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Christian McCaffrey's Return has Hurt the 49ers Offense

In the three weeks McCaffrey has played this season, the 49ers have scored just 16.7 points per game. In the eight weeks he missed, the 49ers scored 26.3 points per game. Big difference.

Grant Cohn

Nov 24, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) is tackled by Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker (7) during the second quarter at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
Nov 24, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) is tackled by Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker (7) during the second quarter at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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The 49ers thought the return of Christian McCaffrey would solve their problems on offense. Instead, they've gotten worse since he came back.

In the three weeks McCaffrey has played this season, the 49ers have scored just 16.7 points per game. In the eight weeks he missed, the 49ers scored 26.3 points per game. Big difference.

Forcing McCaffrey back into his role as the featured weapon on offense has had a negative impact on the entire team. And that's no knock on McCaffrey. He deserves credit for battling back from bilateral Achilles tendonitis and playing with no offseason. He clearly isn't in football shape, he lacks burst and elusiveness but he's a captain and the 49ers' season is slipping away, so he's trying to step up.

Adding McCaffrey to an offense that was averaging more than 26 points per game without him should be a good thing. But to get McCaffrey on the field, the 49ers have buried running backs Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo who were playing extremely well. So suddenly, the 49ers running game has become a big weakness.

So far this season, McCaffrey is averaging just 3.5 yards per carry. Meanwhile, Mason is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and Guerendo is averaging 6 yards per carry. As a trio, they could be elite. But since McCaffrey returned, Mason has only six carries and Guerendo has just one. They're not being used as a trio.

If the 49ers find a way to use all three running backs, their offense should improve no matter who their quarterback is.

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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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