The 49ers had a clear plan on offense last season: get the ball to Christian McCaffrey. Their running back led the NFL with 339 touches last season despite playing in only 16 games. It begs the question as McCaffrey enters his Age 28 season – will the 49ers use McCaffrey less in 2024?
There are certainly enough weapons on San Francisco’s roster to take some of the playmaking onus off of the reigning Offensive Player of the Year’s plate. Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and presumably Brandon Aiyuk are all capable of generating big plays for the 49ers. Jauan Jennings has even emerged as a threat, particularly on third downs, and now the club will add first-round pick Ricky Pearsall to the mix. Elijah Mitchell has proven to be a starting-caliber NFL RB, and the 49ers selected Isaac Guerendo in the fourth round of this year’s draft.
It doesn’t all have to come down to McCaffrey. In an ideal world he’ll shoulder a lion’s share of the workload, but Mitchell, Guerendo or third-year back Jordan Mason would take on some of the rushing workload. That’s especially true late in games where the runs get tougher between the tackles. This has worked with varying degrees of success in the last couple years where Mitchell and Mason have both taken on a “closer” role for the 49ers.
The problem is that “closer” role has only been utilized in games that aren’t particularly close, and that’s why it’s nigh impossible to see a scenario where the 49ers are utilizing McCaffrey less.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan trusts him more than he trusts any other running back on the roster. McCaffrey’s versatility also forces defenses to account for more things than they’d need to account for with one of the other backs on the field. San Francisco is also an inherently run-first offense where they’re not going to be putting the ball in the air 550 times. Shanahan is going to lean on his run game, and by extension, McCaffrey.
Perhaps the workload comes down by a handful of touches just by virtue of game script. Given the 49ers’ penchant for running the ball and quarterback Brock Purdy’s willingness to find his running back in the passing game, all signs point to another year of the same offensive plan: get the ball to Christian McCaffrey.
