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Perhaps the only person around the San Francisco 49ers who isn’t concerned about the heavy workload All-Pro Christian McCaffrey handled last season is McCaffrey himself.
While Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the coaching staff have expressed the need to reduce McCaffrey’s usage after his 450-touch campaign in the regular season and 2025 playoffs, McCaffrey sees no need to manage the load.
“It seems like I’ve been dealing with those questions for nine years,” McCaffrey said. “I think the workload in our sport is really controlled in practice, not in games. We play 17 regular season games a year and everyone’s livelihood is at stake. I would say that on Sunday you have to do whatever it takes to win and that’s not a coach’s job. You don’t tell a three-point shooter that today you only get six threes. A lot of that is rhythmic and my job is to put my body in the best possible position to play. Go out and play. I think that everything else can be monitored during the week… But when it comes to game days, I like to think, be prepared to play every play.”
McCaffrey nearly did that last season when he led all running backs by playing on 83% of the offensive snaps for the 49ers. McCaffrey rarely calls a timeout, and running backs coach Bobby Turner kept calling his number.
“It’s a challenge,” Turner said. “But I personally should have done a better job handling that last year, because I keep track of every play and know when it’s in and when it’s not in. But this year, the coaching staff, everyone will be involved to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
McCaffrey had 272 rushing attempts in 2023, when he led the league in rushing yards, but played in just four games in 2024 before bouncing back with an NFL-leading 413 touches from scrimmage and a Pro Bowl appearance in 2025. (Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images)
After being limited to four games due to injuries in 2024, McCaffrey was an iron man last season. He played 1,010 offensive snaps in the regular season and playoffs (just the ninth running back in the last 20 seasons to surpass the 1,000 mark) and became the second player in the last decade with at least 450 combined carries and receptions.
With several other offensive stars, from quarterback Brock Purdy to tight end George Kittle and receiver Ricky Pearsall, sidelined for long stretches with injuries, the Niners couldn’t afford to take McCaffrey off the field as he was the team’s best running back and often one of their most reliable pass catchers.
“We started the year wanting to take care of him a little bit more,” Shanahan said. “But the way the offense went, I think more because of the receivers and the injuries we had, it was hard to get him (off the field). And it was great to have him there because he helped our offense a lot.”
McCaffrey, who turned 30 on Sunday, hasn’t responded well in the past after his peak seasons. The previous two times he surpassed 400 touches (in 2019 with Carolina and 2023 with the 49ers), he was severely hampered by injuries the following season, missing 13 games each in 2020 and 2024.
That’s what the 49ers hope to avoid this year as they plan to rely more on young running backs.
Jordan James, a 2025 fifth-round pick, was injured in training camp and never established himself as a viable option. His only three offensive plays in the regular season came when San Francisco was on its knees all the way in a blowout win against Indianapolis in Week 16. His only other action came late in a 41-6 playoff loss to Seattle when he had six carries for 28 yards and one reception.
The 49ers then used a third-round pick to select Indiana’s Kaelon Black in this year’s draft and are hoping at least one of the two can earn playing time this season.
“I’m sure they’ll get more opportunities,” Turner said. “They are both competitors, they were both recruited for a reason. They are mentally strong people, they can be explosive… They will definitely have more opportunities, which means Christian will be fresher.”
The 49ers also hope a fresher McCaffrey will make him more explosive. Despite gaining 2,126 yards from scrimmage and flirting with his second 1,000-yard rushing and receiving season, McCaffrey struggled to generate big plays with just three runs of at least 20 yards, compared to nine in his last healthy season in 2023, when he won the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.
The Niners had four big runs overall on the season after averaging nearly 14 per season the previous four years.
“When you look around the league and you study the great running backs and you study the guys that affect the game like he does, those guys come out of the game,” offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said. “Those guys take a hit sometimes and whether it’s a series or a couple of plays in a series, that helps those players. Christian knows that, and we have to do a better job as coaches, we have to do a better job at times to get a better rotation.”
Information from The Associated Press.
