The Athletic released their 2024 Anonymous Player Poll, and four of the 49ers players found themselves on the list that you might not want to be on.
The Athletic released an Anonymous Player Poll of 2024, in which beat writers from around the league interviewed 110 NFL players during August and September, asking the same set of questions. While not every player answered the questions, they were given anonymity on their answers.
One of the questions was which NFL player would win his first MVP award. San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey received the third most votes. As we know, this season has not gone the way CMC would have liked. He shared a long, heartfelt message on Wednesday:
49ers RB Christian McCaffrey shares a post on his Instagram:
“This wasn’t my year, and sometimes when it rains, it pours.”
Truer words… pic.twitter.com/w1T8c3LiiV
— Niners Nation (@NinersNation) December 4, 2024
McCaffrey, left tackle Trent Williams, and linebacker Fred Warner were among the players receiving the most votes for the player you’d start an NFL team from scratch, which speaks to how well-respected and talented those three are.
Warner told reporters his ankle injust isn’t an excuse last week. On Wednesday, he said, “I am intentful on finishing out the year.” You know the injury news isn’t tilting in your favor when a player who is rarely listed on the report is battling something.
When it came time to anoint the most annoying player in the NFL, Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson ran away with the votes, earning nearly 21 percent. Jauan Jennings was the only member of the 49ers to receive multiple votes, while Dre Greenlaw, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle all had one.
We’ve seen videos of Kittle small-talking as plays are taking place. We’ve also seen him and Jennings play through the whistle and block their defenders into the sideline or end zone. Both are known as trash talkers, but both back it up.
Maybe Deebo is an underrated trash-talker? It’s tough to know since we don’t hear much about what he says on the field. Then again, players might be annoyed with some of his social media antics off the field. However, only one vote for Samuel and Kittle suggests that it may be more personal than anything.
As for Greenlaw, he must’ve once said something to somebody that rubbed them the wrong way and stuck with them. Greenlaw is one of the tougher players in the league who plays the game the right way. Again, it’s impossible to know without having access to what’s being said on the field, but knowing most of the players’ tendencies from how they interact during training camp, I’m not sure how Greenlaw fits into the “annoying” category.
Jennings makes complete sense.