Chiefs @ 49ers
Final Score: KC 28 – SF 18
Writer: Raymi Chavez
On a blistering fall day in Santa Clara, we were blessed with a Super Bowl rematch that promised a heavyweight battle. It looked more like a couple of heavyweights who gassed themselves early on missed haymakers and stumbled into a sloppy decision. Turnovers and injuries were the game’s theme as both teams had skill position players dropping like flies. Both quarterbacks combined for five interceptions and zero passing touchdowns.
In the end, the result was much of the same when these two get together, with the Chiefs walking off the field victorious and the Niners heading back to the drawing board trying to figure out what went wrong. It did have an impact from a fantasy perspective; let’s dive into that below.
Three Up
- Kareem Hunt – Kareem Hunt had another bellcow performance, never breaking too many chunk plays but constantly gaining 3+ yards to keep the Chiefs ahead of the sticks.
- Noah Gray – With Chief receiving options dropping all around him, the Chiefs featured their backup TE they signed to a contract extension in the offseason, and he delivered.
- George Kittle – Kittle has notoriously been an up-and-down fantasy TE, however, this marks his fifth straight strong week in a row, and with the Niners receivers corps thinning, I can only imagine that the streak continues.
Two Down
- Travis Kelce – After a couple of strong weeks, Kelce went back to his early season woes. You would think that his numbers would improve with all of the Chief’s injuries, but it only makes him easier for defenses to focus on.
- Xavier Worthy – The Chiefs have been trying to feature Worthy as more than just a gadget player with mixed results, and this was an example of poor results.
Kansas City Chiefs
Quarterback
Patrick Mahomes: 16/27, 154 Yards, 2 INT | 5 Carries, 39 Yards, TD
Mahomes’ personal season from hell continues. The man just cannot stop throwing interceptions. This week, neither of them was especially his fault, but at this point, it’s becoming more of a trend as opposed to bad luck. In standard leagues, Mahomes has a solid floor of 14 points a week, if all you need is consistency at your QB position, Mahomes will continue to do just fine.
Running Back
Kareem Hunt: 22 Carries, 78 Yards, 2 TD | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 5 Yards
Kareem Hunt just continues to get better. With 20+ carries in back-to-back games, the Chiefs are fully committing to becoming a run-first offense, and Kareem Hunt is the only healthy RB they trust. At this point, he is a must-start RB.
Carson Steele: 6 Carries, 17 Yards | 1 Target
Getting the most touches since Kareem usurped him for the lead back role, Steele impressed with a couple of his touches. He is still irrelevant from a fantasy perspective.
Samaje Perine: 2 Carries, 6 Yards | 1 Target, 1 Reception, 22 Yards
Perine saw a ton of snaps on third downs. He has an incredibly low floor, but any week could pop for a big day in the passing game.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Xavier Worthy: 8 Targets, 3 Receptions, 19 Yards | 1 Carry, 5 Yards
With receivers dropping like flies, the Chiefs are trying desperately to use Worthy as more than just a gadget player, and it’s been a very mixed bag. On Mahomes’ second interception of the game, Worthy gained outside leverage on his defender and then just slipped, gifting the DB with an uncontested interception. Mahomes did overthrow Worthy on a deep ball that was a surefire TD, so if that isn’t overthrown, his numbers would look much better, but that will be the story of this season from week to week. Low floor, high ceiling.
Travis Kelce: 5 Targets, 4 Receptions, 17 Yards
Kelce is not beating the coasting through the regular season allegations, and with less reliable targets for Mahomes to throw to, defenses will be keying in on Kelce with ease. If you can trade Kelce, you should do it. He’ll be difficult to trust on a week-to-week basis. However, I would imagine that he’ll have himself a game against the hated Raiders next week.
Noah Gray: 4 Targets, 4 Receptions, 66 Yards
After Kelce, Gray is the most trusted healthy receiving option that Mahomes has. He was used early and often before the Chiefs started to just salt the game away in the second half. While the Chiefs are hampered by injuries, Gray will have a passable floor of about seven points a week.
Mecole Hardman: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 17 Yards | 2 Carries, 38 Yards, TD
Hardman just loves to play the Niners, used effectively on two separate jet sweeps that led to a TD; he should only be picked up in deep leagues as a streaming option in emergency circumstances.
Justin Watson: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 8 Yards
San Francisco 49ers
Quarterback
Brock Purdy: 17/31, 212 Yards, 3 INT | 8 Carries, 27 Yards, 2 TD
Purdy didn’t look entirely comfortable all game long as the Chief’s vaunted defense gave him fits. Two brutal red zone interceptions sunk the Niners in the game, but Purdy was able to salvage his fantasy day with two QB sneak TDs. He is still a dependable option; the Chiefs’ defense makes a lot of QBs look bad.
Running Back
Jordan Mason: 14 Carries, 58 Yards | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 11 Yards
Mason struggled to get anything going on the ground. Other than one run he broke off for 26 yards, he was struggling to get 3+ yards a carry, getting hit in the backfield often. The Chiefs have done this to other strong RBs this season, so I would start him without a second thought still moving forward.
Isaac Guerendo: 1 Carry, 2 Yards, Fumble (Recovered) | 1 Target, 1 Reception, 5 Yards
Guerendo was only used to give Mason a breather a couple of times throughout the game.
Kyle Juszczyk: 1 Carry 14 Yards | 3 Targets
Juszczyk is essentially a sixth lineman out there and still holds minimal fantasy value.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
George Kittle: 7 Targets, 6 Receptions, 92 Yards
George Kittle’s fantastic season continues, Kittle was the only consistent source of production in the passing game for Purdy, as he was able to find him deep a couple of times and off of the play-action often. With Aiyuk’s injury and Samuel bouncing in and out of the lineup like usual, Kittle is the best piece of the Niner’s receiving offense to own.
Brandon Aiyuk: 6 Targets, 2 Receptions, 23 Yards
Aiyuk had a brutal drop early in the game and was looking to be having another down game. Then he made a great play to get the team into the red zone, which ended in him taking a hard tackle that resulted in a brutal-looking knee injury that looks potentially season-ending. Time to look at the waivers.
Ricky Pearsall: 5 Targets, 3 Receptions, 21 Yards
In his debut game after being shot in the offseason, Pearsall looked fairly good. The chemistry with Purdy isn’t where they’d like it to be, but once Aiyuk went down, Pearsall became Purdy’s second favorite target. He is worth picking up, as I anticipate him becoming the team’s WR2 for maybe the rest of the season.
Jacob Cowing: 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 50 Yards
Cowing used his blazing speed to hit a big 41-yard deep bomb late and figures to be the team’s best bet to take the top off the offense moving forward. I would wait a week, but he could become a boom or bust option off the waivers.
Ronnie Bell: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 10 Yards
Nearly took his one reception to the end zone, coming up a half-yard short.