Christian McCaffrey isn’t quite 100 percent right now. The details aren’t crystal clear about the San Francisco 49ers star’s ailment, but it’s being described as “tightness.”
After a joint practice with the Los Angeles Chargers on Tuesday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan decided not to specify where exactly McCaffrey is dealing with that tightness. He has repeatedly said the team doesn’t want to hurry him back after missing recent practices and have it turn into a more substantial setback.
That being said, Shanahan also labeled any questions around McCaffrey’s status being contract-related as assumptions, “and that would be one that they’re wrong on.” Shanahan added that the three-time Associated Press first-team All-Pro running back “would play today” if San Francisco was approaching a regular-season matchup.
The last time the 49ers downplayed the extent of an injury McCaffrey was dealing with — before the 2024 season — he soon chose to visit a specialist in Germany about an Achilles issue. Before that, he even said it wasn’t a concern for him. But what was initially a calf injury morphed into Achilles tendonitis, which kept him out for the team’s first eight games.
Should 49ers fans be sounding the alarm about Christian McCaffrey’s injury?
NFL Network league insider Ian Rapoport weighed in on Monday.
“Let me give you the contract update here,” Rapoport said. “This is not fake. Actual tightness, not fake tightness, not a hold in. Actual tightness. It does not seem to me like anything really to worry about. I know we’ve heard that before with Christian McCaffery, but for real, this does not seem like anything to worry about. The timing of this — coming right after Jahmyr Gibbs, right after Bijan Robinson got paid — my understanding, coincidence.
“Christian McCaffrey should be fine. Now, [was] there some initial check-in, maybe, about a contract at some point in the offseason? Sounds like maybe there was. I don’t get the sense that went anywhere.”
If McCaffrey has a big year, Rapoport said he could see the former Stanford star vaulting himself back to the top of the running backs market. McCaffrey has two years to go on the extension he put pen to paper on in 2024, with cap numbers of $10.86 million this campaign and $26.41 million for the next.
McCaffrey again showed his worth a season ago, playing in every game and leading the league with 413 touches. He also finished as the NFL’s runner-up in yards from scrimmage (2,126), behind only Robinson (2,298), who agreed to a three-year contract extension worth up to $75 million with the Atlanta Falcons earlier this month.
If Shanahan and San Francisco are keeping something more noteworthy under wraps, Jordan James is next in line at the position, while rookie Kaelon Black is also in the mix. Black, a third-round pick out of Indiana, returned to practice on Tuesday after missing some time due to an adductor injury.
Neither James — a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft — nor Black have taken a carry in a regular-season game yet.
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