season.

Various notes

• Both Deebo Samuel Sr. And Tyler Lockett He briefly left the game due to injury, but neither missed much playing time.
• 49ers backup wide receiver Chris Conley And Jacob Cowing missed week 5 due to injury. Both were active for this game and were the fourth and fifth wide receivers on the depth chart, respectively.
• 49ers tight end Brayden Willis was added to the 53-man roster yesterday from the practice squad but was a healthy inactive.
• During Amazon's pregame show, Albert Breer reported that the 49ers have a first-round rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will return to training next week. Pearsall is currently on the Non-football injury list after he was shot in late August.
• The Seahawks opted to only have five active wide receivers Dareke Young A healthy inactive player for the first time this season. Young had barely played on offense but had 97 special teams snaps through the first five weeks, the fifth-most for Seattle.
• The Seahawks began the game in a running formation Jake Bobo And Jaxon Smith-Njigba at wide receiver. This was only the second game DK Metcalfs career in which he played but did not start.
• For the second time in a row Noah Fant played in over 60% of the 12 personnel snaps while completing most of the 11 personnel snaps in passing situations. Either he is no longer someone worth playing in fantasy leagues due to an injury to a Seahawks wide receiver or tight end, or he is no longer playable due to a few injuries to other teams' tight ends.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays that are called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Goals may vary from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be a clearly thrown away pass, where the NFL might pass the target to the closest receiver, whereas this data does not.
• Carries only occur on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.