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Christian McCaffrey has Slight Oblique Tear

Would you play McCaffrey with a slightly torn oblique against the Vikings?

Grant Cohn

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Finally, we learn the extent of Christian McCaffrey's oblique injury.

It's a slight tear, according to Fox Sports' Jay Glazer. Despite this news, the 49ers are expected to play McCaffrey Monday night against the Minnesota Vikings.

Would you play McCaffrey with a slightly torn oblique against the Vikings?

That seems risky and unnecessary. The Vikings are 2-4. They've beaten the Panthers and the Bears. They're not good. And they're missing their best player, Justin Jefferson. The 49es should be able to beat them without Christian McCaffrey.

And yes, Deebo Samuel will miss the game and Trent Williams probably will, too. Still, the 49ers shouldn't need McCaffrey to win this game. Remember, he's injured and worn down. He's averaging just 3.1 yards per carry the past two games. He needs a break. Meanwhile, his backup, Jordan Mason, is averaging 6.4 yards per carry the past two games. He needs more carries.

This is a great opportunity for the 49ers to prove to themselves that they can win without Christian McCaffrey. That they don't need to run him into the ground to beat a 2-4 opponent. Because ever since the 49ers traded for McCaffrey, his workload has gotten bigger and bigger. Kyle Shanahan is being less and less creative and relying more and more on his 200-pound starting running back.

Shanahan is supposed to be a genius, and the 49ers are supposed to be the deepest team in the league. Let's see it. Winning a game without three of their best players would be a huge confidence boost.

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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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