The 49ers Need to be Cautious with Christian McCaffrey This Season

McCaffrey already has 1,942 touches in his career. So even though he seems relatively young, he's right at the point of his career when running backs begin to fade.

Grant Cohn | Jul 3, 2024

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) scores a touchdown in the first half of Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Ever since the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey in 2022, their mission has been to give him as many touches as he can physically handle.

And McCaffrey handled the heavy work load extremely well and the 49ers offense flourished with him leading the attack. And now he needs to pace himself. Because he just turned 28, and the past two years including the postseason he touched the ball 798 times. Not a typo.

McCaffrey often refused to come off the field and wanted the ball as much as possible because he had zero guaranteed money left on his deal and wanted a contract extension, which the 49ers recently gave him. Now he's taken care of for the next few seasons. And the 49ers have to be smart with him.

McCaffrey already has 1,942 touches in his career. So even though he seems relatively young, he's right at the point of his career when running backs begin to fade, especially workhorse running backs who have taken a beating. Think Ezekiel Elliott, Le'Veon Bell, Marshawn Lynch and Steven Jackson.

The 49ers are so talented on offense, they don't need to give McCaffrey more than 300 touches in the regular season. Their new mission should be to keep him as fresh as possible for the playoffs. Because last year he averaged just 4.5 yards per carry in the playoffs after averaging 5.4 yards per carry in the regular season. He faded.

The regular season should be the time for Brock Purdy to show what he can do when he's the engine of the offense.

Published Jul 3, 2024

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.