Who Should I Start? Jordan James or Riley Nowakowski

Wednesday, September 2, 7:42 PM

San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan James seems to have lost his appeal as a handcuff option in fantasy football. Heading into the back half of August, it seemed like James was in line to earn the No. 2 running back role behind Christian McCaffrey, especially after Isaac Guerendo (pectoral) was placed on the PUP list. Instead, James is third on the depth chart while rookie Kaelon Black occupies the backup role. In years past, we have seen that the 49ers' No. 2 running back only has fantasy value when McCaffrey misses time. In other words, his backup has always been a handcuff and never really possessed standalone value. Now that James has fallen to third on the depth chart, his fantasy value is dwindling even further. He's still worth stashing in deeper leagues in case the depth chart changes or McCaffrey gets hurt and Black can't handle the lead-back role on his own. However, there's no incentive to roster him in redraft leagues at the moment.