Jordan Mason broke out during the 49ers' win 32-19 over the Jets on Monday Night Football. San Francisco's surprising starting running back had 28 carries for 147 yards, stealing the show in primetime on ESPN to close Week 1.
Then, after the game, Mason made more headlines.
When being interviewed by ESPN's Lisa Salters, Mason was asked when he knew he was going to start against New York.
"Maybe Friday, Friday night. You know, something like that," Mason said.
With that, you'd think the 49ers knew they'd be without star running back Christian McCaffrey and had prepared for Mason to carry the load in the backfield against the Jets.
Mason backtracked on his statement at his postgame press conference, while head coach Kyle Shanahan denied that Mason was told he was going to start.
“That’s why I don’t really like talking to the media, because you say one thing wrong," Mason said. "… I don’t know. Let’s skip that question.”
“I never told Jordan he was going to start," Shanahan said. "I told him he had to be ready a bunch, but it might have been [running backs coach] Bobby [Turner] or somebody trying to pump him up. I knew he was gonna have to play a lot, told him that it wasn’t gonna be like usual. Told him he was going to be a number-two back who was going to be splitting a lot of the time."
ESPN's Adam Schefter also reported that there was "a real strong possibility" that McCaffrey would miss the 49ers' Week 2 game against the Vikings, as well.
McCaffrey carries a calf injury and was hardly active during training camp. He was protected and held out of preseason games and even though he had been managing the injury over the past month, it was assumed all of this was to ensure he'd be ready for Week 1.
If we take Shanahan for his word, it makes sense how Mason could potentially have taken the encouragement as a sign he was going to start. That, though, would likely be generous.
The NFL has three official betting partners in Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel. The news about McCaffrey, which came 90 minutes before kickoff, moved the spread from 49ers -4.5 to -3.5, and the game total went from 43.5 all the way down to 41 very briefly at DraftKings. The 49ers moneyline went from +210 to +180 at some sportsbooks.
Also, McCaffrey was the consensus No. 1 pick in most fantasy football drafts this year. Managers who didn't have Mason on their bench would have been out of luck with the late news that McCaffrey was out, without an alternative since it was the final game of the week.
The partnerships with sportsbooks are why the NFL has encouraged teams to be more transparent with their injury reports. These shops are getting a lot of money on any NFL game throughout the season, but Monday Night Football in Week 1 with Aaron Rodgers returning from a torn Achilles last year against the reigning NFC champions was no doubt going to be a big game for bettors.
It wasn't just the spread that was affected by the McCaffrey news. Prop totals for the 49ers' other key players — most notably Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel — were affected since McCaffrey is the go-to guy in that offense.
The game was broadcasted on ESPN, which has a sportsbook through a partnership with Penn Entertainment. As an official broadcast partner of the league, the idea of the sportsbook suffering because a team wasn't fully transparent definitely wouldn't please ESPN.
Also, anyone with insider information on the situation could have bet on Mason over the weekend, which would not have pleased sportsbooks.
It's a difficult position for the NFL because if the 49ers indeed knew McCaffrey wasn't going to play on Friday, the incentive for them would be to keep that in-house so the Jets didn't have time to prepare for a potentially different game plan. The league, though, is well aware of the action in betting and fantasy surrounding every single game.
Shanahan's response is the only one he could go with in this situation. He said that Mason was told he would be busier than usual given McCaffrey's situation but not that he was going to start.
Regardless of the truth, it's a tricky look for the NFL given how it has leaned heavily into betting and fantasy in recent years. It's a tough policy to enforce, though, as the 49ers had no incentive to be fully transparent about McCaffrey's status — if they knew he was going to miss the game.
