NFL Week 7 Fantasy Football Recap: San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs

October 23, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) warms up before the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Mecole Hardman: 4 receptions, 32 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 carries, 28 yards, two touchdowns

JuJu Smith-Schuster: 7 receptions, 124 yards, 1 touchdown


PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

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CLE@BAL | TB@CAR | ATL@CIN | DET@DAL | NYG@JAX | IND@TEN
GB@WSH | NYJ@DEN | HOU@LVR | SEA@LAC | KC@SF | PIT@MIA


Christian McCaffrey’s first game with the 49ers: McCaffrey joined the 49ers late Thursday night, and he split playing time with Jeff Wilson in this game.

    • McCaffrey and Wilson were used pretty interchangeably throughout the game, with McCaffrey seeing all of his playing time on normal first and second downs.
    • He wasn’t necessarily used in the red zone as some reported he could be.
    • Kyle Juszczyk remained the third-down back.
    • Tyrion Davis-Price was the third-string halfback. He played three snaps in the first three quarters and then featured significantly in the last few minutes with the game out of reach.
    • We can expect McCaffrey to see a much larger majority of snaps, including likely taking third downs, by next week.
    • Wilson can be cut in all leagues. Wilson can’t be in starting lineups next week. The 49ers have a bye in Week 9, and then Elijah Mitchell should be back around Week 10.

Isiah Pacheco starts for Kansas City: Pacheco was declared the starter earlier in the day, which led to only a slight increase in snaps.

    • He largely cut into the playing time of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who also played significantly on run plays. Pacheco out-snapped Edwards-Helaire by just two.
    • Jerick McKinnon continued to see nearly all of the passing-down work, including most of the short-yardage situations.
    • McKinnon still received significant work on early downs.
    • The move to Pacheco as a starter made it harder to put any of the running backs in a fantasy starting lineup.
    • Pacheco can probably be trusted in games with a more favorable game script. The Chiefs were up by only five points early in the fourth quarter.
    • All three running backs should remain on fantasy rosters.

Only add Mecole Hardman in deep leagues: The Chiefs receiver scored three touchdowns, but he remains a clear third on the depth chart.

    • His playing time had been on the decline as the team tried to get rookie Skyy Moore more involved.
    • His 1.27 yards per route run this season are lower than you would like to see from a fantasy starter. Both starting receivers as well as Moore are notably higher.
    • Hardman’s playing time was up in this game because it was close, and the Chiefs tend to not play their rookies as much in close games.
    • Kansas City has a much easier schedule the rest of the season, which will mean more two tight end sets, and increased snaps by Moore.


Table Notes

Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.

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