49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey injured his calf early in the training camp, and is expected to miss all of the training but be fit for the team’s regular season opener against the New York Jets.
While McCaffrey is missing out on valuable reps with the team, his head coach, Kyle Shanahan, isn’t exactly worried about his superstar running back falling behind.
Shanahan spoke to reporters on Tuesday and was asked how McCaffrey would be ready for Week 1 without practicing and doing reps with the team. Here’s what Shanahan had to say:
“That’s what’s good when you’re that obsessive about everything. When you’re hurt, you’re hurt, you can’t go. But when you take every rep, every walk-through,
everything you do, you’re just so deliberate and everything,” Shanahan said.
“When he is probably walking down the aisle to get married, he’s probably thinking about his feet and how to do routes, no offense to Olivia (Culpo). But he’s obsessed with it. And so when you do get in these situations where you do get hurt and you can’t go do all that stuff, at least he’s put the work in before.
“So that stuff does come back fast. But he understands what it takes to play in this game, especially at the level he does. And not many people play at that level unless they are like that.”
McCaffrey is the undisputed best running back in football entering the 2024 season. The 28-year-old is coming off a 2023 season in which he had 272 rushes for a league-high 1,459 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.
He also had another 67 catches for 564 yards and seven touchdowns, giving him a total of 2,023 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns, both of which led the NFL.
McCaffrey has been the focal point of the 49ers offense since they acquired him midway through the 2022 season. He’s been able to remain healthy in San Francisco, which has allowed him to reestablish himself as the premiere running back in the league.
The 49ers are expecting McCaffrey to be back for Week 1, which is pretty much a necessity for this San Francisco team. The 49ers offense runs through its star running back, and he needs to be healthy for them to experience success.
For fantasy managers potentially worrying about taking McCaffrey No. 1 overall — don’t. He’s the consensus No. 1 player in fantasy, and he should be the best version of himself as early as Week 1.
