The 49ers Want to Give Christian McCaffrey the Ball as Much they Can

Since the moment the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey, they've overused him.

Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) hands off to running back Christian McCaffrey (23) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Since the moment the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey, they've overused him.

He's a smaller running back who has an extensive injury history. And yet, the 49ers feed him the ball like he's Jim Brown. This strategy worked for a season and a half. But in 2024, he broke down and missed the first eight games. When he finally returned, the 49ers immediately went back to using him as a bellcow, and after four games he tore his PCL.

Surely, the 49ers learned their lesson last season and will protect McCaffrey this year, particularly in the regular season, to preserve him as he reaches his 30s?

According to 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, the answer is no.

“You guys saw in 2023 how important he is to what we want to be as an offense," Kubiak said. "He’s an elite player and we're going to do everything we can to get him the ball as much as we can. And yeah, his health is really important. He’s one of our central players on offense. We want to hand him the ball, we want to throw him the ball, how he changes defenses when he's on the field for how they have to play us in certain coverages, right? Putting more guys in the box to stop the run, it has an effect on the opponents. And so, Christian's doing great. He looks awesome and we're pumped up that he's out there working every day. So I look forward to getting him back out there full time.”

A concerned reporter followed up: "With Christian, is there anything that you feel like you guys need to do differently to make sure as much is in your control to keep them healthy?"

“I wouldn't," Kubiak said, completely serious. "You're always cognizant of the reps you're putting on guys, especially in practice, when we do that with Christian all the time, we monitor his reps and you have to be smart when you're in games. You have to be cognizant of how much they're out there.

"Christian's a really hard guy to take off the field for a lot of reasons. One, because he is a great player, but two, because he does not want to come out, sometimes there's a battle. And so it's just you have to balance those things out, you got to be aware of it, sometimes you got to pull him off the field every now and then. But that's part of what makes him a great player is he's so competitive and he wants to be out there, but it's on us as coaches to try to do the best we can to balance it out.”

What a weak answer.

Managing McCaffrey's workload is the 49ers' most important task this season. If they can keep him healthy, they can win playoff games. If he gets injured, they most likely will miss the postseason for the second year in a row. He's that important.

There is absolutely no reason for the 49ers to let him pick up the tough yards between the tackles in September, October and November at this stage of his career. Let him run outside the tackles, sure. Throw him passes, of course. But don't make him take extra punishment. Use a rotation of running backs. Let Jordan James and Isaac Guerendo carry the ball and keep McCaffrey fresh.

Pull him off the field if you have to.