SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey continues to trend toward making his season debut Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The question soon will be whether the San Francisco 49ers running back gets a 2023-like workload.
“He definitely could,” said Kyle Shanahan, knowing that the Buccaneers are wondering the same thing. “But he also definitely might not.”
Shanahan said McCaffrey, the NFL’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year, emerged from Monday’s light practice without any pain in his Achilles tendons, an issue that wiped away most of his training camp and sidelined him the first eight games.
He was a limited participant in Wednesday’s session. McCaffrey was seen warming up the same way he did before every practice last season — doing high knees, making sharp cuts and sprints, and at one point using a massage gun on the top of his thighs before joining the rest of the running backs for individual drills.
Dash cam: Christian McCaffrey officially is limited in today’s practice but looks like he’s going full speed. Deebo Samuel (ribs) is in a blue, no-contact jersey. pic.twitter.com/qUx0hrOr90
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) November 6, 2024
Though McCaffrey’s practice window has been opened, he remains on injured reserve and the 49ers must activate him by Saturday for him to play against a Buccaneers defense that’s allowing 131 rushing yards a game.
Shanahan was asked what he needs to see this week before officially activating McCaffrey.
“That he’s just Christian McCaffrey and he’s not hurting,” he said. “Just as long as he doesn’t get sore and have setbacks each day with practice, usually if you get that in practice, that means it’s going to be worse in the game. So hopefully he can string together three days in a row and not have any of those.”
McCaffrey logged 812 offensive snaps last season, the third most of his career, and the 49ers weren’t shy about piling a lot on his plate. He played 100 percent of the team’s offensive snaps in three games, rare for a modern-day running back.
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Shanahan, however, said he didn’t see a connection between McCaffrey’s 2023 snap count and his 2024 Achilles issue and said that McCaffrey’s conditioning would govern how much he plays.
“I don’t believe that. I don’t think he believes that,” he said of a connection between his injury and last year’s long season. “We’ve got to see where his conditioning is at, how he is. I know he is conditioned as well as he can be, but how his football conditioning is and stuff. But usually, I don’t chalk up to numbers one year (to whether a player has an) injury the next year.”
Once McCaffrey looks comfortable on the field, it’ll be hard not to give him his usual workload.
This year’s 49ers are averaging more yards per game than they did last season — 314.8 vs. 303.9. But they’re not converting those yards into touchdowns. Through eight games last season, they scored 26 offensive touchdowns and 12 field goals. This year they have 19 offensive touchdowns and 22 field goals. Their 48.6 percent touchdown rate in the red zone ranks 28th in the NFL.
A healthy McCaffrey would be a good fix. He already had 13 touchdowns at this time last year, including 11 in the red zone — eight rushing and three receiving. In fact, he scored at least one touchdown in each of the team’s first eight games in 2023.
That’s one big contrast between last year and this one. McCaffrey’s backup, Jordan Mason, has been an excellent runner — he averages 5.1 yards and carry and ranks fourth in the NFL in rushing yards — but has scored just three touchdowns through the first eight games.
He and the rest of the running backs also have been lightly targeted in the passing game. That group, which includes fullback Kyle Juszczyk, has caught 27 passes for 213 yards and no touchdowns. Led by McCaffrey last season, the running backs had 42 catches for 346 yards and five touchdowns through eight games.
The hope is that McCaffrey quickly returns to form and so does the 49ers’ offense.
“Seeing him out there — he looks good,” Nick Bosa said. “We don’t want to put too much on him because we know that everybody else has to continue to get better. But having him back can only help.”
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Odds and ends
• The 49ers’ top two wide receivers were limited participants in Wednesday’s practice. Deebo Samuel Sr., who’s dealing with rib and oblique injuries suffered in Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys, was wearing a blue, no-contact jersey. Meanwhile, Jauan Jennings is practicing this week after missing the last two games with a hip injury.
Also limited were Jake Moody (ankle) and punter Mitch Wishnowsky (back). Moody, who suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 5, is expected to handle kicking duties Sunday after the team released Anders Carlson from the practice squad earlier in the week.
Not practicing Wednesday: defensive tackle Kevin Givens (groin), receiver Chris Conley (hamstring), tackle Trent Williams (rest) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (personal matter).
• The 49ers opened the practice window for defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos, who went on injured reserve on Oct. 5 after a knee injury he suffered in the preseason continued to be problematic.
The team’s trade for defensive tackle Khalil Davis also became official Wednesday after Davis passed his physical. To make room, the 49ers cut linebacker Jalen Graham. They’ll have to free up more roster spots whenever McCaffrey, Gross-Matos and offensive lineman Jon Feliciano are activated from IR. Gross-Matos and Feliciano were limited in Wednesday’s practice.
Welcome to The Bay, Khalil 🙌 pic.twitter.com/mf7QqcZpIp
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 6, 2024
• The 49ers, who have a pair of young safeties, added another veteran to the mix by signing Tashaun Gipson Sr. to the practice squad. Gipson, 34, spent the last two seasons with the 49ers. He served a six-game suspension earlier this season and became available when the Jacksonville Jaguars released him on Monday.
“Just want to see where he’s at,” Shanahan said of Gipson. “We wanted to get him here, if it worked out for him, (considering) some of the injuries that we have. It was awesome to be able to get him and be available for a practice squad and we’ll get to see him practice this week and we’ll play it from there.”
Last month the 49ers signed safety Adrian Amos, 31, to the active roster. Their current starting safeties, Ji’Ayir Brown and Malik Mustapha, are 24 and 22, respectively.
The team also added receiver Russell Gage to the practice squad and released receiver Malik Turner from the practice squad.
• Shanahan said he will give Ward all the time he needs after his 23-month-old daughter, Amani Joy, died last week. A funeral service will be held in Texas on Friday.
“It’s tough, but everybody handles those things differently,” Shanahan said. “I don’t even like to think of how I would react, because you don’t know until it happens. So it’s just something where you’ve got to be there for someone and there’s no right or wrong way to do it. It’s whatever works for the person.”
(Photo of Christian McCaffrey: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
