Vikings Could Face Weakened Opponent on Sunday
Read the evidence: It doesn’t sound like San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey will play against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Vikings Could Face Weakened Opponent on Sunday
Kyle Shanahan’s squad is slated to take down the Vikings by six points, according to oddsmakers, but the clues suggest it will have to do so with Jordan Mason at running back, not McCaffrey.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport commented on McCaffrey’s status on Wednesday, “It feels to me, just taking stock of the situation, talking to people involved, that Christian McCaffrey is a long shot to play this week against the Minnesota Vikings.”
McCaffrey didn’t play Monday night when the 49ers thumped the New York Jets, and truth be told, it really didn’t matter. The aforementioned Mason channeled his inner McCaffrey, slicing and dicing an otherwise delightful Jets defense for 147 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The league’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year, McCaffrey, is evidently battling Achilles tendinitis, delaying his recovery time. Shanahan recently said about McCaffrey’s situation, “It’s not just the calf, it’s the Achilles, and the Achilles is tendinitis, and that stuff comes and goes. And when it is acting up, it’s something you’ve got to be very careful about. Christian is very diligent about that stuff. If it was a playoff game, he made it very clear to me he believed he could go.”
Even without McCaffrey, oddsmakers expect San Francisco to defeat Minnesota handily.
“But when you hear that type of stuff, and it’s not a playoff game, and it’s Week 1, especially when you’re dealing with the lower extremities like that, it was a tough decision, but hearing all the words and stuff, in the long run, it made it easy,” Shanahan added.
Right after the 49ers beat the Jets, tight end George Kittle declared on national television that McCaffrey would be ready for Vikings-49ers. But his musings were more likely rah-rah teammate camaraderie than injury-related fact.
Minnesota’s defense wonderfully stifled the run in Week 1 in a beatdown of the New York Giants, but San Francisco will be a new ball of wax. Mason proved rather effective versus the Jets’ defense, and New York is known for defense — not just Aaron Rodgers at the top of the ticket.
Despite a seven-point underdog status last year, the Vikings chipped off the 49ers in 2023 on Monday Night Football. They’ll hope to replicate that on Sunday.
The 49ers haven’t won a game in Minneapolis since 1992 and have lost seven straight at the Metrodome and U.S. Bank Stadium.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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