SANTA CLARA — There’s a running back renaissance taking place in the NFL and Christian McCaffrey has yet to take part in it.
Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley is picking up steam as a Most Valuable Player candidate with 1,392 yards and 12 touchdowns. Derrick Henry of Baltimore, who while at Alabama beat out Stanford’s McCaffrey for the Heisman Trophy in 2015, isn’t far behind with 1,325 yards and 13 touchdowns.
At their current pace, Barkley and Henry would both break 2,000 yards rushing. There have been eight previous 2,000-yard rushers in NFL history, and never two in the same season.
And that doesn’t even include Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs, whose 944 yards rank third in the NFL and who the 49ers’ Nick Bosa believes is the best back in the NFL.
McCaffrey, felled by bilateral Achilles tendinitis for the first eight games of the season, has gone right back into the lineup with his usual workload a year after rushing for 1,459 yards, catching 56 passes for 564 more.
But it’s been a slog the likes of which McCaffrey is unfamiliar. He has 149 yards on 43 carries, a 3.5-yard average that is down from 5.4 in 2023 when he was the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. Most telling, the 49ers’ most frequent visitor to the end zone since Jerry Rice — McCaffrey had 39 touchdowns in 33 regular and postseason games going into the season — has has played three games and hasn’t scored a touchdown.
McCaffrey’s last touchdown was last Feb. 11 and a 21-yard touchdown reception from Jauan Jennings in a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. McCaffrey finished with 80 yards rushing and 80 yards receiving.
The 49ers (5-6) visit the Buffalo Bills (9-2) Sunday night. Getting McCaffrey on track would go a long way toward fueling an upset a week after a demoralizing 38-10 road loss to the Packers, with McCaffrey carrying 11 times for 31 yards and losing a fumble.
The 49ers, seventh in the NFL in rushing at 138.4 yards per game, are averaging 83.3 yards rushing in the three games since McCaffrey’s return. Jordan Mason, who was among the NFL rushing leaders early in the season, has just six attempts since McCaffrey came back. Rookie Isaac Guerendo has one.
“I feel like I’m getting a lot better,” McCaffrey said Wednesday. “My mindset is always the same whether I have success or failure. I think when you lose maybe you don’t jump out on the stat sheet and your failures get highlighted. But there’s stuff that happens when you have huge games that I’m upset at. That mindset has been the same my whole career and nothing is going to change there.”
Coach Kyle Shanahan has no interest in sitting McCaffrey just to balance the rushing ledger with Mason and Guerendo.
“We’re not trying to get Christian off the field more,” Shanahan said. “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.”
The 49ers had just 14 rushes against Green Bay, ran 18 plays in the first half and three in the first quarter. In the three games since McCaffrey came back, the 49ers have been unable to convert enough third downs and pile up the rushing attempts that Shanahan covets as one of his keys to victory.
General manager John Lynch cited the game circumstance and is convinced McCaffrey is on the verge of breaking out.
“My eyes tell me a lot,” Lynch told KNBR-680. “I think it’s just a matter of time before we get him going. But it takes more than Christian. It takes the entire unit being in sync.”
McCaffrey’s absence during the season has played a factor in his slow start. Just as important, McCaffrey — a practice dervish who takes every rep seriously and whose effect on his teammates is profound in that way — also missed the offseason program.
During that time, McCaffrey received a two-year contract extension which ensured he would remain the NFL’s highest-paid running back, got married, and then at some point began having Achilles issues in both legs. His father Ed McCaffrey told the Ross Tucker Podcast he believed the flareups came from overtraining, while McCaffrey has declined to be specific about the injury and to discuss his trip to Germany for treatment.
Shanahan and the 49ers pretty much dodged the question of whether all that missed time would have a big impact — especially considering McCaffrey’s obsession with practice and training. With McCaffrey struggling at the outset, Shanahan came clean Wednesday.
“The speculation on Christian, I think, is a little bit unfair to him,” Shanahan said. “Christian’s playing very well. But to think a guy who misses the entire offseason is just going to be the exact same the day he gets back would be unfair to any player in the world . . . to just think coming back in Week 8 and not being able to do anything for the last nine months, to think he’s going to be in MVP form is a very unrealistic expectation.”
McCaffrey’s practice schedule has been altered in that he’s rested the last two Wednesdays in hopes of avoiding a recurrence of the Achilles tendinitis. He appeared visibly upset after the Green Bay game, which Shanahan said was entirely in character.
Running back Christian McCaffrey greets coach Kyle Shanahan before Super Bowl LVIII. Getty Images
“Christian, he’s a psycho in the best way possible,” Shanahan said. “He had a fumble there at the end of the game. No matter what I say to him, he’s not going to forgive himself fo ra fumble for probably the rest of his life. He’ll still be mad at himself for that. That’s just how he rolls. You should see him in OTAs if he drops the ball and how he acts, apologizing later in the day. That’s what makes him great and it means a lot to him.”
McCaffrey accepted Shanahan’s “psycho” characterization in the spirit of which it was offered.
“Him and my wife would probably agree on that,” McCaffrey said. “Look, I love football to death, man. I’ve dedicated my life to this game. I have so much fun playing football, no matter what’s going on. . . And I want to be great. I know I can be and it’s something that just drives me every day.”
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The thought of possibly playing in the snow Sunday night in Buffalo struck a chord of nostalgia with McCaffrey, who recounted a story he told this news organization in 2023 about the day he fell in love with football as a 7-year-old.
McCaffrey’s team, the Parker Hawks, beat the Cherry Creek Bruins in his youth league “Super Bowl” that was played in a blizzard.
“Tipped a pass in the end,” McCaffrey said. “I remember crying that game. I think that’s when I decided I wanted to play football.”
