49ers fear Jerick McKinnon tore his ACL

Jerick McKinnon just went down at 49ers camp. While everyone awaits news from the medical staff, go pick up Alfred Morris in your league.

Word out of 49ers practice this afternoon is that Jerick McKinnon went down with a bad injury. There has yet to be news on the type or severity of the injury, but it was enough for Ian Rapaport to label it “concerning” and “not good” on his Twitter.

The initial fear is that McKinnon suffered an ACL injury, which would end his season before it starts.

This is one of the least feel-good parts of fantasy football – profiting off of the injury of a player by adding the benefactor. News should be forthcoming later today from the 49ers. In the meantime, Alfred Morris and Matt Breida would be interesting adds in your league.

As of the time of the injury, Breida is owned in 17.5% of ESPN leagues, compared to 3.4% for Morris. However, Breida’s role as a third-down specialist was nicely carved out already. For first and second down, Morris might be the better dart throw.

This fits what has been said recently in the news as well. A brief narrative cropped up from a tweet by Brian Baldinger, highlighting Morris’ fresh legs and calling that the veteran could wrest control of the starting job, injury or no injury.

49ers GM John Lynch was asked about these comments by San Francisco radio station KNBR, and he was pretty succinct in stating “his take on Alfred was exactly right.” Some fantasy sites jumped the gun, thinking this meant Morris might start, but Lynch was primarily focused on the comments praising his fitness and skill. Now, however, the entirety of the take might be correct.

Add on the previous two years of experience Morris has with the Shanahan system and you have yourself an interesting throw of the dice. Volume is king in fantasy, and Alfred Morris should stand to get the volume should McKinnon’s injury be as serious as initial reports make it out to be.

In the meantime, we hope McKinnon’s injury is not severe and, if it does turn out to be an ACL, is one he can recover from fully.