Kendall Valenzuela examines the offseason NFL news that is impacting fantasy football, led off by Christian McCaffrey possibly getting some company in the 49ers backfield.

It may be the offseason, but we know the NFL doesn't sleep. This week we have updates on Christian McCaffrey's role possibly being impacted, a more aggressive Kyler Murray, and the Jaguars possibly slow-playing Trevor Lawrence's rehab from shoulder surgery.

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Christian McCaffrey is healthy, but 49ers will add to RB room

Last season all fantasy managers were burned by Christian McCaffrey. The injury gods could not stay away—he started the season with a calf and Achilles injury, which made him miss the first eight games. And, of course, we all remember what happened when he returned, unfortunately. In Week 13 he suffered a PCL injury in Buffalo, which promptly ended his season, but didn't require surgery.

After missing most of the 2024 season and now having a full offseason to recover, head coach Kyle Shanahan said at the League Meeting that their superstar running back is "healthy" and also “doing great.”

However, even with a healthier McCaffrey gearing up for the upcoming season, the 49ers have not ruled out drafting a running back in a few weeks. San Francisco has 11 picks in this year 's draft and Shanahan has said they hope to address the running back position.

“Of course, we're set with McCaffrey, but every single year we've gone through this except for two years, we've gone through four running backs,” Shanahan said. "Most teams do, so you always got to be prepared for that."

The team lost Jordan Mason to the Minnesota Vikings during free agency. He had a big 2024 season with McCaffrey sidelined and finished with a career-high 789 yards on 153 attempts with 3 touchdowns in six starts. This leaves Patrick Taylor and Isaac Guerendo as the only two running backs behind McCaffrey on the depth chart.

Thor Nystrom recently said on the Fantasy Life Show that he believes the 49ers could use their first-round pick to get a star running back. While they may not be able to get Ashton Jeanty, might they be interested in a Cam Skattebo? He obviously would not be a first-rounder, but Skattebo was a workhorse last season for Arizona State (forks up), and in the Rookie Super Model, has the second-highest production rating (86) in the running back class, thanks to his total yardage and receiving marks. 

I might be a biased ASU fan, but let's put Cam Skattebo in this offense and see what happens. 

Kyler Murray says he must run more in 2025

This should be music to all fantasy managers' ears. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray had a disappointing 2024 season—while he did finish the season as the QB12, expectations were that he was going to drastically outperform his ADP.

Speaking with PHNX Sports, Murray said that his knee still bothered him early last season and that he wasn’t as mobile as he would have liked to be.

“I do feel like I have to run more next year. I’m open to running more next year, just because it’s such a weapon," Murray said. "I think for us, part of the emphasis going into next season is, conceptually, on time, I feel I’m one of the best in the league. I think where we get better is making things happen outside the pocket … Next year I feel like I need to be utilized more in the run game." 

Murray finished the 2024 season with 572 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns on 78 carries. Last season also saw Murray attempt a career-low 4.6 rushes per contest. 

But if you're telling me there's a chance Murray could get back to his dual-threat ways? I will probably sign up again. I drafted a ton of Kyler Murray last season, and while there was regret after a lackluster fantasy season, the process still felt right. He was going outside of the top 10 quarterbacks and with his rushing upside and a new weapon in Marvin Harrison Jr. it felt like a slam-dunk. WRONG. 

Murray will now be two years removed from his ACL injury, which he has already said is why he's feeling better about the upcoming 2025 season.

"They say Year 2 (post-injury) is the best year, and honestly, how I feel right now is as if it never happened," Murray told PHNX Sports.

He's currently going off the board on Underdog as QB9—right around Bo Nix (QB8), Baker Mayfield (QB7), and Caleb Williams (QB10). And with the Cardinals being linked to adding another receiver in this draft, sign me up for a few Kyler Murray shares in 2025 (no, I did not learn my lesson).

Trevor Lawrence on 'Pitch Count'

The Jacksonville Jaguars had a bit of a dramatic offseason before actually landing new head coach Liam Cohen. One of the biggest questions for the team is how healthy will their franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence be? While he underwent surgery on the left AC joint in his shoulder in December, Lawrence told reporters that he’s been throwing, which means he is on the road to recovery. But the Jaguars are still going to be cautious. Coen said during his press conference that the team will limit Lawrence's reps in the spring.

“As we lead in, we’re optimistic that we’ll get there in terms of where we need to go … He’ll be on a pitch count for those things in terms of where he has to get to—because he has little touch points he needs to reach before he can obviously get out on the grass and do it full speed."

The Jaguars are an interesting case for fantasy football—the interesting part being who do we really want to target outside of Brian Thomas Jr.?

Christian Kirk is now with the Houston Texans and Evan Engram found himself a new home with the Denver Broncos. It's wheels up for BTJ. I mean, did we ever really doubt that though? There were four games last season where both Kirk and Engram weren't on the field from Weeks 15-18, during that time Thomas averaged 25.5 PPG, which made him WR1 over that span.

I think the bigger question is what can Coen get out of Lawrence? Will the quarterback finally  reach those generational heights that we were promised? He's only 25 years old and has two seasons with 4,000+ passing yards to his name. However, his points per game each season has not been stellar QB24 (2024), QB17 (2023), and QB12 (2022).

Hopefully a new, young offensive-minded head coach can take Lawrence to new heights, but if not then please just keep feeding BTJ. We're begging. 

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