Star running back Christian McCaffrey sat out Week 1 while dealing with a calf injury and Achilles tendonitis, his first missed game in San Francisco due to injury.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday that CMC would have played if it were a playoff game, but the 49ers are wary about stressing the Achilles issue.
“Definitely, I believe if it was a playoff game, he would’ve played,” Shanahan said, via the team’s official transcript. “But it’s not just the calf, it’s the Achilles and the Achilles is tendonitis and that stuff comes and goes. When it is acting up, it’s something you’ve got to be very careful about. Christian’s very diligent about that stuff. And if it was a playoff game, he made it very clear to me, he believed he could go. But when you hear that type of stuff and it’s not a playoff game and it’s Week 1, and especially when you’re dealing with the lower extremities like that it, it was a tough decision. But hearing all the words and stuff, in the long run it made it easy.”
The trepidation in pushing the Achilles issue could keep McCaffrey out another week.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday on Good Morning Football, per sources, that it feels like a long shot for CMC to play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Baked into the ultimate decision on CMC’s status is how well former undrafted running back Jordan Mason played in Week 1. Mason had a career-high 28 carries and 147 rush yards, plus a rushing touchdown, on Monday night. He became the fourth San Francisco player to have 140-plus rush yards and 1-plus rush TD in the last 10 years — three of the four players did it in Week 1 of the season, including McCaffrey in 2023 (152 yards, TD).
As long as the Niners are racking up wins and Mason is handling the ground attack well, Shanahan is correct to play it cautious with McCaffrey. Achilles injuries are nothing to mess with, particularly for an explosive runner like CMC. The goal is a Super Bowl, and having a healthy McCaffrey in January is more important than getting him on the field in September.
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