Who Should I Start? Brandon Aiyuk or Jalen Nailor

Monday, November 3, 7:30 PM

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday that the team will not open wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk's (knee) 21-day practice window this week, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic. Shanahan mentioned recently that Aiyuk was getting closer to returning to practice, but apparently it won't be this week. The 27-year-old has been on the Physically Unable to Perform list all year after tearing his ACL and MCL on Oct. 20 last year. San Fran is still holding out hope that the former first-rounder will be able to help them this year, but fantasy managers stashing Aiyuk shouldn't be as confident that he'll be able to help out in 2025. In addition to Aiyuk, the Niners have been without Ricky Pearsall (knee) since Week 4 due to a sprained PCL. Jauan Jennings, Kendrick Bourne, and Demarcus Robinson have been the team's starting receivers in three-wide sets in recent weeks.

Friday, October 31, 4:41 PM

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jalen Nailor will have some outside streaming appeal in deep leagues when the Vikings travel to play the Detroit Lions in Week 9. The former Michigan State Spartan has played at least 59% of the team's offensive snaps in every game this season, and he's drawn at least four targets in five of Minnesota's seven games. The Lions' defense is holding opponents to points on fewer than a third of possessions, but quite a bit of the damage has been through the air, as Detroit has allowed 14 passing touchdowns in just seven weeks. Though second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy will return from an ankle injury this week, Minnesota has continued to favor three-receiver looks that will give Nailor opportunities. He'll naturally be behind receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, though, which will make Nailor a touchdown-dependent option for managers in very deep leagues.