Fantasy Football Takeaways from the Niners' Win Over the Rams: Jake Tonges, Kendrick Bourne and More

Week 5 of the regular season opened with a showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.

An injury-riddled San Fran team pulled the upset, winning 26-23 in overtime. Let's go over some fantasy football takeaways from the contest.

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Niners' Unheralded Leaders

Quarterback Brock Purdy and wide receivers Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings all missed the game, so several other Niners had to step up.

Mac Jones was the quarterback, and he turned in a good fantasy showing. He completed 33-of-49 passes for 342 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He rushed four times for five yards.

Jones has been a capable fantasy asset with Purdy unavailable this season, and that should remain the case for any more games that the No. 1 QB misses. It's not crazy to even consider Jones in standard leagues, especially for weeks when several teams are on byes.

Kendrick Bourne ended up being WR1 for the Niners with Pearsall and Jennings out. He was targeted 11 times, making 10 grabs for 142 yards. 

He'll revert back to a secondary role when the team is fully healthy, but if Pearsall or Jennings were to miss additional games, Bourne will at least be a deep-league option.

Tight end Jake Tonges had a nice showing as well. He finished with 41 yards and a score on seven receptions and 11 targets.

He's now scored in back-to-back games, so he's settling in after the early-season injury to George Kittle. As long as Kittle is sidelined, Tonges has the chance to be a sneaky good fantasy asset, although his usage will drop some when Pearsall and Jennings are back on the field. He'll still likely be a pretty good waiver wire asset going into week 6, so check back in the coming days for our thoughts on him as a pickup.

CMC Leads the Way

Unsurprisingly, it was Christian McCaffrey who led the Niners offensively.

He attempted 22 rushes, gaining 57 yards. CMC had 82 receiving yards and a score on eight catches and nine targets.

I thought Brian Robinson would be more involved on a short week, but he only got five touches and played 12 snaps. He should be dropped in all standard leagues, and a lot of deep leagues as well. I'd probably only keep him if I didn't need to utilize his roster spot, or was protecting McCaffrey.

Even when the Niners are healthier, CMC is going to be the go-to guy. He's a must-start fantasy asset every week he's active, and has a sky high trade value right now. 

If you believe in him staying healthy, then it'd be best to just enjoy his success. If you don't believe in him staying healthy, then selling him high before week 6 kicks off makes sense.

Rams' Offensive Leaders

It was the usual suspects leading the Rams on offense.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford played pretty well, throwing for 389 yards and three scores, while avoiding a pick. He didn't rush for any yards, and he lost a fumble, but otherwise, he delivered a good fantasy total.

This performance should get him into the top-10 fantasy QBs for the season, which means he should be starting weekly in most leagues. Don't worry about him in tougher matchups, as he's delivered in those several times already this season.

Running back Kyren Williams had a breakout showing, rushing for 65 yards on 14 carries and catching eight of his 10 targets for 66 yards and two touchdowns. He did lose a costly fumble as the Rams looked to win the game late in regulation.

Williams has been a solid fantasy asset so far, but this kind of performance shows his true fantasy upside. He's not going to deliver this many fantasy points every time out, but well-rounded performances will put him in the upper echelon of fantasy backs most weeks. Keep starting him confidently.

Puka Nacua led the Rams' pass catchers. He was targeted 12 times, making 10 grabs for 85 yards and a touchdown. Davante Adams had 88 yards on five catches and 11 targets.

Nacua and Adams continued their strong starts to the season. This was actually a down performance for Nacua, but obviously it was still a great fantasy showing. He's a must-start player every week, and could finish as fantasy WR1 if he stays healthy.

Adams has also been a good weekly starter as the team's No. 2 option. I have no doubts about him either, and he should be started weekly until further notice.

Other Notable Rams on Offense

The performances for Tutu Atwell and Blake Corum stood out to me.

Atwell caught just two of his four targets, but they went for 72 yards. He had 88 yards and a score on his lone catch last week, so he's stacked a couple good performances in a row.

Atwell is just a deep-league option, and a boom-or-bust one at that, but after these past two weeks, he should be added and started in some deeper leagues. The deeper the league, the more valuable he becomes.

Corum was a surprising no show on Thursday. He only got one touch, rushing for 13 yards. Corum failed to bring in either of his targets. He only played six snaps.

That's the fewest number of snaps he's played all season, which is surprisingly on a short week. He had at least five touches in every game since week 2, so this was a puzzling statline for the young back.

LA did fall behind 14-0 early in the second quarter, so maybe they just trusted Williams more. It's definitely a concerning thing for Corum, who was earning some deep-league starts recently.

I wouldn't bail on Corum in deeper leagues, but he probably shouldn't start in as many leagues for the team's next game, or until he delivers better results.

IDP and Kicker Stats

LA's Nate Landman had a game-high 14 tackles, while also having three passes defensed. It was the linebacker's best game of the season, and he now has 41 tackles and four passes defensed overall, along with two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. There's enough in those numbers to start him in a good amount of IDP leagues.

San Francisco's Marques Sigle had 13 combined tackles and a pass defensed. He has at least seven tackles in three straight games, so he's emerging as a nice weekly IDP option.

Teammate Fred Warner had 12 tackles, bringing his season total to 50. He's added more splash plays too, so he's a really good weekly IDP option.

Rams' Quentin Lake had 11 tackles and a pass defensed. He has five or more tackles in four straight games, and 33 tackles on the season. He's not a bad IDP option in the secondary.

San Francisco's Bryce Huff had a sack among his two tackles. LA's Kobie Turner (four tackles) and Byron Young (six tackles) split a sack.

Huff has three sacks over the past four games, and 13 tackles on the season, so he's a solid deep-league IDP option.

Turner has 1.5 sacks and 13 tackles for the season, so he's a bit lower on the IDP scale. Young has 5.5 sacks and 29 tackles, so he needs to be rostered and started in a good amount of IDP leagues.

Rams' Jared Verse had five QB hits and six total tackles. He's got 22 tackles, two sacks and 11 QB hits so far this season, plus two forced fumbles, so he's another good IDP option.

Alfred Collins had two tackles and a forced and recovered fumble on Thursday. He only has five tackles on the season, and no other splash plays, so this looks like an outlier performance. Collins could still be worth some adds in really deep IDP leagues.

San Francisco kicker Eddy Pineiro made all four of his field goals and both of his extra points on his way to a big fantasy showing. LA's Joshua Karty missed one of his two field goals and had an extra point blocked - misses/blocks are becoming an issue, which knocks his fantasy value down some.