Christian McCaffrey Suffers Oblique/Rib Injury in the 49ers' Loss to the Browns

The 49ers can't afford to lose McCaffrey for an extended period of time, because he's the engine of their offense.

Grant Cohn | Oct 15, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

The MVP of the 49ers offense left their loss to the Browns early on Sunday.

Christian McCaffrey suffered an oblique/rib injury and the 49ers don't yet know how severe it is. McCaffrey suffered the injury early in the third quarter, went to the sideline, came back for one drive, appeared to aggravate the injury, then walked to the locker room and left the game for good. He finished the afternoon with 43 rushing yards on 11 carries, plus 3 catches for 9 yards and 1 touchdown.

The 49ers can't afford to lose McCaffrey for an extended period of time, because he's the engine of their offense. Everything goes through him. Entering this game against the Browns, he was leading the league in touches -- the 49ers were feeding him like it was the postseason despite cruising to victories. Some wondered if the 49ers were overusing him and wearing him down and if the scatback would make it through the grueling season with such a heavy workload.

It's unclear how or why McCaffrey injured his oblique/rib, but his workload the first five weeks of the season couldn't have helped. The 49ers pressed the issue with McCaffrey early in the season when they didn't have to and paid the price for it. Hopefully for them, his injury isn't serious, although even minor rib injuries can be extremely painful.

If McCaffrey misses time, the 49ers running backs will be Jordan Mason, who scored a touchdown against the Browns, and Elijah Mitchell, who lost three yards.

Published Oct 15, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.