7/27/26 - 2026 San Francisco 49ers Fantasy Preview | Can Christian McCaffrey Do It Again?

**Ryan Weiss** (0:01)
Welcome to No Putt Intended. It is time for another special episode. It is our Look Inside series, and we are coming up to the finish line. It is getting so close to your fantasy drafts, and we are getting so close to the best teams from football last year. And today, we take a look at the San Francisco 49ers. One could argue whether they're the best teams, but they certainly have some, if not one of the best fantasy assets. Let's find out if we like the Niners and Christian McCaffrey as we head into 2026
Welcome to No Pun Intended, by Club Fantasy, Ryan Weiss and the Host Seat. It is time for another Look Inside episode, and we are ready to talk about the San Francisco 49ers. Josh Hudson with me as always for this journey. How are you doing, my friend?

**Josh Hudson** (1:10)
This was another team that I hated to do projection for.

**Ryan Weiss** (1:14)
Really?

**Josh Hudson** (1:15)
Yeah, like it's a very predictable team, which we'll get into. Like Kyle Shanahan's been the head coach, the play caller now for almost a decade, it feels like. So like, you kind of know what they're going to do.

**Ryan Weiss** (1:27)
Well, that's what I was going to say is the 49ers.

**Josh Hudson** (1:29)
But this is an old team.

**Ryan Weiss** (1:32)
That's fair.

**Josh Hudson** (1:33)
And when old players play a very physical game, they get hurt. So that's where I'm getting at is like, how much do you rely on the what ifs?
Versus the what should be.

**Ryan Weiss** (1:45)
This might be one of the rare teams we talk about who got older in the offseason and not younger because they bring in guys like Mike Evans and Christian Kirk. There ain't no youth going on here. The Niners were 12 and five last season, made the playoffs yet again. Kyle Shanahan is the coach, Kyle Shanahan is the play caller as Josh pointed out. I'm going to give you the starting offense and we're going to talk about some of these players that we like or maybe don't like as much heading into this 2026 season. I will let you know ADP. This is based off of Underdog ADP in the late July area. So this is actually pretty close to probably what you're going to be seeing as you head into your fantasy drafts in August. At QB1, it's Brock Purdy. He is going off boards as the QB12 in fantasy. RB1 is of course Christian McCaffrey. He's actually going off as the RB3 right now. Kailin Black, the rookie is listed as the RB2. He's the RB69 in fantasy. Jordan James last year's rookie, RB64 in fantasy. That is right. They brought over Mike Evans from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver one going off as the wide receiver 24
Ricky Pearsall is still here going off as the wide receiver 45 Christian Kirk comes over from Houston. He's the wide receiver 93 And rookie Deshaun Stribling is wide receiver 70 in fantasy right now. George Kittle is hurt. He's going off boards right now as the tight end nine. People seem very optimistic that Kittle is going to play. Josh, before we talk about any specific player, you've kind of already touched on this. Actually, you know what? You've already touched on this offense and I don't have a lot to add there. Let's get into a player because there is a player that I believe is on everybody's mind. And that is how to handle Christian McCaffrey, Josh. Last year's RB1 had a hell of a season, but did it in a very weird way and people seem to be at least discounting it a little bit as he's going off boards as the RB3 right now.

**Josh Hudson** (3:22)
Yeah, so this is kind of how I feel about this.
Christian McCaffrey's ADP is the risk reward, right? Because when you look at the reward and you look at Christian McCaffrey's history as a player in the league and especially for fantasy football managers, yeah, second year in the league, 2018, 385.5 points per game, or excuse me, points total.

**Ryan Weiss** (3:46)
Yeah, he broke fantasy that year. That was the year he became the quarterback who wasn't a quarterback.

**Josh Hudson** (3:51)
Yeah, that was the, you know, again, the big breakout because everybody kind of questioned whether he was a should have been a top 10 pick as a running back, smaller, diminutive, mainly a receiver, blah, blah, blah, finishes the RB2 that year, 24.1 points per game, then exploded in 2019 Only the third career season ever with over a thousand rushing yards and a thousand receiving yards.