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49ers Running Back Christian McCaffrey was Slower in 2024 than in 2023

McCaffrey will turn 29 on June 7. At this point of his career, it's probably best to keep expectations low.
Grant Cohn|
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs with the ball against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs with the ball against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

If Christian McCaffrey can stay healthy, the 49ers will be a good team. That's what they keep telling themselves.

But McCaffrey was healthy for four games last season and he did not play well according to ESPN.

"The four games in which McCaffrey played last season were concerning," writes ESPN's Ben Solak. "NFL Next Gen Stats had his maximum speeds in those four games at 16.4, 16.7, 16.1 and 17.4 mph. For context, that 17.4 mph mark would have been his fifth worst in a game during the 2023 season, when he was the MVP of the 49ers' Super Bowl-bound offense. He clearly looked less springy in 2024 than he did in 2023; in fact, he looked like a player who had a cool 417 touches in the previous season.

"It's hard for running backs' bodies to endure the level of use McCaffrey endured in 2023, but not impossible. We'll know quickly if his body has bounced back for 2025 after missing time for Achilles and knee injuries in 2024."

Not only did McCaffrey have 417 touches in 2023, he had 381 touches in 2022. That's 798 touches in two seasons. No wonder he broke down last year.

And not only was McCaffrey slower, he was less elusive. In 2023, he forced 60 misses tackles -- third most in the NFL. In 2024, he forced just five missed tackles. Alarming.

McCaffrey will turn 29 on June 7. At this point of his career, it's probably best to keep expectations low.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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