Alex Smith announces retirement

49ers GM John Lynch told @KNBR that WR Brandon Aiyuk is “not close” to returning from the knee injury he suffered almost a year ago. There was more damage than just to the ACL, and more recovery time is required.

Related Players: Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings

This aligns well with Jeff Mueller's assessment that Aiyuk's most likely return would be in Week 6, but the wording suggests a potential that it may last even longer. He remains a good stash — particularly if you have an IR spot — but it still looks like we're weeks away from it changing the remaining 49ers' pass-catchers' target share.

Justin Fields will practice today, but he's still in concussion protocol.

Related Players: Tyrod Taylor

HC Aaron Glenn later reiterated that Fields would start if cleared before Monday, so it seems like there's a good chance he suits up for Week 4. If he's cleared before we have to set lineups on Sunday morning, we can inch him up to a low-end QB1 in what should be a pretty nice matchup.

Chiefs listed WR Xavier Worthy as a full participant in today’s practice, putting him on track to play Sunday against Baltimore.

Related Players: Tyquan Thornton, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Hollywood Brown, Travis Kelce

Since his massive 16-target performance after Worthy went down in Week 1, Brown has been completely forgettable in his two chances to earn more work since. If Worthy is looking close to 100% this early in the week, we should definitely consider him further up our rankings than if he weren't a full participant until Friday. Push him up into the WR2/3 range if he is completely cleared ahead of the weekend.