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49ers RB Christian McCaffrey Expected to Return to Practice Today

Grant Cohn

Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports / d. ross cameron-usa today sports
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More good news for the 49ers.

Christian McCaffrey reportedly is expected to return to practice after missing roughly the past month with a calf injury. Which means he almost certainly will play in the season opener Monday night against the Jets. This news comes on the heels of Trent Williams ending his hold-out and agreeing to a new deal with the 49ers.

It's unclear just how severe McCaffrey's calf injury was or if it would have kept him out of real games. The 49ers held him out of practice and preseason games, but that decision could have been purely precautionary. It will be interesting to see how the 49ers use McCaffrey early in the season.

From one perspective, McCaffrey is fresh and in the prime of his career -- he's ready for a gigantic workload. The offense has gone through him since he joined the team two years ago. Why change now?

From another perspective, he might not be in peak football shape just yet. And his calf injury seemed to be a reaggravation from last season. So the 49ers might need to be cautious with McCaffrey and limit his workload as much as possible.

The 49ers' main objective should be to have McCaffrey as fresh as possible for the playoffs. Last year, he wore down a bit as the season progressed. This year, the 49ers have a premier backup running back Jordan Mason, who has improved tremendously this offseason. Let him make McCaffrey's life a little easier.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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