Washington's Bye Pays For The Terry McLaurin Wait. The Mike Evans Wait Comes With A Bill.

Friends, Tuesday is waiver day, when somebody in your league cuts a player before the doctors have finished their coffee. Terry McLaurin and Mike Evans both left Monday night's game hurt as the 49ers held on to beat Washington 23-17.

Keep a hand on the parking brake. These two injuries ask for different kinds of patience, and only one kind is cheap.

What We Know Before The MRI

McLaurin grabbed his left knee after a tackle in front of Washington's bench, per Nicki Jhabvala. Dan Quinn called the injury significant, per John Keim.

At 6:05 this morning, Ian Rapoport reported that McLaurin, carted off in an air cast, "is feared to have suffered a serious and season-ending knee injury. He’ll have an MRI today." As I type this, no result has been reported.

Before the cart left, Fred Warner, George Kittle, Trent Williams and Mike Evans jogged over to shake his hand, per Matt Barrows. Jayden Daniels said of McLaurin, via Schefter, "He's a brother to me."

Evans made a 16-yard catch in the second quarter, was slow to get up and went straight to the locker room, per Nick Wagoner. Afterward, Ari Meirov reported Achilles soreness, per Kyle Shanahan, and wrote: "There is no rupture."

Shanahan did not think Evans would need more testing or imaging, per Wagoner. @SleeperNFL, citing Jennifer Lee Chan, says Evans "will miss a little time", and the team hopes he can return after the 49ers' Week 8 bye. Washington enters its bye at 1-4-1 this week.

One Bye Week And One Slow Leak

Start with McLaurin. Washington does not play this week, so he was never going into your Week 7 lineup. Holding him until the MRI is reported costs you one roster spot for a few hours and zero lineup points. Cutting him on the word feared saves you nothing.

Every tow-truck driver in Kentucky has an opinion about your transmission, and a lot of them are right. I still let the shop put it on the lift before I call the scrapyard. By this morning, a few accounts had declared McLaurin's season over and told you to drop him. They have not seen the scan either.

Call it the bye-week rule, and you may borrow it.

When the bye is paying for the wait, let the MRI make the cut.

Evans is the reverse problem. His headline is good news, and I want that on the record. Underneath it sits a tendon that, Shanahan said, "bothered him throughout the week", per Wagoner. Before the game, Rapoport reported: "Evans did not practice all week." And this morning, Garafolo said Evans "has been, and will continue, to deal with an Achilles injury".

That is a slow leak. The tire held, so you keep it, and you put a spare in the trunk. Soreness is a press-conference word. It tells you how a tendon feels and leaves the calendar to somebody else, and so far the calendar says he misses time. That is the bill.

Evidence Against The Parking Brake

Neighbors, Rapoport's report points the bad way on McLaurin, and so does Garafolo, who says the full diagnosis comes today and "it’s not expected to be a good one." Waiting may only confirm the worst. I was raised on Browns football, so I have waited on plenty of news everybody saw coming. The wait was still worth it every time.

On Evans, Zain Dhanani agrees on the hold and adds a timing note I could have done without: "Hold but the proper time to sell was when he was healthy".

And the 49ers stalled without him, which worries me about his replacements. Wagoner reports that Washington blitzed in the second half "on 70% of drop backs compared to 25% in the first half." The 49ers "had 3 points and 72 yards in the second half."

Chief, the claim and the cut are two separate transactions. Need the spot? Drop the last man on your bench and keep McLaurin until the scan is reported. If it confirms the worst, he goes then, and the price of being sure was your worst bench player.

What I Am Doing About It

1. McLaurin stays on my roster until the MRI is reported. If the scan confirms the worst, I move that day.
2. Stefon Diggs gets a modest bump. He is the obvious remaining name at receiver in Washington, and RotoStreetWolf's stock watch has him trending up. With the bye, the bump waits a week.
3. Evans stays on my roster and out of my lineup until he practices. I plan for missed time through the 49ers' Week 8 bye, since the team's own hope is a return after it.
4. Brandin Cooks is my first 49ers claim, and Jordan Watkins is a deep-league dart. Dhanani calls Cooks the "Main beneficiary of Evans out" and says Watkins is "worth an add just to see what happens". He also sees possible rotation with Christian Kirk, who, per @Covers_Football summarizing Shanahan, "could play in Week 7".
5. George Kittle gets no move from me. He was already the "Top target", per Dhanani, with four targets in each half.

One more thing from Monday night. The Pat McAfee Show said, via @ESPNNFL, that Quinn "has got a lot of bullseyes on him right now for not knowing it was 4th down". Quinn's answer, per @ProFootballTalk: "I definitely knew it was fourth down." I believe him. I have said definitely in that tone to my dentist.