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As the NFL trade deadline unfolds on Tuesday, familiar players around the league find themselves in new situations. However, this deal involves a player reuniting with an old coach and fitting into a backfield with a former teammate. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the San Francisco 49ers agreed to a deal, sending running back Jeff Wilson Jr. to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round pick. How this deal affects fantasy football managers is quite intriguing.
Before becoming the Dolphins' head coach this year, Mike McDaniel was the 49ers' offensive coordinator in 2021 and the team's run game coordinator from 2017-2020. In other words, McDaniel was directly coaching Wilson Jr. for much of his early career beginning in 2018. So right off the bat, this is a significant factor in favor of Wilson Jr., given the relationship he already has with his new play-caller.
Additionally, the Dolphins traded away running back Chase Edmonds, a 2022 off-season signee, to the Denver Broncos in a deal for star linebacker Bradley Chubb. Though Edmonds has not performed well this year, accounting for 120 yards and two touchdowns per Pro Football Reference, by simply not being on the Dolphins' roster anymore, it is clear the backfield belongs to Wilson Jr. and Raheem Mostert, who is also a former teammate from San Francisco previously coached by McDaniel.
This seems like nothing short of an ideal situation, right? Well, not so fast. As well as Wilson Jr. performed as the 49ers starting running back following a Week 1 injury to Elijah Mitchell and before the acquisition of Christian McCaffrey from the Panthers, Mostert has also been solid this season. Per 4for4, Mostert and Wilson Jr. are the RB27 and RB30 overall in point-per-reception scoring (PPR) in 2022, averaging 10 and 9.2 points per game, respectively. As such, fantasy managers will have to be patient over the next couple of weeks until we find out how this backfield will be split, if at all.
However, the Dolphins did fairly evenly split touches between their top two backs before phasing Edmonds out of the offense in Week 4. Through the first three games of the 2022 NFL season, Edmonds handled an average of 9.7 touches per game, while Mostert received 9.3 touches in that span, according to 4for4. So, could McDaniel go back to a committee approach with Wilson Jr. in the mix? Possibly, but that will remain to be seen.
With that in mind, fantasy managers can best view Mostert as a mid-to-low-end RB2 option until further notice and Wilson Jr. lands purely in the deep flex conversation. At worst, Wilson Jr. is the handcuff to Mostert and would carry value if an injury were to occur. Though it may not necessarily warrant mentioning, the 49ers backfield is mainly unaffected by this news as McCaffrey is the bonafide RB1. That said, Elijah Mitchell is likely the RB2 once he returns from injury, and as such, fantasy managers now have clarity as to who the definitive McCaffrey handcuff is moving forward.
