San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had some good news on running back Christian McCaffrey during his press conference after Friday’s practice.
Shanahan indicated McCaffrey, who has returned from his Transatlantic jaunt to Germany, would begin ramping up his rehab Monday after the 49ers’ Week 4 matchup against the New England Patriots.
This is a significant development, but it doesn’t mean the 49ers and their superstar running back are out of the woods just yet.
McCaffrey is eligible to return in Week 6 after going on IR ahead of Week 2 with Achilles tendinitis. A ramp up that begins in Week 5 would presumably mean the club has a chance to activate him for their Week 6 game against the Seattle Seahawks. Since that game is on Thursday, an early ramp up for McCaffrey would make sense if the team thinks he can get ready with work on a side field before jumping into a truncated week of practice.
The 49ers would have to open his 21-day practice window Monday of Week 6, and then he could practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the Thursday night game.
On the other hand, his ramp up may be longer than that depending on how his Achilles responds to the work he’s doing on the field. This could just be a test run in hopes he can ready himself for sometime after Week 6.
Either way, this provides some sort of certainty about the next steps for McCaffrey. He’ll be on the field getting work in Monday after Week 4. The next step will be finding out when he returns to real practice, and then when he’ll be able to return to game action.
