49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, the 2023 NFL offensive player of the year, missed the first eight games of the season with an Achilles tendon injury. In three games back, McCaffrey’s production has fallen far short of his part performances.
He has 149 rushing yards, 3.5 yards per carry, 132 receiving yards, and zero touchdowns.
Is he not the guy he had been?
“The speculation on Christian, I think, is a little bit unfair to him,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. “Christian’s playing very well, he is playing his ass off. But to think a guy who misses an entire offseason is just going to be the exact same the day he gets back would be unfair to any player in the world, I feel like. Guys who miss offseasons and miss training camp, usually it takes them a little bit of time at the beginning of the year to get back into how they were the year before, let alone missing half the season also on top of that. So I think Christian’s doing a hell of a job. But to just think him coming back in Week [10] with not being able to do anything for the last nine months or whatever it is, and to think he’s just going to be in MVP form is a very unrealistic expectation.”
Shanahan nevertheless thinks McCaffrey is getting the job done, despite the not-great numbers.
“I think he looks real good,” Shanahan said. “I think he’s playing very well. I don’t think he’s had a bunch of clean lanes. I think he had a couple versus, when I say a couple, I actually mean two versus Tampa, and if he hits those two which maybe is just half a step off just with seeing it. But you hit those two and it’ll completely change yards-per-carry, which will look better from an outside perspective, but it won’t change anything in actually what’s happening. So to sit here and talk like he’s struggling, not going to do that at all. But for us to be disappointed that he’s not exactly how he was or just right in MVP form, that’d be unfair with any player.”
McCaffrey’s effort to get back to his usual form Shanahan to spread reps among McCaffrey, Jordan Mason, and Isaac Guerendo.
“We’re not just a big three-man rotation team, especially when you have a solidified starter,” Shanahan said. “We’re not trying to get Christian off the field more. We want to keep him fresh and keep him at his best, but Christian’s also a guy who gets better as he goes. He’s a guy who feels a lot more comfortable being out there. I also don’t think the way these games have gone, we didn’t run the ball much last week at all in general. . . . I think we got 14 runs. So when that’s the case, you’re not going on long drives, you only have 13 plays or 14 plays in the whole first half with one of them being close to a two-minute drive, the other’s being four-and-out. It’s just not going to work out that way.”
So the 49ers apparently plan to keep riding McCaffrey. And if he can hit midseason form by the end of the season, the 49ers could end up being in great position — if they can win enough games along the way to get to the playoffs.