It doesn't sound like the 49ers plan on scaling back RB Christian McCaffrey's volume this season, despite an injury-wrecked 2024. "We’re gonna do everything we can to get him the ball as much as we can," OC Klay Kubiak said recently. Kubiak added that McCaffrey is "doing great" and "looks awesome" coming off his Achilles and knee injuries.
What They're Saying
More Kubiak on McCaffrey: "You guys saw in 2023 how important [Christian McCaffrey] is to what we want to be as an offense. He’s an elite player ... Defenses have to play us different when he’s in the game. ... He’s a really hard guy to take off the field, for a lot of reasons. One, he’s a great player, and two, he doesn’t want to come out and sometimes there’s a battle. We have to do the best we can to balance that out with also keeping him healthy."
2025 Fantasy Football Impact
The 49ers have been loading McCaffrey up with big volume since acquiring him midway through the 2022 season. He averaged 15.1 carries and 6.3 targets across his final 10 games of 2022 and 17.0 carries and 5.2 targets per game in 2023.
Even last year, McCaffrey averaged 14.3 carries and 5.3 targets per game on an 88% snap rate in his three full outings. He averaged 16.2 expected PPR points per game, which would have ranked 10th among RBs over the entire season.
Age and injury history are legitimate concerns for McCaffrey heading into 2025. But the ceiling is still as high as anyone at his position.