The 49ers head coach acknowledged that he would like to give their superstar back more of a breather.
The San Francisco 49ers offense was transformed by the acquisition of running back Christian McCaffrey back in 2022. In his first full season with the Niners last year, McCaffrey was the Offensive Player of the Year and finished third in MVP voting. A dynamic threat as a rusher and receiver, McCaffrey forces the defense to adjust whenever he’s on the field. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan would like to lessen the team’s reliance on the former Stanford star, who played in 81% of the team’s offensive snaps last year.
“We have guys that can run the ball,” Shanahan told reporters this week. “We have to protect Christian from himself. He doesn’t like to ever come out, no matter what the situation is. And I do think that’s something we could protect him with more.”
On paper, the 49ers should have the running back depth to effectively spell McCaffrey. Elijah Mitchell, who rushed for 963 yards as a rookie and has averaged 4.7 yards per carry throughout his career, is currently the top backup on the roster. However, even if the often injured Mitchell goes down, Jordan Mason has averaged 5.6 yards per carry throughout his two-year career, and speedy rookie fourth-round pick Isaac Guerendo are still in position to contribute.
With that said, it’s a lot easier for Shanahan to talk about lessening McCraffey’s workload than actually putting it into practice. Mitchell and Mason, after all, were both on the roster last season and available in the majority of the Niners’ games. The primary reason for that is McCaffrey isn’t just a great runner, but is such a special playmaker as a route runner and receiver.
“When you are such a threat in the pass game, it’s a little bit different,” Shanahan added. “But if he’s just taking the wear and tear with 20 carries and stuff every game — and he’s definitely good enough to do that, and he has proved he can stay healthy — but you’d like to take some of that off of him and give it to other guys also.”